New restaurant Portico takes liberties with contemporary Western food to create refreshing dishes
Tucked in the office park along Alexandra Road is Portico, an intimate all-day dining café. Helmed by Executive Chef Leandros Stagogiannis, it features hearty home-style creations.
Chef Leandros used to work at Heston Blumenthal’s three Michelin star restaurant The Fat Duck in the UK, as well as local fine dining establishments here such as St Pierre. The menu reflects simplicity, yet with incredible attention to detail.
Porch-side Dining
Portico, meaning “porch” in Italian, intends for the diner to feel as though they are dining at a friend’s home, and the menu reflects this approach. Try the Crispy Sweetbread with Onion Puree and Heart of Palm salad ($17-$29). Golden fried nuggets of sweetbread – a gland from the cow – are paired with a sweet caramelised onion paste and thin strips of fresh heart of palm.
The sweetbread doesn’t have any strange scent or texture; it’s simply like a fried, slightly chewy, piece of meat. The Grape and Quinoa Salad, Sugar Snap Peas and fresh raspberries ($14) are also good to start. The slightly sweet and tart salad also has bits of roasted watermelon for a juicy flavour.
Surf & Turf
I loved the classic Sea Bass Fish and Chips with a side of crushed peas and fresh mint ($19) – the fish being freshly caught from Pulau Ubin and shipped to the restaurant within two hours for this dish.
The fish is flaky fresh and coated in a crispy beer batter, drawn from the chef’s experience in Britain. Fresh mint is mixed into the crushed peas for an additional fragrance.
The Kombu Soba Noodles with Truffle and Crispy Light Brown Shrimp ($16) is a little salty but the crispy small shrimp adds crunch and sweetness to the noodles. Desserts were a little over the top in my opinion but the Manjari H20 ganache, Sweet Corn Sorbet, Roasted Hazelnuts and Cashew Praline ($16) stood out the most with the rich chocolate and nutty flavours.
Portico, 991B Alexandra Road, #01-10, Singapore 119970, Tel: 6276 7337
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