{Update: March 26th 2017}
South Union Park occasionally takes time off to create, test and launch new dishes and their latest menu sees new additions like Lightly Smoked Salmon (S$23) and Squid Ink Risotto ($26).
Here’s a quick view on some of the other new highlights:
{Original Post: May 28th, 2016}
I am delighted that South Union Park has landed in Kembangan. Finally, a casual dining place in the hood that actually dishes out food with some finesse. It’s no wonder, seeing as how the chef/owner Terence has had stints in Les Amis, Jaan and 2 Michelin-starred Mugaritz (S Pellegrino’s World #6 restaurant 2015) in San Sebastien.
This hybrid café/bistro manages to provide the perfect balance between great taste and good value, often sorely lacking in most casual restaurants here. The menu is small, but I like that it’s focused so that they can give their best to each dish. (It’s kind of the opposite of Flava, another restaurant I recently reviewed at Siglap). Almost everything is made in-house except the ice cream and fries.
Even the chorizo in the luscious Mussels in Chorizo broth ($18) is made from scratch by the South Union Park team. With the addition of white wine and butter to the chorizo broth, you get a nice spicy and somewhat creamy tasting dish, delicious!
I was expecting something else for the Pork Crackling ($5), but what came along was a keropok-like dish that proved its crackle-worthiness by crackling away for the next 10 minutes while it was on our table! This simple looking and sounding dish actually takes more than 6 hours to make – first, it’s boiled, then it’s dehydrated in the oven for 6-7 hours, then flash fried upon order. Really good stuff to go with your craft beer!
Crabcakes ($12). Almost always crappy, hardly ever crabby – this one doesn’t disappoint. Where most often you will get a potato cake with a smidgen of shredded crab, this was definitely filled with sweet, crab meat. Didn’t even need the spicy remoulade that accompanied it.
As I visited South Union Park twice in a week, I tried two out of the three pastas available. I fell in love with the Butternut Agnolotti ($17)! Little ravioli-like parcels filled with the sweetest butternut squash, in a herby butter sauce – this was delish! There’s some earthy mushrooms too to give you a more rounded flavour.
The Duck Confit Tagliatelle ($19) is also very good…and rich. The duck might be a tad too gamey for some, but together with the hazelnut cream, this is a moreish pasta dish indeed.
Desserts didn’t fail either. The Passionfruit Souffle ($13) is so light, yet redolent with the sweet and tangy flavour of passionfruit. You could just gobble this up without any help from anyone!
But of course, the deceptively simple (and boring sounding/looking) Chocolate Cake ($5) was my favourite. Made entirely with cacao berries, you will have a fruity taste in your mouth, but absolutely no fruit was added to the mix – just the cacao berries. We opted for a scoop of Salted Caramel ice cream, and it was a perfect match and end to our wonderful, neighbourhood meal.
No service charge is added, but really – you will definitely want to tip because the service is good, and they know what they are talking about and yeah, you will just feel so satisfied here!
South Union Park:
Address: 101 Jalan Kembangan Singapore 419139
Contact: 9061 8703 or southunionpark@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/southunionpark
Opening Hours:
Tue: 5:30 pm – 10:00 pm
Wed-Thu: 11:30 am – 10:00 pm
Fri-Sat: 11:30 am – 11:00 pm
Sun: 11:30 am – 10:00 pm