Spanish food has been making big waves on the food radar, with new tapas bars popping up every month. If you are a fan of tapas, Salt Tapas & Bar at Raffles City by celebrity chef Luke Mangan is one place that you should check out. It serves Aussie-style tapas with the freshest ingredients.

Many people have the perception that Salt Tapas & Bar is very expensive. This is true. Most of the tapas are in the $20 to $30 range, and you can easily spend at least $100 for a meal here. But what you might not know that it has a fantastic lunch set for just $33.50++/pax. It includes a flat bread to share, and 3 tapas per person. When you consider the fact that most of the dishes on the set lunch menu are from the ala carte menu, you will agree that it is a very good deal.

The set lunch menu is essentially a scaled down version of the main menu. Both are divided into different categories: ‘Nibbles’, ‘Butcher’, ‘Garden’, ‘Sea’, ‘Paddock’ and ‘Sweets’, Below are some of the dishes that we ordered from the set lunch menu. I have also included the ala carte portion prices.

Salt Tapas & Bar has several options under their ‘Garden’ menu which include Heirloom Tomato Salad ($11), Beetroot & Red Capscium ($12) and a Rocket & Pear Salad ($9).

We started off with a superb Tuna Tartare ($19 for small, $27 for large) with wasabi mayo and ruby grapefruit from the ‘Sea’ menu.

We also had the Crispy Soft Shell Prawns ($15) with chilli and garlic aioli, and while it was not a scene stealer, it did not disappoint with its crisp and crunchy texture.

Another dish that was even more addictive than the Soft Shell Prawns is the Salt & Pepper Squid ($20) with lime mayo. The crunch squid was well-seasoned with salt and pepper, and it was perfect with lime mayo. Simply put, I’d not leave Salt Tapas & Bar without trying this.

From the ‘Paddock’ menu, we had the Wagyu Sausage, Sumac Spiced Veal and Confit Pork Belly. The Confit Pork Belly ($27) with lentils and chorizo was a let-down. It was a tad too tough and not as tender as I’d hope it would be.

The Wagyu Sausage ($14 for small, $25 for large) with polenta, capers and tomato was good, but what stood out was the accompanying polenta. We suspect they added in a lot of cream and butter to give the polenta a creamy and smooth and velvety texture. Also good was the Sumac Spiced Veal & Meatballs ($14 for small, $22 for large) which came with a very yummy fontina mash.

Desserts are also worth a mention. Not many places serve good churros in Singapore, and if you have been looking for it, you must try Salt Tapas & Bar’s Churros & Chocolate ($11). It is one of the few that has managed to impress me so far.

You also cannot go wrong with the Gooey Hot Chocolate Tart with caramelised banana and white chocolate ice cream ($14).

Salt Tapas & Bar
252 North Bridge Road
#01-22A Raffles City Shopping Centre
Tel: +65 6837 0995
Daily: 11.30am – 10pm
Nearest Station: City Hall

Whenever my friends meet for gatherings, one of our favourite places is Raffles City Shopping Centre as City Hall is convenient for everyone.

Other than the location, another reason why I love Raffles City is because of the dining options – there are more than 50 restaurants in the mall. From restaurants like Salt Tapas & Bar, Skinny Pizza, Sushi Tei, and Canele; to eateries like Thai Express, The Soup Spoon, and Cedele – it offers a diverse range of food offerings.

Raffles City is organising a Mastercard mall-wide F&B promotion (6th to 29th July) in conjunction with Singapore Food Festival 2012. There will be lucky draw with exclusive $5,000 worth of hotel stay by Fairmont and Swissotel, and dining deals to be won during this period. You can visit Raffles City Epicurean Society for more details.

I met up with the folks from Raffles City to find out more about the promotion, and they brought me on a food trail to try three restaurants at Raffles City – Salt Tapas & Bar, Menya Musashi, and Soup Broth Asia.

If you always have problem trying to choose a place for dinner in the City Hall area, here’s a quick guide on where you can go.

Food trail, here we go!

Our first stop was at Salt Tapas & Bar by Australian celebrity chef Luke Mangan.

We started with the roasted garlic flat bread with romesco ($6). Then, we had the baked bone marrow ($16) with shiitake, Parmesan, & air-dried olive.

I was really excited when I saw it on the menu. I tasted a good bone marrow in New York, but so far, I haven’t been able to find a good rendition in Singapore. I thought Salt’s bone marrow was fantastic; it will have me returning over and over again.

Peter, the restaurant manager, recommended the tagine of snapper and octopus ($32), which was created by Luke Mangan himself. The dish was prepared with chickpeas, silverbeet, date and lemon; it tasted slightly sourish-sweet – somewhat like an Assam fish head.

Equally good was the charcoal grilled baby chicken ($26) with rosemary & lemon. I was tempted to order more food; the charcoal grilled beef rib ($31) and iberico pork loin ($27) were calling out to me – but I figured that I shouldn’t be too greedy since this was only the first stop, so we proceeded with desserts.

Looking at the choices on the dessert menu, we were not sure where to even begin. In the end, we decided to go with something rich – gooey hot chocolate tart ($14) and churros with chocolate ($11), which after dipping our spoon into, we agreed was one of the best ways one could end the meal with.

The food at Salt Tapas & Bar is not exactly cheap; the nibbles are priced around $6 to $19, while the meat and seafood tapas range from $15 to $32. But this is a meal worth saving up for. For a more affordable alternative, I’d suggest going there for lunch. Salt Tapas & Bar has a lunch set at $33.50++; you get flat bread to share, and three tapas per person – which in my opinion, is a fantastic deal as the items on the lunch menu can be found on the ala carte menu.

Salt Tapas & Bar
252 North Bridge Road
#01-22A Raffles City Shopping Centre
Tel: +65 6837 0995
Daily: 11.30am – 10pm

Following our Aussie tapas adventure, we went to Menya Musashi, one of Japan’s most famous ramen shops. I think it’s great that they have chosen to open the first store at Raffles City, as it is very accessible. The opening of the Japanese ramen restaurant definitely adds to the wide variety of food available at the mall.

From what I’ve heard, the current queue during lunch and dinner is at least an hour long. Not too bad for a new restaurant that is barely a few months old.

After trying all the ramen on the menu, I can understand why people queue up for it. I would venture to say that it is one of the better tonkatsu-based ramens in Singapore.

Besides Tsukemen ($14.90) – where you dip dry noodles in a richer soup sauce; Menya Musashi serves three different types of ramen: white (original tonkatsu broth), red (spicy tonkatsu broth), and black (tonkatsu broth with fermented garlic and onion).

One of the reasons why Menya Musashi is so special is because of the broth. It is boiled for more than nine hours, and the chef has to stir it every half an hour to prevent the bottom from being burned. The result? An extremely thick and rich tonkatsu broth that is out-of-this-world good. I am not exaggerating when I use the word ‘extremely’; Menya Musashi’s broth is much thicker than the usual ramen places.

While the black and red Musashi are delicious, my favourite is the white Musashi, as I love the original taste of tonkatsu broth. Each ramen comes with the option of chashu ($12.90), or Kakuni ($14.90). The chashu is quite good, but the kakuni (braised pork belly) is even better.

Go during off-peak hours, or be prepared to queue up.

Menya Musashi
252 North Bridge Road
#01-16 Raffles City Shopping Centre
Tel: +65 6336 6500

Our third, and final stop of the day was Soup Broth Asia – located at the basement of Raffles City Shopping Centre where you can find many restaurants and eateries.

Soup Broth Asia is an Asian soup concept by everyone’s favourite The Soup Spoon, a leading soup chain in Singapore. For those who don’t cook at home, Soup Broth Asia gives them the chance to savour homemade Asian soups.

There are nine different types of comforting and hearty soups such as tori daikon nabe, Hainanese beef and tripe hotpot, as well as canton lotus root with pork rib.

We sampled three signature soups, and I loved the Hainanese festive fish maw ($10.40) – with fresh fish slices, fish maw, and cabbage – as it reminds me of my mom’s soups.

The sumo wrestle – a miso based soup which consist of chicken, beancurd, lotus root, poached eggs, and soya milk – is quite fascinating as it substitutes cream with soya milk for people who are allergic to dairy products.

If you are a beef stew lover, you will love the Hainanese beef and tripe hotpot ($7.90). It is an oriental version of beef stew, and comes with nicely marinated beef and beef tripe.

Soup Broth Asia also has side dishes like appetisers ($2.80 to $4.80), vegetables ($5.90 to $7.40) and meats ($6.50 to $10.50). In particular, the sweet & sour pork ($8.80) and garlic baby dou miao ($7.40) were very decent.

Soup Broth Asia
252 North Bridge Road
#B1-62 Rafffles City Shopping Centre
Tel: +65 6338 6909
Sun–Thu: 11am – 10pm
Fri–Sat: 11am – 10.30pm

That’s all folks. I hope you enjoy reading my food trail at Raffles City. I will be going on another adventure to try three other restaurants; I will definitely share it with you soon!

To find out more about Raffles City’s food festival, please visit Raffles City Epicurean Society where you can read about the F&B tenants, promotions and food reviews.