we had a wonderful early 7pax family dinner for youngest daughter at foc on 23.7.2016.

daughter chose the place.

we had great family tapas dinner here when son was back last aug2015.

foc requires credit card for more than 5pax reservation on weekends. our reservation was 6pm seating, to vacate by 8.30pm.

we had a cosy front corner table looking out on the road.

food (& service) was what we expected, did not disappoint. 🙂

patata bravas (fiery as in spicy potatoes) was a good starter. potato was tasty.

my second time having it here, felt there was no signature spiciness & “fire” in this version.

liked the 2 croquettes as before.

mushroom croquette more intense flavours.

but i like the jamon just as much if not more, lingering savoury taste. crispy crunchy & flavourful croquette.

they said the chorizo was made in house. nice combination with the solky egg.

grilled octopus was good as before.

still very tender, on second trying though it was less impressive than i thought it was, c/w with the very good ones we had in portugal recently & in london & italy before.

eldest daughter liked the squid dish with egg & brioche. probably because it was a first try.

dish was nice with great olive oil & garlic taste & poached in own sauce, taste of the sea.

for me, nothing impressive.

one dish i forgotten to take was the slider, twin tiny burgers. we each cut a small piece.

nice but nothing special.

the paella & fiduea here were very good.

this was a blackboar special, a pulled pork (they said suckling pig but not sure made any difference when no crispy skin served) & scallop. very flavourful la…excellent paella.

fiduea was just as good, very tasty with the shellfish stock & cut squid. & i like the fiduea texture like well infused flavourful beehoon.

scampi was nice but only one.

squid ink was very tasty dish also.

but maybe not special for wife & me, since i cook a pretty excellent squid ink risotto myself.

i liked the kurobuta here best! ^^

very flavourful…texture is approaching a bit of pulled texture, which normally too soft & sinewy for my preference, but this one was just very tasty & tender…

i am replicating the dish right now – i used prime ribs so just faking a kurobuta by slow fine braising in 95degC oven for 5hrs. will post later. 🙂

the lamb with a but of curried mint sauce or something was very good.

in fact, trying it for second time, i thought it was much better than i remembered.

lamb was very tender & a bit stronger/gamier than most restaurants & also more than my own pistachio crusted rack of lamb.

i liked the flavour though & the interesting sauce which i think was mildly curried.

the service staff recommended a chocolate burger for my daughter.

looked beautiful of course.

& it was also nice chocolate. for myself i prefer dark & not milk chocolates.

rest did not want dessert.

restuarant offered a brownie cake for my daughter, together with birthday candles, very good of them.

dinner was about S$370 for 7pax include drinks, quite ok really for the food quality, ambience & service. a very pleasant & memorable evening for our family.

c.h.e.f andy

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