Casa Lola brings a grandmother's Spanish inn to Telok Ayer

Most Spanish restaurants claim a grandmother. Casa Lola puts hers over the door and her macaroni on the menu.

Book Casa Lola for two to four on a weeknight, when you want Spanish home cooking rather than a tasting menu. The narrow Boon Tat Street shophouse is the compromise: tables sit close and there is little room for bags, so it is no place for a big group. The Lola was real. Chef Juanjo Carrillo's grandmother ran a family venta, a country inn, in Jumilla in south-eastern Spain, and he and his wife Marcela Pino have built this room around her, crossed with the small neighbourhood bodegas of Barcelona. It comes from FOC Group, which has run FOC Restaurant since 2014, lately moved from Hongkong Street to Keong Saik, with a beachside sibling on Sentosa.

Look for the cobalt-blue doorway. Inside: terracotta, exposed brick, hand-painted tiles and walls crowded with vintage Spanish posters and frames.

The menu stays with home cooking: smoked Cantabrian anchovies on brioche with foie gras ganache, crab croquettes, and huevos rotos with garlic king prawns, finished at the table. The deboned crispy suckling pig with roasted apple and pumpkin is the big plate, and Grandma Lola's baked macaroni ragù is there for anyone who wants the family recipe. The seasonal paella uses Molino Roca "Dinamita" rice from Valencia, and its price depends on what goes in it. For two, we would share the anchovies and the huevos rotos and save room for the macaroni, because a restaurant named after a grandmother should be judged on her dish.

The drinks are half the fun. House Garnacha from DO Terra Alta is poured from wooden barrels into porrones, the long-spouted glass jugs you drink from at arm's length (wear something you don't mind getting wine on). Sangria comes in terracotta jugs.

Casa Lola is at 3 Boon Tat Street, a short walk from Telok Ayer MRT. Save it for a weeknight after work, when a porrón challenge and someone else's grandmother doing the cooking is exactly the right amount of effort.

Good to know Casa Lola is at 3 Boon Tat Street, a short walk from Telok Ayer MRT. It's open Tuesday to Saturday, noon–3pm and 5pm–10pm, and closed Sunday and Monday. Book a table on Chope or call +65 9657 8020.

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Casa Lola | 3 Boon Tat Street, Singapore 069612