Housed on the 5th floor of Mandarin
Oriental by the poolside is Dolce Vita – an Italian restaurant helmed by
a chef whose accolades include Michelin-starred restaurants around the
world. Dolce Vita is great for romantic dates,
not quite conducive for noisy gatherings like ours since we were
intruding into the tranquil ambience created half the time.
I find joy in noticing details on the table before every meal starts.
Table flowers.
Rest of the large restaurant.
Bread basket was purportedly made from scratch –
took quite a while before they could be served. The accompanying sauces
were awesome! More so than the carbs themselves which were over baked or
just right.
Loved the tomato paste best –
laced with a tinge of spice, a great seasoning!
Amuse bouche of chicken roll, so very ordinary in the sticky sauce.
Tartare of grain-fed Angus beef tenderloin with potato nest and poached quail egg
Visually pleasing with novelties like a nest
created from potatoes or the mashed egg trail leading to the rudy red
looking beef tartare. I possibly cannot tell the difference between
sirloin or tenderloin used for the tartate but it was
tasty and that was good enough.
Raw, marinated beef of grain-fed Australian tenderloin with pickled shimeji mushrooms, truffle vinaigrette and arugula cress
Drawn to the shimeiji mushrooms, the thin slices were easy to love especially with all the light flavours thrown in.
Traditional Apulia burrata mozzarella cheese, served with heirloom tomatoes, Ardoino olive oil and baby rocket salad
A beautifully presented burrata mozzarella cheese
package – just like a parcel. Tasteless to most but I found the bland
taste acceptable with the creamy finish. Not too outstanding in terms of
flavour though but it grows on you.
Terrible lighting but the artwork before the broth was drizzled.
Lobster bisque with seared Hokkaido scallop and basil pesto
Atypical item on the
menu for pomp and fuss, plate served with colourful bits first before
the bowl is set alive with the broth. Full bodied lobster bisque with a
bouncy yet overcooked scallop. Rich flavours
that brought this soup to a victorious home run but a second order of
it brought it from cloud 9 to ground zero almost instantly. First, the
sous chef was tasked to cook the soup instead of the executive chef
which they obviously tweaked the recipe and served
up mushroom soup instead of lobster bisque. Secondly, the attempt by
the executive chef subsequently failed to reach the highs that the first
serving brought.
Medley of oxtail-foie gras cannelloni, spinach-ricotta tortellini and crab-leek ravioli
Two of each pasta
dish and the cannelloni was the most appetizing but the oxtail-foie gras
stuffing was hardly what was described. Tasted just like pulled pork.
The rest were more than forgettable and tragically
a letdown for an Italian establishment. Pasta was hard and stuffing
mostly bland. We resorted to a dash of Tabasco and a swipe of tomato
spread for flavour.
Homemade linguine with king prawns, finest selection of seafood, Italian parsley and garlic-olive oil glaze
This was just so average – bland once again and
hardly impressive. Seafood aside, this would have been possible for an
amateur home chef. Disappointing is the least to say about this.
Service glitches were one too many which resulted
in forgotten, wrong and delayed orders. I appreciate the service
recovery efforts of the team at Dolce Vita for trying – a dessert each
to make up for the subpar experience.
Lychee Sorbet
Served as a palette cleanser in between the delayed course. I was blown away by the rich yet not cloying flavours of lychee.
Slow poached white peach with Riesling wine, raspberry cream and Tahitian vanilla ice cream
In essence peach
jelly which was sweet and filled generously with peach chunks. I’m
through and through a peach fan and found love in this.
Italian ricotta cheese cake with lemon confit, blood orange sorbet and jellified mint
Soggy and soaked
through, I wonder how long they left the dessert to set. The wonderful
part about this was the blood orange sorbet – refreshing and literally
made of blood orange concentrate.
Slow baked golden apple with puff pastry, calvados ice cream and Tahitian vanilla sauce
Hardly slow baked in
my opinion if what presented was just pureed apples on top a dense puff
pastry. Calvados icecream was a brainfreeze, nearly and the rest of it
meh-morable.
Caramelized Tahitian vanilla creme brulee with morello cherry confit
Looked the best of
the lot with a beautifully caramelized sugary layer but the crème brulee
was clearly undercooked – totally liquid.
Dark chocolate bar with chocolate sorbet, caramelized orange zest, milk pudding and orange compote
Decent of the lot, the most decent in fact. Layers were not complex but complementary at least.
Classic Italian tiramisu with fresh mascarpone cheese and savoiardi
Too soggy despite the promising outlook.
Chocolate Fudge
For the birthday girl, this soggy chocolate fudge was hardly divine.
The pacing of the
meal was bad, intervals between courses were too long as much as I wish
for conversation to fill the gaps comfortably. Subpar food despite the
kind gestures displayed by the support staff.
A great pity infact since they have the makings of a fine dining
establishment right down to service but the quality of food is hugely
lacking.
Dolce Vita
Mandarin Oriental, 5th Floor
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