The Curious Case of Maca

Chong Seow Wei discovers a gem of a restaurant nestled within a green oasis along Orchard Road, offering unconventional starters and sharing plates to satisfy adventurous taste buds

link and you’d miss Maca Restaurant (B1-01 Tanglin Post Office, tel: 6463 8080), hidden behind an outdoor porch amid the lush greenery surrounding the old Tanglin Post Office. Yet, its unintentionally stealth appearance is what gives the restaurant its charm—it makes a great getaway for those who want to escape the madding weekend crowds of Orchard Road, if just for an hour or two. It also only seats 30 indoors and 30 outdoors, to keep meals intimate for all. Decor-wise, the three-month-old restaurant has gone along with the industrial-chic trend, but its menu reflects head chef Rishi Naleendra’s efforts to differentiate the offerings from the restaurant’s peers. Seasonal catches and produce primarily determine the menu, which offers a variety of starters and sharing plates of mainly fresh seafood, greens and grilled meats. What connects most of the dishes is the use of creams and yoghurts. The menu comprises 20 dishes that are personal favourites of chef Naleendra and his good friend Irene Chow, who is the restaurant manager, and suggests a focus on clean, low-carb food which, as my dining companion Maisy Koh points out, would especially appeal to women. Lightly salted padron peppers made great bites to start the meal, which we followed with starters that whetted our appetites. First up was a tender smoked swordfish belly on a creamy avocado mash, and garnished with baby turnip slices that soaked up the refreshing yuzu juice the fish sits in. Droplets of wild garlic added to the juice gave it a slightly more rounded flavour. The ceviche of Argentinian prawns was a winner as the prawns were sweet and succulent. The dish also presented a well-balanced medley of salty, sweet and sour flavours with konbu kelp, sesame, salty fingers (an edible leaf ) and tomato in a light wasabi and buttermilk sauce. A good vegetarian option is salt-baked beetroot served with goat cheese, pickled raisins, raw watercress, roasted rice and shavings of horseradish. Despite being thinly sliced, the beetroot’s sweetness came through, accented by the well-thought-out combination of its pairings. The mains here are heartier and in generous portions that are perfect for sharing.