For Mother’s Day the chosen location was Habibi-San for I knew our empress dowager, who loves tapas after our brief travel experience in Barcelona, would also love these Middle Eastern-Japanese fusion small and big plates concept.

The family easily declared that this was one of the best meals we’ve had in SG so far for 2021. Warranted that it has only been half a year but that stunning iberico main would be hard to contend against. One bite and I commented “I’ve haven’t had such good iberico pork in a very long time”.

Declaring the main show first shouldn’t discount the fun delicious array of small plates that you’d need rounds (emphasis on the plural) of pita for.

We shared the babagnosh, chickpea hummus, Mentaiko taramasalata, burrata and Brussels sprout. Each spectacular in its own right and something home-cooks can forget about recreating. Im specially mentioning the Brussels sprout as I had a benchmark version from Nassim Hill Bistro; when I thought this greens couldn’t be done any better Habibi-san’s version surprises with Japanese elements like kinnogomadre and bonito.

Concluding - a meal at Habibi-San felt paradoxically rustic yet grandiose; don’t let the casual setting fool you for the food here was real fine.