Who thought putting a restaurant under a bridge was a good idea? Well, these folks apparently do.
Sol Tasca can be found either by chance or by some effort under the Esplanade bridge, a location that doesn't quite strike me as being associated with eating/drinking of any kind.We decided to put our discount voucher to use on a weeknight dinner. We took our seats indoors, and had a good view of.. nothing much. It was pretty quiet, and the waiter pointed out that some items on the menu were not available that night. Not the most spectacular start! But how does the food fare?
Well there was a good view of the ... part under the bridge. Looks like a tunnel going into nothingness, a rather philosophical view.
{ Croquetas de bacalao con jamon ($8) }
Salted cod and jamon croquettes
The ramekin-ful of croquettes were actually quite tasty. It was oozy and gooey inside and quite crispy outside, although I detected no hints of salted cod nor jamon. The dip that comes with it was really nice too - some sort of aioli I think? Reminded me a little of Coxinha from the outside, but the croquette itself was filled with some salty, cheesy, gooey, sticky, sweet paste. Which was pretty good actually! And we loved the aioli it came with.
{ Rabo de Toro ($10) }
Braised oxtail with Spanish red wine and tomato
Not a big fan of oxtail but this was nice and flavourful. Meat was tender, and the red wine flavour comes out quite prominently in the sauce, which I licked off from every surface of fork / knife. The red wine flavour was rather stand-out-ish, tasted a little like beef bourguignon. The texture of the oxtail meat was tendon-y and soft, which was pretty good! A tad on the expensive side we felt.
{ Paella de marisco ($26) }
Octopus, shrimp, mussels, clams, chorizo, vegetables
We had wanted to try the black squid ink paella, but was not available so we got the regular seafood paella instead. I think mussels were off the menu too, so we were compensated with more chorizos. Overall I liked the lovely seafood flavour and al-dente texture of the rice, but felt it needed a bit more charred-ness. It went excellently with the aioli (?) dip that came with the croquettes. However this seems a tad overpriced for the portion though. Went awesomely great with the croquette sauce! But besides that, I was rather disappointed with the lack of squid ink for one, lack of mussels secondly, and finally the rice was not at all charred. The charred part of paella is my favourite part! Likewise for claypot rice, or bibimbap. But somehow in this plate ... no matter how long we waited the rice just didn't char :/ Oh well. The flavour in the rice was good however but the ingredients seemed a little lacking and the portion lacking for the price.
{ Churros a la Sol Tasca ($6) }
Spanish doughnuts served with hazel nut chocolate
Got quite excited when I saw churros on the menu - was reminded of the amazing ones I had in Barcelona before, and (foolishly) hoped to enjoy again. Unfortunately it was a Nope straightaway when it came literally bathing in oil. Sure, these are deep fried, but I swear - the waitress even brought extra thick paper napkins that seemed to suggest we ought to be dabbing away the oil. And we did dab furiously! After about 1.5 bites it just felt a bit gross eating what was essentially oil and chocolate (in its most obvious form). The search for better churros continues! First encounter of the churros kind ... and not a very pleasant one! The oil was grossly, GROSSLY abundant and after two I seriously felt too jelat to continue ... the chocolate was not bad but could be gooey-er.All in all ... not a great location in the slightest, abysmal lighting (in my opinion) not even in the sort of, romantic kind. Some food items were not bad but still felt it was a little pricey for the portions. Bill with two drinks (juice!!!) came up past $70, and we were glad we didn't get alcohol. Chairs weren't very comfortable either!
Sol Tasca
3 Fullerton Road, #01-04
Website : http://www.sol-group.com.sg/soltasca/
Rating (out of 4) :
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