Gaudí Room

Joo Chiat's shophouses are pastel. The room behind Carlitos is tiled, curved and faintly Catalan.

Gaudí Room is a Joo Chiat date in two acts: Spanish small plates in the cheerful dining room at Carlitos, then a slow cocktail in the pocket-sized room at the back. It suits two people with an evening to spend, not a group of six. The compromise is size: it seats around 20, so book or come early, and check which nights it opens before you set out.

The room is the reason to come. Mosaic tables, curved walls, butterfly lattice woodwork behind the bar and a wooden centrepiece shelf, all in low, warm light, as if a corner of the Eixample had been smuggled into a shophouse. Outside is a street of pastel shophouses, kopi and laksa; inside is Barcelona. It is a few steps between the two, and it feels like a flight.

The kitchen is the other half of the plan. Carlitos is the tapas house run by chefs Carlos Montobbio of Esquina and Antonio Miscellaneo of Casa Vostra and La Bottega Enoteca, two doors down; it opened in November 2024 and grew its secret the following August. Eat there first. The menu runs to more than 30 tapas, and our order would be the braised oxtail with manchego mash for substance, then Gilda pintxos and jamón croquettes, which are small enough to order in multiples. If you would rather graze in the back room, the bar bites include padron peppers with togarashi and fried chicken with tzatziki and harissa.

The drinks lean on Catalan references with a savoury streak. The Smoking Architect is a riff on the Smoking Jacket, with bourbon, whisky, Ceylon water, Angostura bitters and banana water: the one to start with if you drink brown spirits. La Sagrada Paloma (the pun was inevitable) puts tequila, gin and Aperol with togarashi, and the Margarita De La Vera comes with a spiced rim; both are for people who like a drink to argue back. There is also an Elixir Surrealista. If you want something down the middle, there is an espresso martini and a whisky sour, and no shame in either.

How to do it well: book Carlitos for an early dinner, move to the back room once you have eaten, and keep it to a couple of rounds; in a room this size, the second drink is where the conversation happens. Eunos on the East–West Line and Marine Parade on the Thomson–East Coast Line are both a walk away, which is no hardship after dinner. Walk back along the shophouses, which look better after dark anyway.

Good to know Gaudí Room is at the back of Carlitos, 350 Joo Chiat Road, and opens in the evenings; check which days and hours before you go. Eunos (EWL) and Marine Parade (TEL) are the nearest MRT stations, each a walk away.

Gaudí Room | 350 Joo Chiat Road, Singapore 427598 | Nearest MRT: Eunos, Marine Parade