Hi,
Claire and I were invited to The Palmary. Period.
Hold it right there, I bet you’re thinking: this is gonna be another boring food review and whoever who’s writing this is going to rave about it no matter what.
Well. I can’t force you to think otherwise, because everyone have their rights to think however they wanna think. But if you read my posts about food, when its bad, I say its bad. I won’t mince my words. And besides, taste is always a subjective thing, my hojiak (delicious) might be your paijiak (disgusting).
Back to The Palmary.
The Palmary is situated near Farrer Park MRT on the NEL, its near the Little India area where its oozing with our unique ‘cultural rojak’. The restaurant is a wine and dining concept of Food & Friendship, a canapes catering company. Offering fusion cuisine marrying Asian and European flavours, I was slightly worried about the ‘fusion’ part because I haven’t experienced a good ‘marriage’ of flavours with the other fusion cuisine places I’ve been to. But I’m eager to be proven wrong.
The main concept with The Palmary is to offer a casual setting for people to.. well.. socialize. Its got 25 seats on the first floor restaurant space; 32 on the 2nd floor lounge, VIP room that sits 13 pax and a 5 pax outdoor table. Plenty of space in a heritage shop house unit available for special event bookings. The interior decor is very modern and trendy; industrial styled raw wood and galvanized steel tables garnished with tropical palms and dried flowers, lit with candles and incandescent bulbs give us a very warm and relaxing space. There’s a lone bicycle hanging on one wall, I came to know later on that its a tribute to the former tenant of this shophouse, a bicycle shop. Damn.. Its like a hipster joint with good food and booze that doesn’t cost a limb to enjoy. What am I saying, it IS a hipster joint.
Our host Ryan is very approachable. Easily chat us up even when I’m really quite an introvert, Ryan made us feel very welcomed in this establishment. We took on his recommendations after checking out the menu spread. He did not disappoint.
We started off with 2 of the 10 unique cocktails offered by the bar. From left to right, we have the Forest Berries Collins: a mixture of gin, berries, soda water, lemon and lime juice; a flower pot, and the Big Papa: a concoction made with bourbon, apricot brandy, black date, lemon juice and mezcal spray.
Claire took the berry drink of course, while I had the Big Papa. I really love it, I’m so going to buy a bottle of bourbon and make my own cocktails at home. But I know I’ll never make them to this standard here. Ryan told me the resident bartender brews his own syrups. Totally out of my league.
Next we have our Starters: Truffle Mushroom soup with Crouton Coins that goes really well with the wild mushroom puree and Italian truffle oil. It tasted like the chef just plucked the mushrooms from a secret backyard and cooked this awesome starter to open up our palate.
The Paprika Prawns comes next. They were seasoned prawns sitting on a bed of chicken floss and egg tofu. They were a match made in heaven! I pop the whole thing into my mouth and the mix of different flavours complements each other! It wasn’t spicy to my standards, the prawn tasted a little like soy sauce rather than paprika, but I don’t mind at all. Because this seemingly Asian dish exceeds my expectations using mostly ingredients of humble origins to bring us such exquisite flavours!
I’m really gonna use up my vocabulary really soon.
Here comes the Entrée: first up is the Mentaiko Cream Lobster Linguine. They used half of a Boston lobster sleeping on a bed of mentaiko, mushroom cream linguine. It sounded really simple, but I found the linguine outshine the lobster here. The mentaiko mushroom cream combination was a match made in heaven. I find myself enjoying the linguine that I totally forgot about the lobster. Lobster to me is just.. a.. shellfish?
The intimidatingly Hearty Lamb Shank with a branch of rosemary on top. I was thinking if I can bring it home and plant it, but all my plants are dying at home 🙁
Anyway that’s not the point here isn’t it. Its the lamb; slow roasted to perfection, sitting on a bed of spring vegetables and mash potatoes drenched in a red wine sauce. At first I was worry about the toughness of the meat, my worry was unfounded. The flesh dislodged from the bone easily and its soft and greasy, just how all lamb shanks should be! But like all greasy food, it gets a little jelat as it gets cold. So if you order this, don’t make the same mistake we made by spending too much time on getting a good photo..
Our dessert is The Palmary’s spiked Ondeh Shot. This dish has a 15mins waiting time because the whole ondeh ball is made fresh on order. The gula melaka stayed out this time round unlike the traditional way of making this dessert, its replaced with a shot of coconut rum. Don’t ask me how its done, I have no idea.
I usually likes sweet stuff, so I poured the whole cup of gula melaka and coat the ondeh ball nicely before popping it into my mouth. Wow the rum gushed out as I bit into it and filled my mouth with happiness. Alcohol is happiness, right? In moderation that is. And so, I was happy.
In conclusion, we had a great time at the Palmary. I never expected such a social dining experience would ever appeal to an introverted male like me. I enjoyed the food, the ambiance, the music so-so (because I have an old school taste), and the drinks of course. I would’ve wanted to try all the cocktails but alas, the next day is a working day.. So I’ll have to defer that part to another time. I see myself coming back to The Palmary for a drink at least every month. Every month because I’m restricted by the thickness of my wallet. If I have a thicker one, the people here will probably see me more often. LOL.
THE PALMARY – 142 Owen Road, Singapore 218941
Closed on Mondays
Tuesday to Friday 6PM – 11PM
Saturday 1PM – 12AM
Sunday 1PM – 10PM
Special Hours
1st September (Friday) 1PM – 11PM
*Afternoon Tea Delight will be available from 1PM to 6PM
+65 6909 1431 | enquire@thepalmarysg.com
Cheers.
Simon Tey
P.S. The Palmary is also offering an Afternoon Tea delight from 12 August onwards, weekends only. One set features 6 savoury selections and 4 sweet treats, perfect for 2 to share in the awesome space available. You can choose coffee, tea or cooler; or if you fancy alcohol in your high.. tea.. session, you can top up for a bottle of Moscato etc. It costs S$58+ for a set of two, not too bad for the atas life yeah?
P.P.S. Pardon me for not showing any pics on the high tea because I haven’t got any..