Ola Cocina Del Mar

With one's cravings for Spanish food after hearing the hype of this place, and the fact that it is just under our office block, we decided on this place for a farewell lunch. 

Walking in, the ambiance was nice and cozy. Short ceiling, dark wooden furniture, an inviting bar stretched the length of the restaurant. Indeed they took advantage of this during lunch, by offering a $28 Counter Lunch - a set lunch but you could only have it at the "counter". 

Being a team lunch, we took the ala carte option instead. 

The first observation was that there were limited options on the menu. Pastas and Soups were on the same title, and i barely caught sight of ONE pasta. The mains were a selection of perhaps 5. But what was even glaring were the prices... they were relatively more than what you would expect in other tapas outlets. That did not even prepare us for the portions of the tapas!

TAPAS

First came the Prawns. 20 bucks for 5 small prawns in Garlic and Chilli Oil? Plus, i'm sure you can observe from this picture, the prawns were overcooked. What a disappointing start to this lunch...

GAMBAS AL AJILLO 

Prawns in garlic oil and dried chilli ($20) 

Then came the Meatballs. A grand total of TWO. The puree was light but a little too pure (tomato) to expect from a executive or renowned chef. The clams were small, seemingly from the local tekka market, nothing fancy, nothing worth $20... 

PILOTA DE CERDO CON ALMEJAS 

Pork meatballs with chick pea stew and clams ($20) 

So they say, to gauge a good Spanish chef, is to try two things, the Paella and the Octopus. We will speak of the Paella in a bit, but the Grilled Octopus, perhaps my tastebuds have been spoiled by Bilbao's amazing Octopus, but this one was dry. Look at the rough edges on the searing, you will know that it has been overdone. It might have been a sous chef attempting this dish or otherwise, I do not think this was done well. The "noodle Paella" was basically over boiled "Ee Mee" with no taste to it at all. 

PULPO GALLEGO A LA BRASA 

Grilled octopus with noodle paella and smoked paprika ($24)

When this "Egg and Ham" came up, i was asking myself: Spanish Bed and Breakfast?! A child could make this in a Kindergarten cooking lesson! The yolk overpower the flavours of the Jamon, neither are they complementary... I can definitely get a better Egg Breakfast at Hatched. 

HUEVO FRITO CON JAMON Y PATATAS 

Sunny side up egg with Spanish ham, potato and onion confit ($22) 

And so we move on to our Mains, which judging from the prices should be fairly large (we haven't seen the Tapas at the point of ordering). So we decided to share 2 Mains amongst us. 

We had the kind waiter ramble with his heavy accent (Indian) on the daily specials, which we had him repeated twice to catch it. We then went with the Snapper and Prawn Pasta. (Sorry for the lack of labels, it was not on the Menu neither did we manage to catch what the waiter was saying)

MAINS - SPECIALS

The Snapper was actually quite good. Seared to a nice Golden, its crispy top layer went very well with the bitterness of the fried shallots. 

I would love to comment on the texture of the meat, but thanks to the ignorant Manager (not sure if he was just the Sommelier) who walked in, claimed that this is something very traditional and he has this ALL the time, took a fork and spoon and simply smashed it callously into 6 parts! Leaving us with a mess of a dish... 

The pasta was done fairly well. Flavours were balanced and rich. Generous in their servings of overdone grilled prawns with a colourful plating. 

And then we realised that we were still hungry! We decided to call for another main - the Paella of course. 

When it arrived, we were excited, seeing all that seafood clutter. I was gunning for the rice actually... 

And to my disappointment... the rice was wet and soggy. As though it was undercooked. Then at the bottom I tasted burnt bits. I will now come to this conclusion - this chef (whoever did this seating) had a bad day at Heat Control... He should take a lesson from a Chinese chef when he has the time. 

The Executive chef then came out to greet us at the end of our meal. Daniel Chavez (no relation to Hugo as he claims), was a very charming and pleasant guy. When he asked if everything was satisfactory, us being Singaporeans of course politely said yes. Will we come back to this place again? Probably not. 

Ola Cocina Del Mar 
12 Marina Boulevard #01-06
Marina Bay Financial Centre, Tower 3
Tel: +65 6604 7050

Opening Hours:
Mondays to Fridays
Lunch 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Dinner 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.