Casa Lola brings casual Spanish to the table

NEW RESTAURANT

Casa Lola 3 Boon Tat Street Singapore 069612 Tel:  9657 8020  Open for lunch and dinner Tues to Sat: 12 pm to 3 pm; 5 pm to 10 pm

WHEN you’re a Spanish restaurant trying to stand out from the rest, what do you do? Invent yet another South-east Asian-inflected chicken satay-filled croqueta to give your bodega a sense of place in Singapore? 

No. You go to a pig and ask him to lend you his ears.

Of course he may not want to, being rather attached to them and needing to hear the dinner bell and all. 

But get around that, and they will yield platters of the crunchiest, chewiest, most addictive deep-fried snacks that are the highlight of Casa Lola, the latest Spanish eatery to hit our radar.

We could easily polish off the pile of crispy Iberian pig’s ears dunked in potent garlic-paprika aioli (S$15), if not for the glare of a faint-hearted dining companion who would rather eat garden snails than chew a stick of cartilage. But more on the snails later.

Casa Lola has the stamp of tapas group FOC and its Barcelona-born executive chef Juanjo Carrillo, so getting the Spanish nuances into the menu and decor isn’t much of a stretch. Think well-worn tropes with exposed brick walls, retro posters and wine barrels flanking the bar counter.

The restaurant is squeezed into a sliver of a shophouse on Boon Tat Street – so tight that you worry the sliding glass entrance will slam into the table of diners parked just inches away.

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Servers wielding pans of paella gamely squeeze through the narrow walkway between bar counter and cramped tables – maybe giving themselves a silent thumbs-up every time the food lands on the right table and not in someone’s hair.

Jovial manager Leroy is both spatially coordinated and well-versed in the menu, reeling off a list of must-haves that include salmorejo (S$14) – a chilled tomato soup like a thick gazpacho that goes down very well on the hot day we’re there. Chopped jamon, eggs and croutons give it more depth and texture than a one-dimensional gazpacho.

This and the pig’s ears are just some of the not-so-usual suspects that give Casa Lola an edge. It interprets the Barcelona connection very loosely, unabashedly cherry-picking from other regions when it feels like it.

But no matter. So far so good. Toasted Cristal bread topped with crushed tomatoes and olive oil (S$10) is a credible version, especially if you add a plate of shaved jamon (S$28).

Meanwhile, wafer-thin plantain fritters (S$9) have the airy crispness of tapioca chips, drizzled with honey and a hint of chilli, finished with dabs of creamy avocado. The understated mix of crunch, sweetness, spice and cream is proof that the chefs here really know their snacks.

Huevos rotos – fried eggs and potato chips – is less convincing. There isn’t a sunny-side-up egg or crisp that we don’t like, but crushing them together feels like unnecessary punishment. Even more so when they’re buried under shrimp swimming in olive oil and garlic, al ajillo style (S$32).

The crushing is done tableside – ask to do it yourself so you get a taste of each in its original state before starting the demolition.

Traditional snails with Mediterranean herbs (S$22) are a last-minute choice we deeply regret. If French escargots are neat, prissy specimens fussy about personal hygiene, their Spanish cousins are dirt-loving, gamey louts lolling about in a mysteriously earthy, medicinal gravy speckled with chickpeas and a questionable outlook on life.

If we ever wondered why escargots in garlic butter are such a treasured classic and Spanish snails aren’t, we know now.

We should have ordered boneless suckling pig (S$36) for the table instead of as a takeaway. Even reheated at home, the meat retains its suppleness, lifted by a simple jus and side of roasted apple and pumpkin.

To distract from our gastropod misstep, we lean on the eggy sweetness of flan (S$14) swimming in a toffee-ish caramel sauce garnished with chantilly cream. Chocolate cake (S$18) layers soft sponge with intense ganache in every fluffy mouthful.

Casa Lola is not another Spanish restaurant we need, but variety always has a place in our books. We may not lend it our ears, but we’d keep our eyes peeled for more good things. 

Rating: 6.5