Food review: Open Door Policy

Tingles and textures

SINGAPORE — After a minor facelift — complete with new wooden tables, plush chairs and decorative light fixtures — Open Door Policy, headed by Chef Daniele Sperindio, is still so hip it hurts. The good news is that the restaurant now boasts a new menu that is not only solid on the feeding front, but also sets out to ambush your tongue with surprising sensations.

The buzz starts with the starter of kale broth (S$18) with crispy kale and smoked quail eggs. Kale is still the hipster’s vegetable du jour, so the surprise is in the halved quail eggs that come topped with clusters of olive oil caviar, which look like lucent mounds of tiny, golden pearls. Eaten with a spoonful of broth, there is the voluptuous sensation of the liquid-filled bubbles bursting, the crunch of the crisped kale and crusty croutons and flavour infusions of smoke and extra virgin oil spreading on your tongue.

Then there is the bold guacamole risotto (S$20), which, served with nachos, tastes like a frat-party dip, only with more bite and a wobbly onsen egg nestled on top, just to remind us that, yes, we are grown-ups eating out.

Almost playing tricks on your synapses is the main of kangaroo fillet (S$34) served with roasted brussel sprouts, pine nuts and baby onions, sauteed warrigal greens and vinegar jus. Plenty of folks baulk at the idea of eating Australian marsupials, but you could swear it tastes like tender lean beef. Another main, the innocuous-sounding seafood risotto (S$28) with mussels, scallops and prawns topped with a saffron rouille, is prettily plated with curious salty fingers — crunchy cress that taste unexpectedly of salt and resemble miniature cacti (the dish arrived looking like a tasty terrarium).

By the time you get to the chocolate and passionfruit tart (S$18) with the pop rocks “surprise” — we might never get tired of that light-headed feeling of fireworks reverberating through our headspace — you are almost on an adrenaline high from the mild sensory shocks that have been sprung on you.

Of course, there are dependable items on the menu that are just as yummy. Chef Sperindio is Italian, so his pasta dishes are a must-have. The plin (or “pinched” in Italian) ravioli of watercress and macadamia (S$26), for instance, was perfectly al dente and a lot more flavourful that it sounded, helped by the addition little feta and pearl onions. The paglia e fieno taglierini (S$26) is a dish of spinach noodles intertwined with egg noodles bathed in a lush hand-chopped lamb ragout topped with shaved pecorino cheese — the perfect summer pasta dish.

There are favourites from the previous menu, such as the starter of spicy lamb spring rolls (S$20), as well as the comforting main of braised beef cheek (S$32) with black truffle mash and roasted mushroom with a red wine jus. Sperindio has yet to come up with new desserts but it is easy to see why most would be content with a chocolate pistachio souffle or the caramel creme brulee with dark brown sugar ice cream (S$18 each).

We would say there is something for everyone, but we do not want to scare off the hipsters. May Seah

Open Door Policy

Where: 19 Yong Siak Street. Telephone: 6221 9307. Operating hours: Lunch noon to 3.30pm, 6pm to 11pm; Brunch 11am to 3pm, bar opens until midnight Friday and Saturday.