Located along Gemmil Lane, Delicacy, a tapas place, is worth a detour off the main Club Street drag.
No, it doesn’t have the requisite hipsterish industrial and cramped look of other “IT” tapas joints in Singapore. Instead, it’s pretty airy, cheery and more like you’re visiting a Spanish senorita’s home for dinner (if you don’t count the huge leg of iberico ham displayed like an art piece, at the far end of the restaurant).
Tapas is best shared and when I was there in March, they had a tapas tasting platter offer at $20 which gave me a good chance to try tasting portions of their tapas items.
(Note: I just checked with the restaurant. They do not have the $20 platter promotion anymore, instead they have a Tapas Happy Hour promotion between 5-7pm where you get a platter with Croquetas, Tomato and Jamon Toast, Olives and Patatas Bravas).
And for me – if I see sardines, anchovies and octopus on the menu, you can bet I’ll zoom right into those! For the platter, I chose marinated Spanish Sardines with kimchi aioli, capers and piquillo peppers, Escalivada with manchego cheese and anchovies, the Iberico Jamon Croquetas and the Slow-Cooked Egg. They were all yummy, especially the Sardines and the Escalivada.
This isn’t the only tapas place in Singapore getting inspired by Korean flavours, but the last that I had elsewhere was befuddling – it was some limp kimchi on a tapas dish and it just didn’t do anything for me. Thankfully, at Delicacy, it was just a kimchi-flavoured aioli that added a nice kick to the sardine tapas.
A typical Catalan dish, the Escalivada is made of vegetables like peppers and eggplants grilled till the smoky flavor permeates the veggies and is served on toast, and better yet, if it has a nice, salty slice of anchovy on top, like the one here at Delicacy.
My favourite memory of eating octopus has to be the one where I was in a white and blue painted typical Greek taverna in Santorini, but octopus is also an incredibly popular dish in Spanish restaurants. Somewhat finicky to prepare (I guess people hardly cook Octopus at home here?), it’s easy to misjudge timings on octopus and the last thing you want is a rubbery piece of meat. No such problem at Delicacy – the Octopus ($19) came nicely grilled, tender and tasty, with some help from the accompanying capers, potato and aioli.
Now I can’t get enough of Squid Ink Paella ($55), so of course, we ordered that here and my all-time favourite is at Binomio, BUT this one comes a close second! A sateen sheet of black squid ink covers the bomba rice which is peppered with chunks of chopped squid, so every mouthful feels like a combination of slightly al dente rice and morsels of seafood goodness. The best part – the copious amounts of aioli they give you to mix through the rice. Very rich, indeed!
I was there for dinner, but CBD peeps who are working around the area can drop by for their breakfast sets ($10-$12 for either Eggs on Toast or Croissants with various fillings and coffee or tea), and lunch too. The Lunch Value Sets at $12 seem like great value – you can pick selected items from the menu (the Salad with Blue Cheese and Walnut dressing and the Chorizo Sandwich sound promising) to make up a 2-course Lunch set with a drink thrown in.
Also, there is a deli takeaway section where you can find imported gourmet products like jamon, chorizo, salchichon, Spanish olives and oils and paella rice.
Ladies can enjoy a glass of Sangria on the house for on Wednesdays from 7pm. And with their new tapas happy hour offer at $12, great time to check Delicacy out!
Delicacy:
Address: 10 Gemmill Lane Singapore 069251
Contact: 9830 0908
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/delicacyfnwm