And in all honesty, I meant to check out this restaurant weeks ago. However, we postponed our dinner to last Tuesday due to some drama. Okie, maybe shouldn’t use the word ‘drama’.

So La Taperia was originally known as Terry’s Singapore. A joint venture between Les Amis Group and Manila based Spanish chef Juan Carlos de Terry. However, on the day of our supposed visit, I read from The Straits Times that chef Terry had withdrawn from the collaboration as he was not comfortable with the inconsistencies from his restaurants in Manila. And with that, I thought it was better to postpone our visit.

But drama aside, what’s more important would be the dining experience; The food, the service, the ambience.

Located in the newly renovated wing of Shaw Centre, the restaurant was seeing a good crowd despite the quietness of the wing. Guess not many has started exploring this side of Shaw Centre since not all shops have opened for business.

With a reservation made just 30 minutes before our arrival, we were given high tables. La Taperia would be more of a restaurant than a tapas bar. And I felt it was a pity that there was no counter seats for us to watch the chefs in action.

And from the menu (pages 1, 2, 3, 4), we ordered:-

1) Tasting menu, $95 comprised of:-

(A) Capricho de santona (above) – Piquillo pepper stuffed with tuna, bound with anchovy remoulade. A cold dish, this was really good! The pepper was definitely not spicy and went really well with the tuna. A must try.

(B) Gambas al ajillo (above) – Spicy and garlicky prawns cooked in extra virgin olive oil. Prawns were big, fresh and succulent. I really enjoyed biting into the crunchy (prawn) meat with lots of the diced garlic. And while we were finishing our dish, the staff recommended getting the grilled baguette ($4) to dip into the sauce, which we did! And it was so good.

(C) Croquetas de cochinillo confitado (above) – Crisp-tender suckling pig bechamel croquettes. Well fried, the filling was smooth although we couldn’t taste the suckling pig.

(D) Champinones con jamon al ajillo (above) – Fresh mushrooms and garlic silvers sauteed in extra olive oil with jamon serrano crowned with an organic egg yolk. Upon served, the staff asked if he should mix the egg for us. To which, we politely turned him down. We noticed the egg was already broken, but that did not matter. This was a pretty straight-forward dish of mushrooms, fried garlic, cured ham with a runny egg.

(E) Salpicao de buey (above) – Angus striploin cubes slowly cooked in unique fresh oyster sauce, a creation of Juan Carlos de Terry. I don’t eat beef but my girlfriend said these were tender which went very well with the sauce.

(F) Chistorrado de pollo (above) – Chicken, chistorra sausage and valencian rice cooked in a luscious sauce of roasted red capsicum and piquillo peppers crowned with melted cheese. This seemed to be a dryer rendition where rice was slightly hard. Reminded us of our Chinese claypot rice. I liked the chicken pieces, but not the sausages which were too salty. And of course, the good part would be the burnt parts. However, as we ordered quite a fair bit, we could not finish the dish. But it was of really great service that the staff offered to help us scarp the burnt parts and transfer to a plate for our ease.

(G) Crema catalana (above) – A Terry’s style catalan cream enriched with mango bits and its crisp a la minute caramelized topping. I liked that every mouthful had generous amount of sweet mango bits.

(H) Marquesa de chocolate (above) – Chocolate marquise topped with baked almond praline. This was a thick slab of rich and dense chocolate. It was a little hard to slice through, but it was not a problem after we let it sit for a short while.

2) Pulpo a feira con pimenton de la vera, $18 (regular) (above) – The quintessential way of cooking octopus in Galicia. Topped on a bed of potato slices, some pieces of the octopus and potato were salty from what seemed to be due to uneven sprinkling of salt. This was also a little oily.

3) Super-cochinillo confit, $45 (above) – Unique suckling pig confit creation served with Calanda peaches, caramelised shallots and steakhouse potatoes. Upon served, the staff asked if we needed assistance which we nodded our heads to. And the staff assisted to divide the meat into three portions, leaving behind just the L-shaped bone. Meat was tender and moist, while skin was crispy with a good amount of fats for flavour. Nice!

4) Lobster paella, $58 (above) – These baby lobsters were flown in earlier in the morning and were offered as special of the day. Lobster meat was sweet and juicy, while rice was moist and thus more flavorful as compared to ‘chistorrado de pollo’. Nice!

5) Sangria blanco, $14 (above, left) – Tinto wine, brandy, cointreau, seasonal fruits and lemonade.

6) Sangria rose, $14 (above, right) – Blanco wine, brandy, cointreau, seasonal fruits and lemonade.

We ladies thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The food were reasonably priced and good. Will definitely recommend coming in a group of at least 3 to order the tasting menu and a few a-la carte items in order to try almost everything without feeling too full.

And it was not just the food that was great, but the service too. We were mostly attended by 2 staff. One whom we suspect should be the manager (although there was no distinction in uniform) and a young lad. They were attentive and allowed us to feel very welcomed and at ease.

One of my girlfriend ordered a pot of green tea, which she requested for refill of hot water a few times. And it was only after our dinner that we realised they had actually been giving her a new pot. The green tea was basically a pot of hot water with a tea bag. And we know a tea bag is only good for one pot worth of water before it becomes diluted. So yes, am sharing this not for others to abuse their good service, but rather to show how impressed we were at the service provided. And we were only charged for 1 pot!

So yes, having craving for Spanish cuisine? Do check La Taperia out! It helps that they are also centrally located within Orchard. There’s even a balcony with high counter table, overlooking Pacific Plaza, for those who wish for a more romantic dinner. Although I probably say the alfresco seats are more suitable if one is going for finger foods or drinks.

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