Food review: La Ventana Classic Catalan

SINGAPORE — Throughout his career, chef Carles Gaig and his restaurants have won numerous awards in his native Spain, including one for the Preservation Of Catalan Cultural Heritage in 2008, and Best Restaurant Of The Year in 2004 from the Academia Catalania de Gastronomia.

He also earned his family’s historical Restaurant Gaig, an establishment they have owned since 1869, a Michelin Star in 1993.

What these illustrate, really, is that La Ventana — Gaig’s Singapore outpost at Dempsey Hill — is a Catalan restaurant of the old school. Its tapas-dominated menu features classic Catalan dishes, many made using family recipes passed down 
for generations.

When faced with its extensive menu, the natural reaction is to opt for one of two tasting menus: S$118 for the seven-course tapas meal or S$148 for the more robust nine-course Gran Apat option. We chose the former and found ourselves sitting down to a procession of rustic small plates of brown food.

Much of this repertoire is comforting fare: A simple potato salad, salty with chopped olives and chunks of tinned tuna (ensaladilla rusa, S$16); crisp croquettes that oozed a creamy potato centre flecked with minced chicken (S$14); and soldiers of crisp, cottony baguette laced with a light tomato sauce, olive oil and cured anchovies (S$16). So far, so anachronistic.

There was a plate of chicken wing confit (S$14), essentially boneless chicken wings slow-cooked in chicken fat, that we had high hopes for but found no different from any middling grilled chicken wings available throughout the island. So, too, were the one-dimensional stewed meatballs and baby calamari (S$18).

The highlights of the meal were the house special “Canelon since 1869” (S$12), tubes of al dente pasta stuffed with a smooth filling of beef and pork, and drenched in a creamy truffle sauce. The crispy suckling pig (S$38) was technically perfect — full-flavoured, fork-tender pork lined with a bar of crisp skin — but it was served with a jarring accompaniment of strawberries dressed in balsamic vinegar, that did nothing to highlight the merits of the meat.

When a sense of modernity crept into the meal by way of dessert, it, too, fell short. Reinterpreted as a light mousse, the custard in the Catalan creme brulee (S$14) hid a scoop of toffee ice cream at its base. While it wasn’t unpleasant, it sorely 
lacked texture.

That’s the thing about awards and accolades — they foster expectations. When diners come to a restaurant helmed by a feted chef, they expect to be wowed. In La Ventana’s case, the anachronism of the food and the modern style of service (tapas served course by course at a formal dining table, for example) work against one another, so guests could emerge from their dining experience a little confused. Had the food been served family style, with several dishes laid out on the table a time; we might have been better able to appreciate the completeness of the old-style Catalan dining experience that the restaurant aims to purvey. ANNETTE TAN

La Ventana by Carles Gaig

Where: 16A Dempsey Road #01-01. Telephone: 6479 0100. Opening hours: noon to 3pm, 6pm to 11pm. Closed on Mondays.

Click to eat: For more delish deals and news on what’s hot on the scene, download the 8 Days Eat App at http://www16.mediacorp.sg/8days/8daysapp2.html.