Lolla, Ann Siang Road

These small plate joints have been trending for a while starting with Spanish tapas bars and lately have picked up a notch. Of a kind that's no Españolas. Lolla (22 Ann Siang Road, tel : +65 64231128) is a relatively new one that's been up and running for about a month now. The owners are no strangers to the F&B scene.

The place does not take reservations except for a private room dining. Eating is a walk in business and seats aren't that plentiful since they're all at the open-kitchen counter.

baguette with Beurre d' Echire

Fastest prepared and to service was baguette with the Echire butter. The baguette was....well, just a baguette. Freshly toasted, crispy and not tough. The salted butter possessed the light touch of cream and was both buttery and smooth. Beurre d' Echire is an artisanal cultured butter with generally a higher content of butterfat (flavour!).

beef tongue escalopes

The roasted beef tongue was tender and had the light touch of that beefiness. The pairing of the mustard/aioli thingy unfortunately reduced those light flavour to being underwhelmed when eaten together.

squid ink pudding with sea urchin

I've always had difficulty describing the flavour of squid ink. I recognize it, but am so far unable to be articulate to a satisfactory degree in describing that flavour; calling it seafood-y is probably the thing that works for me right now. The squid ink pudding was undoubtedly 'seafood-y'. There was also the light sweetness. Together it was sublime. Pause. Now imagine them in tandem with the bouquet and natural sweetness of the uni. Elevation. A notch higher.

I could eat this stuff for starters and then dessert.

We had seconds and that was the end of it. I hear from the people working there that quite a few of the customers tend to be defensive when their uni bowls were getting cleared. Most would like them to be scraped clean before they were removed.  I guess I must be normal here.

I would have really loved for the portions to be bigger. Here's 'good things come in small dosages' slapping me in the face.

 

an interpreted chutoro tartare

Chunky cubed chutoro rather than sliced. In soy sauce and sesame dressing with chives and pepper. Flavour was clean and very Japanese without being overpowering on the natural taste of the tuna belly. The quality of the cut of tuna was pretty good.

scrambled eggs with Bottarga di Muggine

This was sublime dish number two for me. Sublimity is sadly not going to do me any favours for my cholesterol, but life is short. The old excuse 'but I don't eat this every day' seems fresh enough to be reused again today.

Creamy scrambled eggs topped with generous crumbles of bottarga. It was a dish that worked for me in the arenas of texture and taste. The salty and briny roe with just that little hint of bitterness contrasted as it should on the platform of just scrambled eggs. The soft crumbly said roe likewise juxtaposed for texture against the smooth creamy eggs. Eggs on eggs, how awesome is that eh?

lamb chops

Lolla's lamb chops were pretty damn good. Seared on the outside, medium rare on the inside and natural flavour from the lamb present. Fatty meat. All checked. Again, the mustard like sauce did no favour to the meat. I think these guys are doing pretty good with the freshness of their ingredients and should have could consider to let these produce shine on their own merits. Salt and pepper would have sufficed for me. The sauce while tasty, was an overkill for the meat.

doughnut with lemon curd

Lemon curd was tasty even though it looked much more sauce-y than a curd. Doughnuts were ordinary, but made an excellent choice for a light after meals.

I quite liked the food here. Service was impeccable. Even though what came out of the kitchen was big on flavour, the portions I felt were a little small and each item a little pricey. But with their scrambled eggs and squid ink uni pudding on menu, I definitely wouldn't mind coming back.