My husband and I are simple when it comes to dining out. However, we have several guidelines for restaurants to ensure our return visit: good food, great value for money, a place quiet enough to have an intimate conversation and excellent service with a smile. But on our first anniversary, we decided to go the extra mile and have a fancy dinner date experience, and we were pleased to have gotten all four things when we dined at Porto Bello, the new Italian Restaurant at the Grand Millennium Al Wahda Hotel.
We arrived at the restaurant a few minutes early for our reservation, but the hostess readily welcomed us and ushered us to our table. The hostess explained that she chose that particular spot for us so that we could see the violinist and pianist as they perform. The waiter assigned to us was courteous and polite as he explained the menu and took our orders. We were hungry so we went straight to the main course, which were the Costolette and the Parpadelle Porto Bello.
The restaurant had the makings of a perfect dinner date setting; the soft lighting, the plush neutral and burgundy chairs, beautiful table set-up and live music displayed understated elegance. It was like a scene taken out of a romantic movie. The violinist even came near our table as she played a love song and congratulated us on our milestone.
First, we were served a basket of warm bread and sundried tomatoes dip, which were already filling enough to satisfy our hunger. We were then treated to a little sample of gnocchi, compliments of the chef and although spinach was the only ingredient we can make of it (we are not sophisticated eaters), it was indeed appetizing. Our main course and drinks arrived after a few minutes. Hubby’s Costolette (lamb chops) was perfect; there was none of the lamb’s distinctive odor that some people couldn’t stand, and it was beautifully plated with asparagus tips, mushrooms and caper sauce. I had the Parpadelle Porto Bello, which was good except that the rocket sauce was a little bitter for my taste (I didn’t know it had vegetables, my bad). Nevertheless, the pasta was cooked exactly how I wanted it to be - al dente. The scallops were tasty and the sauce has a lemon, garlic taste that I liked.
The dinner was almost perfect, except that the waiter forgot to serve the lemonade that my husband ordered and the cake that was supposed to be served after dinner as a surprise to my hubby. But we were already full anyway, so I didn’t bother to ask the staff about it and just skipped dessert.
My husband and I noticed that the place wasn’t very busy on a Saturday night, with only two batches of guests arriving after us. We wondered why, considering that the food was delicious and the prices were surprisingly cheap. We paid less than 300 dirhams for our food, including the service and tourism fee.
We left the restaurant very satisfied and with the staff not forgetting to greet us a happy anniversary. That sealed the deal for us; we would definitely come back. And although we couldn’t remember the exact words and pronunciation of what we ate, only one word captures the whole experience of dining at Porto Bello: è bellissimo!
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