Our first night we ate at Verdello which is Nickelodeon's Italian restaurant. At most other all inclusives, the Italian is low on my priority list to try since I find their offerings are mostly generic pastas and other entrees. Wow was I surprised. It was one of the best Italian meals I have ever had. Only surpassed by a meal I actually had in Narano Italy back in 2016. That will have to be a blog for another day.
Here is part of the menu.
We started off with a well baked, crispy focaccia with pepperoni. The fresh grated parmesan cheese was a great addition if you wanted a bit more salt.
Let the appetizers begin!! The standout dish was a tuna carpaccio. Such delicate, thin sliced tuna that melted in your mouth. Simply seasoned with arugula, olive oil, black pepper and sauteed shallots. The server accidentally brought out an extra plate of this to our table. What would you have done? We of course felt the kitchen was using us as testing to confirm the consistency. We couldn't let them down. That serving was just as excellent. It was only a few years ago that the sourcing at Mexican, Jamaican and Dominican Republic all inclusives (and probably all of the island restaurants) was not reliable. Somehow, they are now able to source some really great ingredients. And it showed with this dish.
Next up was arancini (also known as fried risotto balls). These were well fried and I appreciated that they were still moist. I have had so many of these where they use to many breadcrumbs or eggs and the balls are crumbly and dry. Not in this case. What I didn't like so much was the red sauce which tasted like the can I assume it came from only a few minutes before. The sauce was unnecessary in this case but would have been greatly improved if it had been warmed up, had a sprinkle of oregano and salt then finished with some minced basil.
We next tried the burrata. This is not found on many Italian menus I have seen in the United States so was excited to try it here. If you haven't had it, I would describe it as if camembert and mozzarella had a child. True burrata has a soft shell exterior wrapped around a buttery cheese texture in the middle. When cut it should ooze - like the middle of a well cooked flourless chocolate lava cake. This burrata didn't live up to what I was hoping for. While it had good taste, it was more like a standard buffalo mozzarella just slightly softer. Not a bad dish under a different name - but not a burrata.
Next up was my second favorite dish which was a beef carpaccio. As with the tuna, this was thin sliced goodness on a plate simply garnished with delicate pieces of parmesan cheese, arugula, black pepper and sea salt. It also melted in your mouth like the tuna. Sadly there was not an accidental delivery of an extra plate of this to our table.
I am very adventurous when dining and always looking to try something new. But if I have a staple "go to" menu item which I will always order it is mushroom soup. I just love a great preparation of any mushroom - soup or otherwise. They can have a meaty flavor without meat. And in a broth, that flavor seems to get extenuated. Needs little else except butter and time. This was a very good rendition of a mushroom soup. I liked the addition of the rosemary sprig since the warm broth brought out some of that rosemary aroma when it hit the table. The soup itself didn't have any rosemary in it so I at first thought it was a strange addition. But it was a brilliant move by the chef.
The first entree we tried was the seafood risotto. Go on the internet and there will be many chefs telling you what makes the best risotto. Should it slide across the plate, as says Chef Tom Collichio? Do you have to stir it on a stove constantly for hours? Or can it be made in a pressure cooker using some recipe's from Oprah's chef Art Smith? Do you have to use Arborio rice? I don't claim to know about any of those things. Bring me risotto thick or thin. Pan cooked or baked. I only look for flavor and doneness of the rice. If those two things are spot on, then it is a good risotto. And this one was delicious. They had used a bright seafood broth to make it and then added in perfectly cooked shrimp and scallops. The rice was still had a toothy bite which I like. Chef Tom would not have liked that it would have held up to the Blizzard test at your local Dairy Queen. But to me, it met my expectations of a good risotto.
Next was a seared tuna steak with sesame crust and thermidor sauce. This brings me back to how the sourcing of ingredients is so important and is one of the biggest changes all inclusives have made to have their restaurants be as close as possible to something you would find in your local town. The tuna was of exceptional restaurant quality. Cooked perfectly rare and simply seasoned with some salt. The sauce while good, was not really necessary and would have been better if it was drizzled onto the potatoes which were under seasoned. At this point in the meal I also took note of all the fresh herbs being used. I think on our dishes alone must have been at least one bunch of rosemary and 10 leaves of basil. I will have to do more investigation on where they source the herbs. Are they growing them since shipping all these herbs would seem to be problematic.
"First" breakfast was a stop at Doppio the coffee shop. They made these great tasting donuts. Somewhere between a raised and plain donut and iced with a thin glaze. Delicious with the double espresso I had. And the picture isn't a whole order. ;-) I promise I only had one.
Proper breakfast was at the buffet restaurant Sugarcane. What you will find at most all inclusives in DR and Mexico is they have access to terrific fruit. I love mango but it is one of the hardest fruits to cut. You always feel like you are wasting it since the large pit gets in the way. Somehow, the prep chefs at these resorts have mastered the art of slicing mangos - or it feels that way. It is the best mango you will ever have. Juicy and slightly tart, perfect with the vanilla yogurt. I also made my version of a McGriddle. It is a waffle with bacon and over easy eggs. Runny eggs make anything better. I might consider eating parsnip if it had a runny egg on it.
Lunch unexpectedly started at the pool. We had a great pool waiter Orlando who saw us getting some chairs and asked if we wanted a pizza. Well, can you really say no to someone who will get you a pizza? No - you can't. Was it the greatest pizza I have ever eaten? No. Needed some help with the crust which was a bit soggy. But this is one of those moments where you have to make sure you have your situational taste buds at the ready. You are at the pool. With a great view. A waiter was gracious enough to ask you if you wanted a pizza. It was amazing.
Second lunch was at Fresca which is a restaurant next to the second swim up bar.
We had just had the pizza so we didn't need much more for lunch, We order crispy noodle asian salad, beef tacos and miraflores ceviche. The tacos were my favorite. Well seasoned beef (I think it was flank steak which always has great flavor) and an asian slaw. The sweet chili sauce served as the dressing for the cole slaw since it was naked.
Lots of fresh fish in the ceviche which I loved. There was simply too much lime juice so any fresh fish flavor was lost. And the more you ate, the more acid you got.
My least favorite was the asian slaw. I loved the fresh, crispy veggies but the asian flavor was not as pronounced as I would like.
And did I mention they make great passion fruit mojitos? I never order a mojito but these looked so good and were delicious. Passion fruit is usually on the tart side. I don't like sweet drinks (unless an Old Fashioned counts!!). So the passion fruit really toned down the sweetness.
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We had lunch the last day at BRGRSPH which is their burger bar. It is set up like a food truck but is inside and air conditioned. You have to believe me - even though I have not a single picture of them - the burgers were outstanding!! Well seasoned and cooked to order (you can get medium rare if you want!!).
We did manage to try a few appetizers as well. A very nicely prepared wedge salad. Would have been better with blue cheese (aren't most things?) but I liked the ranch they used. Crunchy bacon on the top.
A trio of beef tacos. The green chili salsa was quite excellent with great balance of acid and heat. Loved the presentation of the guacamole.
They serve the fries in little shopping baskets!! And they were crispy and hot when they came on the table. I so wanted to take one of these baskets home. How great to use these at home for serving almost anything.
I tried two desserts. Both were decent but needed some help. The cheese cake sundae had great presentation in that fun cone. Had nice pieces of soft cheesecake and crispy meringue. Loved that part. They were on a large bed of vanilla cookie crumbs - way to many to be edible. I didn't care for either the chocolate or berry sauces. Would have liked some kind of fresh berries in a sugar syrup. I know they had raspberries on the buffet so it could happen. I only ordered the apple fries since they came with a side of cheddar cheese ice cream. Now who has ever heard of that? Well, I hope we start hearing more about it. Growing up as a kid, my mother always served sharp white cheddar cheese with apple pie and I loved it. As I grew up to adulthood, I learned not many people had ever heard of this. So how great to see the chef had paired these together. A flashback to childhood!! While the apple fries were a bushel or two from having enough apple flavor, the cheddar ice cream was so good!! It was a mild vanilla ice cream with grated cheddar mixed in. Perhaps not great by itself, but terrific as a complement to apples.
Our last dinner was at the asian restaurant Wok Wok. It started with a very creative and tasty presentation of sushi. My favorite was the spicy tuna. There was also a mango and salmon. Not pictured was a great seared tuna that had oyster sauce. We ordered more of that.
Seafood stir fry which I thought had great flavor. Reminded me a bit of the great risotto I had at the Italian restaurant on the first night.
The chicken pad thai was my least favorite. I guess they really like fish sauce in their interpretation since that is all you could taste. No peanut, thai chili or chicken flavors. If that is the chef's choice to use that much fish sauce, I think this item will be returned mostly uneaten most nights.
The evening ended with a great presentation of small desserts. The white truffles were really good. The others were also quite good although none of them were inspired by asian flavors. I would have greatly preferred a dish of ginger or green tea ice cream.
TOP TIPS:
1. Favorite restaurant was the BRGRSPH bar. It shouldn't be hard to make a great burger but so many placed fail. They know how to do it here. We were lucky since they opened it one day for lunch since they had closed the beach restaurants due to Hurricane Dorian. It is normally only a dinner place. Ask when you check in what the hours are.
2. In hindsight I would have tried to have a progressive dinner. You could start with some sushi at Wok Wok. I don't think their entrees are great so can be skipped. Then jump to Verdello for either of the carpaccios (or both!!) at Verdello. Then pick a risotto. If you are a meat eater, the server highly recommended one of the steak dishes. We didn't order that since we thought we already had enough with the other items.
3. With the hurricane pending, they cancelled the characters breakfast they have. I would recommend you do that one day. Check the schedule for the days.
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