Dolce Vita serves amazing Italian food despite its limited and expensive selection. The cold cut tasting platter with sundried tomato, olive and arugula was a surprisingly balanced dish. If they offered a charcuterie plate with cheese and fruits, I think we have a winner.

The starting sourdough bread has a good tang but otherwise a little stale. The tenderloin with truffle is easily the star of the night. It tastes surprisingly beefy thanks to the red wine jus. The side of mushrooms looks like cute tiny huts fenced by strips of cured meat. The black truffle shavings did have a weird nuance of chlorine (reminds me of the pool) that probably didn’t add much to the dish, but overall, the dish is excellent. The deconstructed tiramisu served as dessert was good, though it did lack a strong coffee/liquor element. We received a complimentary red velvet cake for our anniversary that tasted dry and heavy. Nevertheless, I enjoyed dinner.

I should add that we were there to experience the Italian summer staycation package from Mandarin Oriental and it comes with two complimentary dishes from the poolside menu. The bolognese spaghetti was perfect in every way; the noodles had an incredibly toothsome bite; the meat sauce coated each strand of noodle sufficiently and tasted like how la Nonna would have done it – meaty and not too tomatoey. The Thai beef salad was also excellent due to the tender beef strips (beef on salad usually taste tough and overcooked) and sweet cherry tomatoes. To think I would be impressed by humble dishes from a poolside menu…