Esquina Lunch

The main dining room of this shophouse just off Keong Saik Road is upstairs, but the best place to sit is at the ground-floor counter in front of the open kitchen, watching the chef and his team at work. The dishes are as flavoursome as they are colourful and creative. Order anchovy sticks with bottarga aioli while you peruse the menu’s sections: ‘snacks’, ‘soil’, ‘sea’ and ’land’. Octopus and suckling pig are the house signatures and the set menu is also worth trying.
The food has always been great 👍, over the years. It’s as close to Catalan and Barcelona as we could get. Sometimes even better. The staples, their pork jowls, paella 🥘 are top 5 in Sg, even today. There are others like FOC of the Hong Kong St fame back then as well - but they withered away vs Esquina’s consistency.

Their Omakase like menu is delectable - the cauliflower steak with cheese 🧀 is a must. Their oysters 🦪 are top notch- but more their home made dressings. Then there’s their breads and pastries and purées - just pure brilliance.

The Spanish take on seafood can never go wrong- their carabineros prawns 🦐 are to die for. So good you’ll be ordering extra bread to dip and slurp the head butter and olive oil infused sauces. 8.5/10 for this over the years.

We decided to duck in today for a quick lunch. No reservations . It’s a little sad the missing blue cap 🧢 (Chef Carlos), but we see he has trained up a very capable lineup
The food is still above 7/10 overall.

The Unni bowl o paella 🥘 was also good 7/10

The scallops with a thin cling film of pork skin was stellar at 8/10

The sweet potato 🍠 with quail eggs was superb at 7.5/10

The pork jowl was delightful at 8/10

The Spanish omelets was good at 7/10

The oysters with Vietnamese dressing was good at 7/10

The clear winner (almost always), is the carabineros or Spanish red prawn 🦐
The extra gao head butter and the garlic infused olive 🫒 oil is just irresistible. 8.5/10

I’m not sure how I could have missed updating about this place over the years. It’s been soul food for us , and one of the original icons of Keong Saik