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Singapore, August 28, 2010 Santi by Santi Santamaria Santi by Santi Santamaria
Marina Bay Sands
You don’t have to be an iconic Spanish chef with multiple Michelin stars attached your name to tackle the tapas thing – but it sure doesn’t hurt the cause.
Santi Santamaria opened his eponymous fine-dining restaurant at Marina Bay Sands in May to impressive reviews and high-rollers that were perhaps more used to eating on the quick than dropping a pretty penny on a three-hour meal.
This is a restaurant where diners are best advised to take their time to digest the experience – never mind that the VIP gaming rooms and main casino floor are mere metres away. But what to do if you appreciate a high-quality meal as well as one that allows you to return to the Baccarat table in double-quick time?
That’s where Santi’s new tapas bar menu comes in handy. It was devised to reduce the regular meal time at the restaurant proper by half or more, without losing out in any way on the prospect of a quality dining experience. The stated intent is to reproduce what it does with the fine-dining in a more relaxed and informal manner.
Don’t expect a typical Spanish tapas bar experience, however. A tapas meal at Santi is still resoundingly elegant and upscale, from the setting to the service to the quality of the cuisine.
There’s an eight-seat counter at the entrance to the main restaurant and there are also plans to replace several low tables with bar stools and high tables. The stools are actually more like chairs – they come with armrests and are nicely upholstered in leather.
The tapas menu is simple enough: two set menus, one at $60 and the other at $90 – relative bargains compared to the more extensive and elaborate tasting menus in the main restaurant, priced at $195, $240 and $350.
Tapas or not, the quality of the cuisine is irreproachable, starting from the Spanish charcuterie (lomo, pancetta, Iberico ham), continuing with the trio of gazpacho with crab meat, Galician octopus salad and the chanterelle mushroom confit, and including the shrimp with scrambled egg, beautifully tender quail escabeche and some green asparagus slices, with everything presented in small dishes and bite-sized portions.
The final savoury dish was a tasty stew of pork, bamboo clams, artichokes and white beans, topped with a piece of pan-fried fish, and all of it exceedingly well cooked. Dessert arrived in the form of a glass filled with chopped mango and hibiscus granite.
Freshness and the high quality of the ingredients are the keys to the meal, according to our server Gianni Bartolomeo, who is Santi’s assistant head sommelier.
Indeed, that philosophy is expounded on in a quote in the menu by Santamaria, who writes, “The quest for produce is the basis for my cuisine, together with imagination and the simplicity of those who strive for perfection.”
That sums it up pretty nicely.
Marina Bay Sands
10 Bayfront Avenue
Singapore 018956
Tel: 66888501
www.canfabes.com
(The tapas bar at Santi is open daily from 6.30pm to 11pm)
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