Great bread, uneven cooking at Petra Dempsey

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Petra 40C Harding Road, Level 1 Singapore 249548 Tel: 8876-5823 Open for lunch and dinner Mon, Wed to Sun: 11.30 am to 3 pm; 5.30 to 10.30 pm (up till 11 pm on Fri and Sat). Closed on Tues.

[SINGAPORE] They had us at “Ottolenghi”. 

For others, it might be “bring your dog”, but Petra – the pet-friendly, former Curly’s grocer turned Levantine eatery at Dempsey – tempted us with visions of tables heaving with the Israeli chef’s signature salads and veggie-focused cooking.

Yes, there are some salads – crafted by a former Ottolenghi chef – but that’s as far as the celebrity connection goes. What Petra offers is a valiant effort to venture beyond the usual Italian or all-purpose Mediterranean concepts. But expect a choppy experience from a kitchen that hasn’t quite mastered the language it’s cooking in.

When we’re there, they even have trouble figuring out the air-conditioner remote, leaving us in frigid temperatures before they coax it up to something less icy. 

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But what keeps us in our seats is the space. It really is pretty. It’s not dramatically different from its previous terracotta-hued life as a cafe-cum-organic shop, but a new counter-dining setup and themed decor set the stage for all things mezze and nice.

And if you peer through the heavily condensed glass windows, you’ll see the outline of a spacious garden – the kind that will no doubt see many weekend kids’ parties or fur parents having brunch and giving their precious pomeranian a lick of baba ghanoush.

The food, though, is less straightforward. We’ve heard good things, even if our own experience says otherwise. But if there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that Petra could be just a bread and dip shop and it would still bring in the crowds.

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You’ll understand why when you realise that one of Petra’s partners is Antonio Miscellaneo, the Italian pizza maker who made his name with La Bottega Enoteca before going mainstream with Casa Vostra. 

The dough whisperer gives the house special barbari (S$12) loaf a fluffy yet toasty and airy texture – like pita with an inflated ego. There’s also a thin and crispy version, but baked pillows are hard to beat. 

A mezze dip trio at S$32 is pricey, but you’ll want the variety of hummus, taramasalata and tomato-olive relish it buys you. 

While we enjoy it all, we wonder why the taramasalata with shaved bottarga tastes more like hummus, while the hummus garnished with falafel crumbs has a smooth, aioli-like creaminess akin to taramasalata. The servers insist otherwise, and it’s only when we’ve almost finished our barbari that they realise the kitchen switched the toppings by mistake. 

They try to rectify it, but we are carb-ed out by then. Still, they practise good service recovery and insist on comping both the bread and dips. It’s one of the bright spots in an otherwise patchy service.

The food is slow to come, and of the various friendly people walking around, only some seem able to take your order. And nothing kills your buzz more than waiting almost half an hour for the bread, only to be told you have just 1.5 hours to eat. 

We wouldn’t mind a reimbursement for the edamame patty disguised as falafel (S$14). We can almost hear grandma insisting we finish our peas as we struggle through three unconvincing fried balls of spiced mashed beans, extra whole beans and pickled red onions to break the monotony.

Meanwhile, a passable beef tartare (S$18) sitting on butter-soaked toasted brioche leaves more oil on the palate than an impression. 

We find out too late that we should have gone for the more expensive grilled fish (meant for three diners) or octopus. But our server recommends lamb kofte (S$32) – a single skewer of chunky chopped meat seasoned with Arab spices, with fresh coriander and a herb sauce.

We get a free signature salad on the side – beetroot, burrata and leaves in an acidic dressing, which turns out to be a lively companion for the sedate lamb. 

Desserts-wise, we can’t really see eye to eye with the kunafah – gooey mozzarella-like cheese wrapped in crunchy kataifi pastry and soaked in a perfumed sugar syrup with an oddly greasy aftertaste. 

Yoghurt ice cream on olive crumble and drizzled with honey is less polarising.

Call us predictable but if they opened another La Bottega Enoteca, we would be immensely happy. The Harding Road space is nice enough that it sells itself without really needing a fancy concept. Levantine cuisine is a commendable route for Petra to take, but that calls for stronger execution, especially when it doesn’t have broad appeal like Italian food and the like. 

Petra still has many teething issues so give it some time to settle in and find its sweet spot. Until it does, bread and dip – if not Ottolenghi – is your reason to go. 

Rating: 6