Apéro is a French bistro that serves exceptional Spanish smoked sardines

Whenever I walk down Circular Road, there’s always a sense of nostalgia. I used to work in a cubicle farm nearby and would often head there for lunch.

There were numerous eateries, including nasi padang at Sinar Pagi (which, sadly, has moved), yong tau foo at 109 Yong Tau Foo (which, surprisingly, is still there) and beef noodles at Hock Lam Beef (which closed, but now seems to be back).

Once in a while, we’d have dinner and/or drinks at the many restaurants and bars that lined both sides of the street. Fridays nights were especially happening, though I’m sure the atmosphere has changed drastically since the pandemic.

As The Wife and I strolled down the street for our lunch reservation at Apéro Bistro & Wine, I didn’t recognise any of the restaurants we passed along the way. Competition in the F&B industry must be fierce, and in Singapore, customers are spoilt for choice.

We were the first to arrive, and were welcomed into a small and cosy space with 20 or so seats. The colour scheme was brown, beige and white, lending a breezy and relaxed atmosphere.

Since our booking was made under Restaurant Week, the menu was already sitting on our table. It was a three course lunch, with two choices each for our starter, main and dessert.

At S$38+ (yay! no 9% GST), it was closer to the lower end of the advertised range for the biannual event. The Restaurant Week website still advertises “lunch from S$28”, but it’s rare to find one at that price. I suppose they can still make that claim as long as one restaurant offers it.

A tall Caucasian man came by to take our order and I replied with “one of each”, the most logical choice in these situations. Judging from the fact that he wasn’t wearing any uniform, I assume he was the owner of the establishment.

We passed on the wine list, which had an good selection at reasonable (for Singapore) prices, but asked to take a look at their ala carte menu.

The starters looked interesting, and since lunch is our main meal of the day, we decided to order the grilled eggplant and smoked sardine crostini to complement our set menu starters.

The Wife was amused by how skinny the parma ham-wrapped pencil asparagus were. She had the impression that they were normal sized ones, but called as such because their tips were sharpened like pencils.

They looked cute though and had a pleasant nutty flavour that went well with the ham, roasted cherry tomatoes and honey glaze.

A very buttery white wine broth accompanied the sauteed clams, together with generous amounts of minced garlic. Even though there were only a few pieces of chilli padi, they packed quite a punch.

The grilled eggplant arrived peeled and came with cashews, reduced balsamic vinegar, a tiny mound of alfalfa sprouts and thin and pretty slice of mini turnip.

While the eggplant itself was relatively bland, the combination of all the items on the plate made for a nice appetiser. I’m generally not a fan of grassy-tasting alfalfa, but in this case, the combination worked well.

So far, the food was decent, but not particularly noteworthy. That impression immediately changed once we bit into the smoked sardine crostini.

Even though there were literally just three ingredients — toast, sardines and chopped chives — the simple dish was a flavour explosion.

We had expected to taste oily fish with briny, vinegary notes and perhaps a touch of smoke. But no, these were totally different.

Yes, the sardines still carried their characteristically strong flavour, but they had a surprising lightness somehow. The smokiness was off the charts, but not in an overpowering way.

Every bite was delightful, with powerful flavours that worked harmoniously together.

We complimented the owner on the sardines, and he replied matter-of-factly: “Of course, they are the best sardines in the world.”

Ok, so now I was curious.

Googling for Dehesa smoked sardines led me to the website of Maison Dehesa. Specifically to the product page for their “Japanese Smoked Sardine Sashimi XXL €16.50”.

“Maison DEHESA is reinventing sashimi-style canned sardines, thanks to Japanese smoking methods. Their deboning with tweezers, also unique, gives them the lowest salt level on the market. In addition to the salting process, they are cold smoked in order to sublimate their fat and give them a firm yet melting texture like sashimi.

Our sardines come from sustainable fishing, in the port of Santoña in Cantabria. Our fisherman Alberto knows how to find the largest sizes of sardines in the world to offer you an XXL product of choice.

Selected and processed according to an artisanal and ancestral Japanese method immediately after being brought into port, the sardines are then smoked with natural beech wood before undergoing a classic salting process.

In order to preserve its natural crunch and the flavor of its noble fat, often drowned in oil and salt from canning, Maison Dehesa has reinvented the sardine in the style of a Sashimi: an original combination of Mediterranean and Japanese techniques, to obtain a semi-raw product that explodes in the mouth!”

Thank you, Alberto from Cantabria.

If you like Spanish food and wine, you’re going to love FOC Restaurant

Unfortunately, after such a superb dish, the rest of the meal couldn’t quite match up.

Don’t get me wrong. The Seared sole fish with caper butter and French yellow chicken (yellow because corn-fed) with tarragon jus were perfectly fine main courses.

Their only sin was that they weren’t exceptional.

Likewise for the affogato and creme brûlée desserts.

We left Apéro that afternoon happy.

Happy that we were given the chance to taste such a delicious ingredient. We’re fans of Spanish seafood, especially their canned anchovies.

But these Spanish smoked sardines made by a French specialty food store using Japanese techniques was really something else.

It wasn’t something that we expected to experience in a French bistro, but it’s things like this that makes exploring new restaurants in Singapore so much fun.