Tapas Face Off: Tapas Wine Bistro Vs The Tapas Tree

In my view, Tapas is akin to our Dim Sum. Both involve the packaging of tasty morsels for our degustation delight. Our Sunday newspaper had a write up on the various Tapas eateries in town. Unfortunately, I hawked off my newspapers to the local Karung Guni man (the rag and bone man for the benefit of those non-heartlanders) before I had time to read them….arrgghhh. Thus, here is my own little expose on the Tapas scene.

Tapas Wine Bistro
Address: 40 Lorong Mambong, Holland Village, Singapore 277695
Tel: +65 6467 7590
Last Visit: 5 July 2008

We chose this place to try out the Tapas as the similarly named restaurant obviously served the Spanish item. We neglected the fact that wine would also feature quite prominently in its offerings. The setup was modern. There was an impressive collection of wine in a illuminated section of the bistro.

What got as a bit worried was the lack of a crowd…

The menu itself did not contain much of the typical Spanish fare that you would expect in a Tapas place. In fact, the food menu was rather bare. The emphasis seems to be on the wine…

When we got instead was the Cream of Tomato (S$6). A hearty portion if I might say for the relatively low price.

The Garlic Bread (S$7).

The Soft Shell Crab (S$10). At this point in time, we realised that we were not really having Tapas. Instead, we seem to be having small portions of food served in more elaborate presentations compared to your normal eateries – at more elaborate prices too. There were no violent complaints on the quality of the food though. Just a sense of disappointment that we were probably not having Spanish cuisine or what we assumed would be Spanish Cuisine.

The Escargot Mushroom (S$6.00) came in two spoons. I have recently took to watching a local cooking contest TV programme. The contestants on the programme seem to take a liking to placing their food items into spoons and little shot glasses. This is one trend that I do not understand… It could have been started by a Spoon merchant perhaps…without consideration to the impact on hungry patrons. There is a sinking feeling when the waiter brings over your dinner in spoons.

The Tiger Prawn (S$12). I graciously offered the 3rd prawn to my partner as she was an ardent lover of the crustacean.

The Angus Beef (S$13) similarly had garnishing with sprigs of herbs/leaves(?) and sauces drizzled in an artistic form on the plate. I imagine the chef taking great pride in his work – probably a young chap, definitely not of the older generation where quantity trumps everything else. Taste well, it was acceptable beef. Tender and quite flavourful.

The chef outdid himself when he balanced our Scallops on the Asparagus in this dish called Scallop Veloute (S$9). I checked out what Veloute means – it is french for an extremely smooth creamy sauce of various stock bases thickened with a roux. At this point I gave up on checking what roux means …

We sorta see the direction the chef was going towards. However, I guess we are rather more plebeian in our tastes and it was a major disconnect between our expectations and the food served.

The Tapas Tree
Address: 3D River Valley Road, #01-08 Clarke Quay, Singapore 179023
Tel: +65 6837 2938
Last Visit: 1 Oct 2008

This place we know definitely serves Tapas. We had been there before.

It was a lazy afternoon. The place was practically devoid of locals. There were people with blonde hair, white hair…

And brunettes. I wonder why we do not call Asian women with their dark/black hair brunettes… maybe it is an angmo/caucasian thing.

We went for the Patatas Pobre (or potatoes, S$8) and the Garlic Mushrooms (S$9.50). Both very nice. It was a good start.

They do not serve tap water here so we had to settle for the Juices at S$5.50 each…damn.

More garlicky stuff came in the form of the Garlic Shrimps (S$14.50). I felt the prawns were not of the freshest quality but the corpious amout of olive oil and garlic added much ommph to the prawns.

The Meatballs (S$12) were quite a disappointment. They tasted exactly like how you would expect minced meat made into a lump would be.

The Tos Salmon (or Salmon on erh…toast, S$9). I still do not understand how these eateries can charge exhorbitant amounts of money just for laying spreads/some pieces of meat/fish on bread. What is the effort needed? Do they need to employ specialists that are trained in the art of cutting bread or something. Boggles the mind, I tell you.

The food here was up to par. One word of caution though. The service here needs work. The waitressing staff here looked as though they all had a bad bout of constipation. Their faces were constantly screwed into some form of a grimace and they looked like they had pinpointed the fault for their non-bowel movements on the patrons.

Verdict: Tapas Wine Bistro Vs The Tapas Tree
Ambience: Tapas Wine Bistro (the huge availability of wine makes intoxicating your date easier…or if your date is a dog…self-intoxication is just a waiter away)
Service: Tapas Wine Bistro (they probably have better diet over here)
Food: The Tapas Tree (One of the main criteria…we would probably return here despite the sub-standard service level)
Value for Money: A Draw…