OLA Cocina Del Mar – Spanish restaurant at Marina Bay Financial Centre (MBFC)

OLA Cocina Del Mar is a Spanish restaurant at Tower 3 of Marina Bay Financial Centre (MBFC). MBFC is a busy place on weekdays and it is not a place we would visit unless we have to.  But on Saturday, it is a different story.  The place is quiet and peaceful. Carpark rates are affordable. The underground tunnels that connect to Downtown and Raffles Place MRT stations are almost deserted.  Some of the restaurants are still open. OLA Cocina Del Mar is one of them.  It is a friendly restaurant for straightforward Spanish food.

OLA Cocina Del Mar translates to “WAVE – Cuisine of the Sea”.  It is on the ground floor of Tower 3 MBFC.  At first glance it looks more like a furniture store than a Spanish restaurant.  The signboard is small and there are shelves with things on display at the entrance.

OLA Cocina Del Mar is a dimly lit place. A large open kitchen sits in the middle. It looks like a busy place. We spotted several people busily working in the kitchen even though only a few tables were occupied. Perhaps they were expecting a bigger crowd later on.  The ventilation system must be pretty good as none of the smells from all that cooking leaked into the dining space.

There is one nook in OLA Cocina Del Mar that looks unlike the rest of the restaurant. It is not a private room but is a good place to host a dinner for eight.

OLA Cocina Del Mar Menu

Here are pictures of the OLA Cocina Del Mar menu.  It is a simple two-page menu. Not a lot to choose from but it contains the usual Spanish restaurant classics – Sangria, 5J Iberico ham, grilled octopus, paella and suckling pig etc.

A bowl of warm bread soon arrived. We ordered two tapas and two main courses.

OLA Cocina Del Mar Tapas

We had two types of tapas. The Gambas (picture above $26) was a dish of tiger prawns in garlic oil with some potato puree underneath. The quality of prawns was good and they were cooked just right.  The garlic flavour was strong but not overpowering. We like the bits of garlic that were crisp and provided bursts of garlic flavour.

The grilled octopus (picture below, $28) was made with octopus tentacle cut into small segments.  What made this dish stand out from other grilled octopus dishes was the rouille sauce.  According to Wikipedia,  “Rouille (pronounced [ʁuj], French ‘rust’) is a sauce that consists of olive oil with breadcrumbs, garlic, saffron and cayenne pepper. “.   It certainly made the octopus and the pieces of fennel taste very good.

Main Courses

There were three types of paella on the menu. We decided on the paella OLA (picture above, $38).   The portion size of this paella was small but the amount of seafood was generous.  Big chunks of fish and squid topped the rice.  The paella was very good.

The grilled Spanish pork (picture below, $38) looked like thinly sliced char siew.  The fat content was high and we avoided the fatty bits   The meat parts were nice and juicy. The restaurant noticed our leftovers and acknowledged the issue. They took the item off our bill.

Ratings:

Food: 4

Service: 4

Value: 3

Atmosphere: 4

Overall Rating: 4 TOPs 

OLA Cocina Del Mar

Address

12 Marina Boulevard #01-06,
Marina Bay Financial Centre Tower 3,
Singapore (018982) Map

Mon-Fri: 11:30am-2:30pm, 5:30-9:30pm
Sat: 5:30-9:30pm
Closed Sunday