Alegria was our last stop in the Autumn 2022 season of Singapore Restaurant Week. For those of you who’ve been following, out of the 10 restaurants that we shortlisted, we finally made reservations at four of them.
We started at Aapon for Bengali food, followed by Poisson for seafood and Beirut Grill for Lebanese food. Maintaining our international diversity streak, we ended our expedition with some Mexican x Filipino fusion cuisine.
It’s obvious when you reach Alegria that it is first and foremost a bar. Which is not surprising since it started out as a sangria bar in Manila. It has since opened several more outlets in the Philippines, and added Singapore as its first international location.
They were just opening up when we reached, and upon being seated, the lingering overnight bar scent was evident. Thankfully it didn’t last too long, as fresh air came in to ventilate the long and narrow space.
Uniquely Mexican items were featured prominently in the interior décor, including colourful sombreros and vivid Día de los Muertos masks.
The S$38++ three-course Restaurant Week lunch menu was presented on a long strip of paper. I was admiring the dynamic flowing design on the right edge, until I realised that it was unintentionally created from water stains. It was quite pretty though.
Since there was just one elote starter and two taco appetisers, the only choice we had to make was which of the five burrito rice bowls we wanted to try. Oh, and also if we wanted to top up S$10 for the Maja Blanca dessert.
We decided on the Jerk Chicken and Pork Sisig, and since the dessert sounded like it would probably be quite sweet, we chose to share just one portion.
I’m usually not a fan of corn, but I make an exception for elotes. I’ve had them a couple of times in the past, and have enjoyed the savoury cheesy and creamy coating that complements the sweet corn kernels.
The ones at Alegria had a fancy presentation, with a schmear of cilantro cream and garnished with small flower petals. It was fun munching on the pieces of corn cob, though it did get a bit messy at times.
I would have preferred if they had gone all the way and covered the corn with more cheese, but it was still a very tasty starter nonetheless.
The tacos came out in their little separate plates and were presented flat, instead of folded and served in wavy metal holders used elsewhere. They were very flavourful, especially the pulled pork carnitas with its guajillo and achiote sauce.
We found the purple tortilla quite interesting, and were told by our waitress that it was a yam-flavoured version that they created in-house. In fact, their tortillas were all made from scratch by the kitchen and not store bought.
Side sauce dishes of salsa and minced habanero were provided, allowing us to adjust the level of heat. I would urge caution with the habanero, because a little goes a long way.
Tortillas made a repeat appearance on the burrito rice bowls, this time rolled thinly, cut into triangles and deep-fried to make super crunchy chips. The quenelle of refried beans was especially tasty, providing an deep earthy note to the vibrant dish.
A Filipino touch came in the form of Pork Sisig, which were fatty and crunchy flavour bombs. You really can’t go wrong with crispy fried pork, even when it’s meat from the cheeks. Yes, that’s essentially what Sisig is made of.
The meat for the Jerk Chicken rice bowl was more conventional, though we couldn’t quite identify it at first, given the thick black sauce slathered on top of the big piece of juicy thigh meat.
Both The Wife and I agreed that this was so much more flavourful than the Sisig, with the heavily spiced jerk marinade and the smokey barbeque taste of the beautifully grilled chicken.
Portions for the burrito rice bowls were quite substantial and coupled with the tacos and elotes, we were quite full when we finished. So, the choice to share one portion of dessert turned out to be a good decision.
But there had been some miscommunication between the waitstaff and kitchen and two plates of the Maja Blanca arrived. They removed one after clarifying our order, and soon brought it back again and offered it to us without charge.
We always try our best not to waste food, and so we braced ourselves, activated the additional “dessert stomach” and dug right in.
The presentation was very fine dining-ish, with the sauce served in a separate carafe and poured out during service. We’ve not had Maja Blanca before, but this version definitely looked like it was a modern deconstructed interpretation.
As expected, it was very sweet. While the grilled pieces of corn did help tone it down somewhat, I didn’t particularly enjoy it. I still managed to finish everything though, and kept my principle of not wasting food intact.
Of all the dishes we had, the Jerk Chicken stood out the most, followed by the tacos. We noticed that all tacos were 50% off all day on Tuesdays.
There were five different flavours in the menu, with two tacos in each serving. We would happily have the Carnitas and Pescado again, and the remaining three looked quite interesting.
Coupled with the happy hour 1-for-1 drinks, we might just come back again on a late Tuesday afternoon and have a boozy taco party from 3 to 6pm!
