Ambience & Setting

Nestled within a heritage shophouse at 107 Amoy Street, Amor occupies one of Singapore’s most charming dining precincts. The restaurant’s name—Spanish for “love”—aptly captures the intimate, warm atmosphere that permeates this space. The shophouse architecture, characteristic of Singapore’s conservation districts, provides high ceilings and long, narrow proportions that create an inherently cozy setting.

The design philosophy channels the unhurried rhythm of Barcelona’s dining culture—think leisurely afternoon meals that stretch into golden hour, conversations that meander as freely as the wine pours, and the quintessentially Spanish tradition of sharing plates among friends and lovers. The intimate scale encourages lingering, making it ideal for romantic dinners or relaxed gatherings where time becomes pleasantly irrelevant.

The February 2026 opening positions Amor as part of Singapore’s evolving Spanish dining scene, led by Chef Yu Wang Leung (formerly of Olivia’s founding team) and hospitality veteran Azad Sharma. Their combined expertise manifests in thoughtful service and a menu that balances traditional Catalan influences with contemporary technique.

In-Depth Meal Analysis

Amuse-Bouche: Watermelon Cubes

The meal commenced with a simple yet effective palate awakener—chilled watermelon cubes that provided refreshing sweetness and high water content to prepare the palate for the flavors ahead. This minimalist approach signals confidence: no need for elaborate amuse-bouches when a perfectly ripe, cold watermelon can achieve the desired effect.

Escalivada Tarta (4.2/5) – $16 for 2 pieces

The Concept: This dish reinterprets the Catalan escalivada—traditionally a salad of roasted vegetables—as a structured tart that balances rusticity with refinement.

Textural Composition: The foundation is a crisp tarta shell that provides essential structural integrity and crunch. Against this, the smoky roasted vegetables (eggplant, capsicum, onion) offer soft, yielding texture with concentrated sweetness developed through caramelization. The foie gras terrine introduces silken richness, creating a luxurious mouthfeel that coats the palate.

Flavor Architecture: The vegetables bring earthy sweetness and smokiness, while extra-virgin olive oil adds fruity, grassy notes. Sherry vinegar cuts through with brightness and acidity, preventing the dish from becoming cloying. The Parmesan sauce contributes umami depth and salty complexity. The foie gras, surprisingly subtle in its application, functions more as a creamy textural element than a dominant flavor.

Color Palette: Visually, this dish presents a warm Mediterranean spectrum—golden-brown tart shell, deep purple-burgundy from the eggplant and capsicum, ivory from the terrine, and pale gold from the Parmesan sauce. The composition suggests sun-drenched markets and long summer evenings.

Accessibility Note: The availability of a vegetarian version (substituting cheese for foie gras) demonstrates thoughtful menu planning, particularly given one investor’s vegetarian preferences.

Happy Egggg (4.8/5) – $18

Presentation Innovation: Serving this dish in a martini glass is both playful and practical, allowing diners to appreciate the distinct layers while maintaining structural integrity during service.

Layered Analysis:

• Base Layer: Roasted pumpkin coulis provides natural sweetness, velvety texture, and vibrant orange hues
• Middle Layer: The 65°C onsen egg—precisely cooked to achieve a barely-set white with a completely liquid, rich yolk—offers custard-like protein and golden-yellow visual appeal
• Truffle Sabayon: This emulsified sauce (traditionally egg yolks, sugar, and wine beaten to airy lightness) incorporates truffle, adding earthy, musky aromatics and pale beige foam
• Textural Contrasts: Crispy jamon chips (paper-thin, brick-red, intensely savory) and brown butter sourdough croutons (golden, crunchy, nutty) provide essential crispness
• Fresh Element: Chervil and dill salad introduces herbaceous brightness, anise notes, and verdant green color

Why It Works: This dish succeeds through contrast—silky versus crunchy, sweet versus savory, rich versus bright. The 65°C egg temperature is critical; at this precise point, the proteins set to an unctuous consistency that flows but doesn’t run. When the yolk breaks, it creates a sauce that binds the other elements. The name “Happy Egggg” captures its essential character: pure, uncomplicated pleasure.

Indulgence Factor: The reviewer’s declaration that they’d “eat again and again” speaks to its comfort food appeal wrapped in technical sophistication.

Gambas al Ajillo (4.5/5) – $34 for full portion (4 prawns)

Ingredient Quality: The use of sashimi-grade prawns is significant—these are premium specimens with translucent flesh, firm snap, and sweet oceanic flavor. The sizing is described as generous, suggesting prawns likely in the 16/20 or 13/15 count range.

The Classic Technique: Gambas al ajillo is one of Spain’s most beloved tapas, traditionally cooked in a shallow earthenware dish (cazuela) where garlic-infused olive oil bubbles and sizzles. The garlic should be golden, not burned, releasing sweet, mellow flavor rather than bitterness.

Modern Interpretation: Amor adds complexity with smoked potato foam—a contemporary technique where potatoes are transformed into an aerated, mousse-like consistency using lecithin or a cream whipper. This provides earthy sweetness and visual drama (likely ivory-white with wisps of smoke aroma). Sweet paprika (pimentón dulce) dusted over top contributes brick-red color and subtle, fruity pepper notes without heat.

Textural Notes: The prawns retain firm bite despite cooking, their shells removed to maximize the garlic oil absorption. The potato foam dissolves on the tongue, creating momentary richness before dissipating.

The Missing Element: The reviewer’s lament about lacking bread for sauce-mopping is telling. In Spanish dining, this garlic-prawn oil is liquid gold—traditionally soaked up with crusty pan con tomate or plain baguette. This suggests the bread service may need enhancement or better coordination with the dish’s arrival.

Pulpo de Galicia (4.8/5) – $32

Technical Excellence: Octopus cookery is notoriously challenging. Undercooked, it’s rubbery and unpleasant; overcooked, it becomes mushy and stringy. The ideal is tender with pleasant resistance—achievable through slow simmering (often 45-60 minutes) or modern techniques like sous vide followed by rapid searing.

The Galician Tradition: Authentic pulpo a la gallega features boiled octopus sliced into coins, drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with coarse salt and pimentón, and served on wooden plates. It’s rustic simplicity elevated by perfect execution.

Amor’s Interpretation: The “crisped edges” indicate a final sear or grill—likely a hot plancha that creates Maillard browning (developing deep, savory flavors) while maintaining interior tenderness. The springy texture confirms proper cooking.

Color Story: The octopus itself ranges from pale pink to deep burgundy-purple where the skin chars. Against this, soft potatoes offer creamy beige, sweet corn contributes sunny yellow kernels, and the sobrasada sofrito adds russet-orange richness.

Flavor Complexity: Sobrasada is a spreadable Spanish chorizo from Mallorca—soft, fatty, deeply spiced with paprika. When transformed into a sofrito (slow-cooked sauce base with tomatoes, onions), it becomes a rich, complex accompaniment that enhances rather than overwhelms the octopus’s natural brininess. The smokiness mentioned likely comes from both the octopus’s charred edges and the pimentón in the sobrasada.

Tea-Smoked King Salmon with Avruga Caviar (5/5) – $34

The Perfect Score: Only one dish achieved this rating, making it the evening’s undisputed star.

Ingredient Sourcing: Norwegian sashimi-grade salmon represents premium quality—cold-water fish with high fat content (especially from belly portions), bright orange-pink flesh, and clean, sweet flavor. The combination of belly (fatty, buttery) and back (leaner, firmer) shaped to resemble a single fillet shows thoughtful butchery aimed at textural and flavor balance.

Technical Layering:

1. Sous Vide Foundation: Cooking salmon sous vide (likely 40-45°C for 30-40 minutes) ensures even, gentle cooking that maintains moisture and creates silky, almost custard-like texture
2. Tea Smoking: Chinese tea introduces aromatic smoke (likely Lapsang Souchong or similar) that adds complexity without overwhelming the fish’s delicacy. The smoke penetrates the surface, creating subtle earthiness and visual amber tones
3. Caviar Finish: Avruga caviar (a herring roe product mimicking sturgeon caviar) provides bursting pearls of brine, adding textural pop and visual luxury with its black spheres against the salmon’s coral-pink

Supporting Elements:

• Vichyssoise: This French cold soup (puréed leeks, potatoes, onions, cream) is unconventional with salmon but brilliant—its cool, silky, subtly sweet nature complements the rich fish
• Parsley Emulsion: Bright green, herbaceous, adding freshness and visual contrast
• Wasabi: Japanese influence providing gentle heat and nasal pungency that cuts the richness

Why It Works: This dish demonstrates cross-cultural fluency—Norwegian ingredient, Chinese technique, Spanish context, French and Japanese accompaniments. The textures range from silky salmon to bursting caviar to smooth vichyssoise to creamy emulsion. The colors are a painter’s palette: coral, black, ivory, emerald green. The reviewer’s “pure indulgence” assessment captures its decadent yet refined nature.

Foie Gras ‘A La Brasa’ (4/5) – $40

The Barbecued Approach: “A la brasa” indicates cooking over charcoal or open flame, which would give the foie gras (duck or goose liver fattened to buttery richness) a smoky char exterior while maintaining creamy interior.

The Soup Innovation: Presenting foie gras in burnt onion soup is conceptually interesting—perhaps inspired by French onion soup’s caramelized sweetness meeting liver’s richness. The sweet-and-sour endive provides bitter, crunchy contrast with its pale yellow-white leaves.

The Textural Concern: The reviewer noted the foie gras became “too soft” in the soup format. Foie gras’s appeal often lies in the contrast between seared crust and melting interior. Submerged in hot liquid, this contrast dissolves, leaving only unctuousness. This suggests the presentation, while creative, may sacrifice the ingredient’s best qualities.

Color Elements: Foie gras ranges from pale pink to beige; burnt onion soup would be deep mahogany brown; endive adds pale cream-green notes.

Paella – Mediterranean Seafood (3.5/5) – $56

The Lowest Score: This rating is particularly significant given paella’s status as a Spanish cuisine icon.

Traditional Standards: Authentic paella (specifically Valencian paella) requires:

• Bomba or Calasparra rice: Short-grain varieties that absorb liquid while maintaining structure
• Socarrat: The coveted golden-brown, slightly crispy rice layer at the bottom, developed through careful heat control
• Al punto texture: Rice should be tender but with slight resistance, never mushy or sticky

Amor’s Shortcomings:

1. Wet, Sticky Rice: This indicates excess liquid or insufficient evaporation time. Paella rice should be loose, separate grains, not clumpy or gummy. The texture issue suggests possible timing problems or incorrect rice-to-liquid ratio
2. Missing Socarrat: The absence of this crucial element means missing the toasted, almost nutty dimension that defines exceptional paella
3. Fishy Seabass: While fresh fish should taste oceanic, an overly “fishy” flavor suggests either lesser freshness or inappropriate fish selection for this application. Seabass can be delicate; if overcooked or if the skin/bones weren’t handled properly, off-flavors emerge

Seafood Components: The paella included seabass, squid, and shrimp—a reasonable Mediterranean selection. Ideally, squid should be tender (quick-cooked or long-braised), shrimp should be snappy, and fish should flake cleanly.

Visual Expectations: A proper paella presents a wide, shallow pan filled with golden-saffron rice, studded with pink shrimp, white squid rings, and ivory fish, garnished with lemon wedges and perhaps parsley. The visual impact is part of the experience.

Room for Improvement: At $56, this is a significant investment. The execution issues suggest this dish needs refinement—perhaps different rice, adjusted cooking technique, or seafood selection changes.

Signature Basque Burnt Cheesecake (4/5) – $16

The Basque Style: Originating from La Viña in San Sebastián, Basque cheesecake deliberately burns the top to create bitter-caramel notes while keeping the interior almost molten. Unlike New York cheesecake’s dense smoothness, this style is creamy, almost custard-like, with a burnt-sugar top ranging from deep amber to nearly black.

The Blue Cheese Innovation: Adding blue cheese is audacious. Blue cheese (Roquefort, Gorgonzola, Stilton) contains Penicillium cultures that create characteristic veining and pungent, tangy, sometimes ammonia-like flavors. It’s polarizing.

Execution Balance: The reviewer, initially skeptical, found it “surprisingly pretty good” because the blue cheese flavor remained mild, offering “smoky savouriness” rather than aggressive funk. This suggests careful proportion—enough to add complexity but not dominate.

Textural Profile: The cheesecake should be creamy, flowing slightly when cut, with a burnt top providing textural contrast through caramelized sugar’s brittleness.

Richness Overload: The inability to finish one slice between two people indicates significant richness—cream cheese, eggs, cream, plus blue cheese fat content. This is dessert as indulgence, not refreshment.

Color Notes: Expect pale ivory interior with blue-green veining, topped with dark brown to black burnt surface—dramatic visual contrast.

Hazelnut & Molten Lava Cake (4.5/5) – $18

The Enthusiastic Response: The dining companion’s “best dessert ever” declaration is high praise, though such superlatives should be contextualized within personal experience.

Technical Construction: Molten lava cakes require precise baking—underbaked centers remain liquid, creating the “flowing” effect when cut. This demands exact timing and temperature control. The hazelnut and almond praline (caramelized nuts ground to paste) creates nutty richness and subtle crunch from any praline pieces.

Temperature Contrast: Served “straight from the oven” ensures maximum flow from the molten center. Paired with coconut ice cream, you get hot/cold contrast—a classic technique that engages multiple sensory dimensions simultaneously.

Flavor Pairing: Hazelnut and coconut might seem unusual, but both offer rich, slightly sweet, fatty profiles. Coconut adds tropical brightness that prevents the cake from becoming cloying.

Textural Journey: Crisp exterior gives way to tender cake, which yields to flowing, intensely rich center. The ice cream melts into the warm cake, creating spontaneous sauce.

Visual Drama: When cut, the molten center flows out—always visually impressive and appetite-stimulating. The brown cake contrasts with white coconut ice cream.

Overall Assessment

Amor demonstrates strong technical foundations with particular excellence in seafood preparation (salmon, octopus) and creative reinterpretations of Spanish classics. The kitchen shows confidence in cross-cultural techniques (Chinese tea smoking, Japanese wasabi, French vichyssoise) while maintaining Spanish identity.

Strengths:

• Exceptional seafood execution
• Creative flavor combinations that work
• Vegetarian accommodations
• Strong opening menu with memorable standouts

Areas for Development:

• Paella execution needs refinement
• Some dishes may benefit from bread service coordination
• Creative presentations (foie gras in soup) require textural consideration

Value Proposition: The lunch set menu at $38++ (sharing tapas, main, dessert) offers excellent value for this quality level. Dinner pricing sits in the moderate-to-high range for Singapore tapas dining.

Delivery Options

Critical Note: The original review does not mention delivery options. Based on the restaurant’s positioning as an intimate, leisurely dining experience focused on shared plates and the unhurried rhythm of Barcelona-style dining, several factors suggest delivery may not be ideal or even available:

1. Dish Integrity: Many dishes depend on specific textures—crispy tart shells, flowing lava cakes, just-cooked prawns, proper paella texture—that deteriorate during transport
2. Shared Plates Philosophy: The tapas format is designed for communal dining with multiple small plates arriving at intervals, which doesn’t translate well to delivery
3. Technical Dishes: Items like the 65°C onsen egg, molten lava cake, and potato foam are time-sensitive and temperature-dependent
4. Ambience-Dependent Experience: The restaurant explicitly markets itself around the experience of lingering and sharing in their shophouse setting

Recommendation: Contact the restaurant directly at +65 89165607 or check their website/Instagram for current delivery and takeaway policies. If delivery is unavailable, the lunch set menu offers an economical dine-in option for experiencing Amor’s cuisine.

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Note: This review is based on an invited tasting, which may influence the dining experience and assessment. Opening hours: Mon-Sat 12pm-3pm, 6pm-12midnight (Closed Sunday). Nearest MRT: Telok Ayer (DT Line) or Tanjong Pagar (EW Line).