FOOD, Food reviews, Food reviews - Singapore SPATHE PUBLIC HOUSE 20 September 2013

Spathe Public House
#01-01, 8 Mohamed Sultan Road
Singapore
PRICE: $$$$
RATING: ???–

The name Spathe Public House makes me think it’s some sort of baths. In actual fact, it’s a restaurant serving up food catered for groups. Best to go with a party of 4 or more, since their feature point is the share-able menu!

I was charmed by their interior, which featured a lot of brick work and pre-war era fixtures. It’s quiet on weekday lunches, which is when my girl friend and I visited. We had our kids in tow, and were pleasantly surprised that the place was pretty baby friendly – mostly due to the fact that it was largely empty and kids could run around undisturbed and without being too annoying. We also discovered that their weekday set lunch is very kid-friendly.

Spathe Public House

 

Their cakes and loaves on display

 

A bowl of fake fruit on the table, which served as great amusement for the kids.

 

I kicked it off by immediately zero-ing on the Watermelon lemonade cocktail. Made with fresh watermelon, freshly-squeezed lemonade, vodka, and soda, it was kickass good. Yes, it was brunchtime but I never say no to a cocktail 😉

Watermelon lemonade cocktail – fresh watermelon, freshly-squeezed lemonade, vodka, soda ($18)

 

The Spathe garlic fries came recommended and I was delighted that it came in a basket with lots of fries! More than enough for the two of us, especially since there were so more-ish. I think I have a love/hate relationship with these fries – I can’t quite figure out if I like or dislike them! I like the fact that they were SUPER tasty and had lots of garlic clustered all over it, but I disliked the heavy handed use of salt/seasoning that made it difficult to eat (you see, I like to eat my fries in very large quantities, and with these, I felt compelled to chug down on glasses of water after each bite).

Spathe garlic fries ($6)

 

The Pumpkin soup was part of the lunch set and came in a petite serving, great for a toddler. She seemed to enjoy it 🙂

Pumpkin soup

 

The main for the set lunch was the Mixed mushroom ravioli with basil pesto and it was a fairly petite portion, but alright for a female and/or small eater. It was, inexplicably, scattered with chilli flakes.. so we had to dig it all out before feeding the kids. They ate the pasta without complaint!

Mixed mushroom ravioli with basil pesto

 

The most Asian dish on the menu is the Yellow fin tuna poke, which is essentially tuna carpaccio and fresh avocado. It was small, so small I practically had to squint to see it. I can’t understand how this can be a main meal. If I’d ordered this, I’d have been hungry and angry.

Yellow fin tuna poke – crispy shallots, avocado, shiso and yuzu vinagrette ($18)

 

My Chicken and the sea dish was served in a deep dish, but only had a very thin layer of paella in it. The serving size is WAY too small for the price, and definitely not enough to fill me. Thankfully, I’d pigged out on those garlic fries earlier and my belly was sloshing with the cocktail, so I didn’t complain. The rice had a lot of spice to it, which surprised me as it wasn’t labelled a spicy dish on the menu. Unfortunately, this meant the kids couldn’t have any 🙁

The New Zealand mussels that came with the dish was the star item – succulent and luscious, they were flat out amazing. In retrospect, I should’ve ordered their NZ Mussels dish and not bother with this paella.

Chicken and the sea – Spanish paella rice, NZ mussels, squid, chorizo, chicken, saffron ($25)

 

Their hazelnut chocolate cake was tops! Dense and rich, with creamy frosting between the layers, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Hazelnut chocolate cake

 

I suspect Spathe Public House would be a lot more reasonably priced if we had come with a larger group and gone for the sharing platters instead. But it’s not worth the money for individual dishes, because of the relatively high price point and extremely petite portions. The food itself was reasonable but nothing particularly blew me away.

That said, we really appreciated the service. The staff were prompt, courteous, and attentive.

 

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That poke is sad – it doesn’t even resemble poke. Have you ever had real poke (po-kay)? It’s a giant bowl of seafood, kimchee, seaweed, onions etc etc (so many combos!!!). I had it for the first time in Hawaii last year.