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| Interior of RVLT |
Industrial chic may be cliché but the 60-seat RVLT that oozes industrial-chic at Carpenter Street is nothing but.
Formerly a pop-up at Killiney Road, this natural wine bar has resurfaced with a brick and mortar establishment at 38 Carpenter Street, this time with a mishmash of bar tables and banquettes, enormous wine-inspired posters that adorn the walls and a 60-seat room packed to the rafters with natural wine lovers.
Unlike its pop-up at Killiney Road, RVLT also offers a menu of Spanish-inspired small plates by chef and co-owner Manel Valero. A Barcelona native, Valero is an alum of the now-defunct Foodbar Dada, Moosehead and Kilo and he spent four months staging in Europe - at restaurants including Maaemo, Relae, Geranium and Amasse - before he returned to Singapore to join hands with wine industry veterans Ian Lim and Al Goh, both trained sommeliers with a combined experience of 20 years between them.
Leading the charge in the kitchen with the intention of creating dishes that go with natural wines, Valero has put together a spiffy menu of wallet-friendly and mostly vegetable-centric treats (there are some meaty exceptions like the Westholme wagyu striploin and beef tartare)- some light, others hearty, at times unctuous, yet others creamy.
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Fermented potato focaccia bread
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| Cream of leek |
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| Burnt cabbage |
For the perfect meal, order the fermented potato scented focaccia bread with a rustic dip of garlic and shallot confit topped with Spanish adobo (S$8++). Follow with quinoa-flecked sliced kohlrabi on a bed of tamarind paste, palm sugar, green chilli olive oil (S$6++). You also can't go wrong with the hearty bowl of cream-enriched leek broth with pickled leeks and sea lettuces (S$9++ per person). Valero also serves stalks of vinegar ash-flecked spring onion tempura (S$12++), perfect to snack in between courses with copious amounts of wine . Beef is available by way of Westholme wagyu striploin ($51) but to keep the vege theme, enquire about the off-menu items like the caramelized cabbage served with toasted barley, nasturtium and oxalis in a creamy-savoury Idiazabal cheese sauce.
38 Carpenter Street; +65-9388 1436; winervlt.sg
© Evelyn Chen 2013
Please note that the reviews published on this blog are sometimes hosted. I am under no obligation to review every restaurant I've visited. If I do, the reviews are 100% my own.