Binomio Spanish Restaurante, Craig Road

Binomio (20 Craig Road, #01-02 Craig Place, tel : +65 6557 0547) has been in operations for a number of years. We never noticed them until we started visiting PerBacco's old location. They were just next door to each other. Even then it took a long time for us to finally visit.

In their earlier days, I noticed people talking about their old executive chef Jose Alonso and his Michelin studded past. About two years back, not so much fanfare was accorded to the current EC Gonzalo Landin who looked like he was a touch and go kind of guy. Touched and went at places like Dinner by Heston Blumenthal or even a 4 month staging gig at El Celler de Can Roca. Locals tend to call this job hopping.

I guess this was amuse bouche. Manchego with jelly. Quince maybe? 

A sangria tinta while waiting for the food. This one had quite a lot of fruits. Nice enough that I followed up with another.

We ordered their blue cheese croquettes with very low expectations. Because curiosity and things are always an assumption until we know. It turned out enjoyable. Crisp breading exterior with enough of the pungent blue cheese flavouring in a piping hot creamy...erm...insides. Good for returns.

Got a half portion of their Jamón Ibérico pata negra. Yup, pata negra here and no less. Nutty, sweet and savoury like all nice Jamón Ibérico are.

The menu described this as a cheese terrine. The texture was light with an almost mousse like creaminess. Flavour was mild - almost relatable to mascarpone. I thought it was paired nicely with the honey olive oil thingy. 

We ordered lamb chops because *Joey Jordison drumroll* - lamb sweetbreads! So hard to find these things. And figs. And goat's cheese.

Lamb was competently done. The meat had a healthy amount of fat which translated to flavour. I thought those sweetbread were a little too little because they were delicious. 

We hadn't had paella in a while so why not one from a restaurant that's pretty well received. Artichokes and snails. Those artichokes were delicious and the snails were snails. What was outstanding was also the flavour in the rice. Deep savoury flavour with soccarat that was so good. And I am usually not a soccarat kind of person.

Not impressed by their cold whiskey cake. The middle layer is cream, the yellows are egg yolk and toasted almonds. That's all the texture. Whiskey was poured over when it was served and well, it's just creamy and sweet.