Purple Taste: Communal: Diner.Bar.New American Restaurant @ North Canal Road

Located at the short row of shophouses along North Canal Road. Nearest MRT station is Clarke Quay and North Canal Road is supposed to be opposite of the station. My non-sense of direction has been proven, once again. Was at Clarke Quay station, followed the signs inside the station to North Canal Road but couldn't find North Canal but saw South Bridge, Upper Pickering Street and somehow still ended up at China Square. Gosh!

There's a valet parking just outside of Communal. Otherwise, pretty hard to find a lot if you're there around 8+pm. We had prior reservations, so got a table for 7 pax with ease.

entrance to Communal

table, overlooking the streets outside

shall we have one of each main course?

Happy Hour offers one-for-one Stella. Why not?

beer

For starters, we had the Communal Chicken Wings (@$12+). Simple fried wings, crunchy batter and still juicy on the insides. Served piping hot.

Communal Chicken Wings with Bourbon BBQ sauce

Also ordered various sides to try. All sides are priced at $6+.

Cornbread with Honey Butter

cornbread

Liked the cornbread very much. Crescent shaped and its outsides has a bit of crunch, plus it was savoury sweet. Goes well with the honey butter. Think I ate most of it! But they're so tiny. So tiny.

Parmesan and Parsley French Fries

salted and ready to eat

Very strong parmesan cheese smell, and the fries are pretty heavily salted. Washed it down with beer.

Mac and Cheese

The macaronis looked good, with cheese sprinkled ontop but all these were sitting in a shallow pool of watery cream/milk/cheese. Scooped some using the fork, accidentally dropped a few of onto the plate and had tiny sploshes of white sauce on my shirt. Hahaa! Should request for a spoon to eat the mac & cheese with. I think it's a must-have utensil. Not a fork, definitely not a fork.

Had the Smoked Potato Puree, and it was smooth and easy to eat. Like baby food but much smoother.

Now for the mains. Read rave reviews for fried chicken, so we ordered two portions to share. Each portion has two pieces; drumstick and breast meat. This tasted similar to the batter as the chicken wings. The jus oozed out of the chicken as soon as the knife cuts into the it. But for drumsticks, the best way was to eat it by hand. Yums. Ratte potatoes were nicely flavoured and cooked just right.

Fried Chicken (@$18+) with crushed ratte potatoes

firm meat, not too dry

Next, had the Boston Lobster Mac & Cheese (@$22+).

Boston Lobster Mac & Cheese

parmesan, gruyere, white cheddar cheese, toasted bread crumbs

The texture of the Boston lobster was incredible. How is it that the meat can be so firm, yet bouncy and tasty? Very nice. The toasted crumbs really gave this dish an added distinction. Enjoyable, overall.

Next up, Pan Seared Barramundi (@$25+). The fish here was done lightly, soft flesh with mild, pleasant taste. The skin was rather salty but bursting with flavours that I liked.

Pan Seared Barramundi, peas, carrots, swiss chard, saffron-mussel jus

loved the skin

My friend ordered a sandwich. But why have sandwich, when we have meat?

BBQ Chicken Sandwich (@$12+)

And now, presenting to you, one of the best dish for the night..*insert drum roll here* The Braised Beef Cheek! *insert confettis falling*

Braised Beef Cheek with smoked potato puree, asparagus

closer view

Strong flavours, well braised meaty beef cheeks and crunchy greens contrasted against soft potato puree enhanced by the sauce. Must try, if you're a beef cheek lover. Truth to be told, I wished there was more meat. But it's ok, we savoured and enjoyed each and every bite of this!

Chef seemed to be quite liberal with the salt that night, but hey, iced water is served freely. Or, have that one-for-one Stella if you're not driving.