Dolce Vita, located by the poolside of Singapore's Mandarin Oriental, offers stunning views of the city's skyline and Marina Bay. However, its best feature is the authentic Mediterranean, Spanish and Italian cuisine presented with a contemporary touch put together by award-winning Italian Chef Marco Pedrelli.
Dolce Vita has won awards such as Singapore's Top Restaurant by Wine and Dine and Singapore Tatler's Best Restaurant in 2007 and 2008.
I personally like Dolce Vita for its intimate ambiance. Tucked away in a quiet corner on the fifth floor of the hotel, it is accessible from the pool. By night, the place is transformed into an oasis of peace and tranquility. That is why I chose to spend our wedding anniversary here.
The restaurant offers a 6-course degustation menu for $110 per person not including taxes and service charges. Do not be put off by the foreign sounding names that the Chef has given to the various courses, the Maitre D' will be at hand to explain what and how each item is prepared.
We started our
repasse with appetisers - French Atlantic Oysters for my darling wife and Asparagus with Wild Mushrooms for me. French Atlantic Oysters, particularly those cultivated around the estuary of the Loire River, have reached a certain level of refinement and are famous for their excellent taste and texture. They are generally more expensive since only a selected few are cultivated per square metre thereby allowing them to fatten in a rather non-competitive and clean, disease-free environment. No one can dispute that these oysters, no matter how simply served, are among the very best in the world.
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| Asparagus with wild mushrooms |
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| French Atlantic oysters |
Soup followed the appetizers. Being a seafood
aficionado, she naturally settled for Lobster Bisque while I opted for the Zucchini Flower soup since it is not everyday that we get these flowers in Singapore. Zucchini flower is the quintessential Italian flower used in cookery and they are best picked in the summer months when they are most flavourful. Both the soups were very light without leaving any aftertaste of creamy richness. We didn't feel
jelak after finishing the soup
.
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| Lobster bisque |
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| Zucchini flower soup |
Our main course consisted of Seared Monkfish, Moroccan Lamb with fennel stewed in a Tajim and Suckling Pig served with Wild Mushrooms and Apricot chutney.
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| Seared monkfish |
The monkfish far surpassed even the mahi-mahi darling wife had at Daniel Boulud's DB Bistro Moderne in New York City. While it is one of the most bizzare looking of all Atlantic fishes, its meat is amazingly fine and delicate. Food-lovers know that the secret to successful monkfish cookery is to avoid overcooking. The Chef had taken great care to char the fish only lightly on the outside leaving its white meat slightly undercooked to keep it moist and tender on the inside. The combination of greens, seasoning and potato gave the fish a completeness of taste rarely achieved.
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| Moroccan Lamb with Fennel |
I was overwhelmed with joy to find Moroccan Lamb on the menu. Of all the meats, lamb is my favourite, especially when it is 'milk-fed'. For this dish, Dolce Vita uses only the choicest 'milk-fed' lamb - lamb that is fed exclusively on its mother's own milk. The flavour of such lambs, normally not more than 6 weeks old when slaughtered, are believed to be finer than older lambs. These young lambs are highly prized in certain parts of Europe during Easter when they are used for spit-roasting.
While I have eaten some of the best lamb dishes in Europe, I have thus far, found only one place in Asia that prepares it well (and that has to be Crepes & Co in Bangkok). At Dolce Vita, the pieces of lamb were rendered so soft and tender, it almost melted in my mouth. The sauce was thick and robust with the fragrance of fats from the lamb, sweetness of dates and figs and pungentness of fennel.
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| Suckling pig with wild mushrooms and apricot chutney |
The Chef has ingeniously compressed deboned pieces of meat from the roasted suckling pig into a square patty topped with sweetened apricot chutney. Most of the fats had been removed - a healthy approach to eating suckling pig. The sweetness of the chutney complemented the delicate texture of the pork
fillet which was baked until crispy on the outside.
All the 3 main courses were so good, it was impossible for us to decide which was the best dish. At the end, we had to conclude that they were all equally good.
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| Trio of mousse |
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| Coconut ice cream with pineapple jelly |
Although the dessert were not as elaborate in its presentation as the rest of the meal, it was delightful to the taste. My trio of strawberry, apricot and melon mousse was to die for. Darling wife's pineapple jelly with coconut ice cream was simply out of this world!
And because it was our wedding anniversary, the Chef presented us with a special gift - a chocolate mousse large enough to feed a party of ten.
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| Compliments of the Chef - chocolate mousse cake |
Dolce Vita
Poolside, Level 5
The Mandarin Oriental
56 Raffles Avenue
Ambiance: 8/10
Service: 8.5/10
Food: 8.5/10
Pricing: $$$$$
Recommended Dishes: Suckling Pig, Grilled Monkfish, Moroccan Lamb, French Atlantic Oysters, Zuchinni Flower Soup
Chendol is a popular dessert in Melaka. You find chendol stalls all over town, at almost every street corner. Among them, Chendol House 88 stands out as being one of the better ones.
