"Good food is meant for sharing." That's the Spathe Public House restaurant's culinary philosophy, and I fully agree! Decided to go to Spathe (pronounced 'spay-th') for dinner couple of weeks back because I saw someone talking about it, and thought I had better check it out. It seems quite new, and was located just right beside Chikuwa Tei (they have very good chirashi don there) on Mohamed Sultan Road.
I liked the New York loft bistro style decor very much! The staff was also really kind - we had no reservations so we had to sit outside in the heat for a bit, but they made sure to transfer us the moment there was free seats.
I had a small chat with one of the founders (I think) because I was curious as to what sort of cuisine does Spathe serve. Apparently it is not from any country, but a genre called "market food". It is borne out of the desire to bring fresh quality market ingredients to the masses, preferably in groups. Hence the ingredients are whatever that's fresh from the market, cooked in simple ways which probably can replicated at home if someone wanted, but meant for fuss-free enjoyment.
And it's perfect for groups of course. There was a big table celebrating a birthday that night and the salad was served on this long block of wood spanning 2 tables. Now that's impressive!
There's a really cool bird wall mural inside the restaurant.
Here's the menu (website version here). Prices are reasonable, though we weren't sure of the serving sizes under Spathe Classics at first. You should check with the servers first, if there's less than 4 of you.
The highlight of the restaurant has to be the Sous Vide Octopus Salad ($18). That was what drew me here in the first place, and it captured my attention all right. The octopus was NOT rubbery at all! In fact it did not even taste much like octopus, but rather like chicken?
I was thrown off at first, expecting the seafoody rubbery octopus and instead getting a warm, solid bite of what seemed like chicken meat. That was amidst a creative tossing of oranges, tomatoes and greens. My only small comment was the salad could be a bit more chilled, as it was room temperature with the octopus being slightly warm (after being taken out of the sous vide water I suppose!)Next up was the Chicken and the Sea ($25) spanish paella rice with NZ mussels, prawns, squid, chorizos, chicken and saffron. I really liked this dish too because it was full of flavour! The cheesy sauce on the paella gave it the umami taste while the seafood was fresh.
We also ordered the Yellow Fin Tuna Poke ($18). When we asked the guy what does Tuna Poke means, he patiently explained that "poke" is the hawaiian term for raw salad. Ahhh. So it is not the cousin of the Slow Poke, or the brother of the Facebook Poke. Got it.
The dish was again, very good. Flavours bursting, textures mixin', tuna being fresh. The yuzu vinaigrette worked really well to cook the tuna, which was covered with some crispy shallots and avocados!
Lastly - dessert time! On the menu it wrote there's always room for dessert. Hey that's my belief too! Haha. We had initially wanted to go for the poached pear, but the guy gave this funny expression, and we knew we had to go for the Sticky Toffee Pudding ($12) with hokey pokey ice cream. It was swimming in caramel sauce! Because of that it might be too sweet/heavy for some people, but not me! I loved it. The toffee pudding was slightly bitter (in a good way) and very rich.
I think I just found my favorite dinner spot of 2013 as of now. The dishes were all spot on with taste, freshness and variety. Great ambience, service and decor helped too. I also believe in their philosophy very much. Heard that they have a weekend brunch so I might go back to try it. They say good food is meant for sharing. Good food places are as well on this blog!
Spathe Public House
8 Mohamed Sultan Road, Singapore 238958
+65 67351035
1am – 11pm (Mon – Fri); 9am – 11pm (Sat); 9am – 5pm (Sun)
Yeah, will go check it out soon. Thanks for the recommendations!
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