Dolada Italian Restaurant – London, UK: Located in London’s Mayfair area and recommended to us by the concierge at Brown’s Hotel (read our review of Brown’s Hotel here) which is located across the street, is the hip and trendy Dolada Italian Restaurant.

We were in London for the weekend and had plans to meet up with an old friend for dinner, so to be sure we were able to secure a table, as many of the best restaurants in London fill up early; we booked our table weeks in advance. However, when we arrived at 8:00 the restaurant was still quite empty. We wondered if this was a sign; maybe the restaurant wasn’t as good as we were lead to believe.

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The restaurant had a nice atmosphere, comfortable and relaxed, not too loud, nor pretentious; perfect for catching up with friends or a casual dinner out.

The menu was varied with nine starters and eleven main dishes, plus a couple specials for the night. The starters ranged from leek and potato cappuccino with crab biscuits, and a salad of mixed organic leaves with herbs and fruit, to lobster tortellini and “Dolada” soup with beans, barley and vegetables.

The main courses at Dolada included dishes like risotto alla Milanese with ox tail and red wine reduction, baked cod cooked Mediterranean style and roasted monk fish with broad beans, peas and light saffron sauce. Personally I would have liked to have seen a few more pasta dishes

Dolada’s wine menu had an impressive array of Italian wines and a nice allotment of wines available by the glass and the half-bottle as well.

After perusing the menu we placed our orders. For starters we had warm prawns and basil salad which ended up being plain and dull, eggplant and robiola (an Italian soft-ripened cheese) ravioli with fresh almond and tomatoes, again it was less than impressive; and lobster tortellini and consommé which ended being the best of the three starters. However, even the tortellini was not that impressive.

Our main dishes ended up being a bit better. I had the “new” spaghetti carbonara with a lightly poached egg gently places on top of the pasta. Our server mixed it into the pasta at the table. One friend had angel hair with Cromer crab, lobster and truffle juice, and my other friend had their special of the night, spaghetti with clam and garlic oil sauce.

My spaghetti carbonara was £16 and was quite a small portion. It had very little flavor and tasted no better than similar dishes I’ve had at small Italian cafés in Rome and Florence. My friends’ angel hair dish and spaghetti dish left them just as disappointed, especially the angel hair pasta. At £22 (about $32) it was a small portion with no real redeeming qualities.

For dessert and because the main did not do much to make us feel fulfilled, we ordered the Ergemont apple tart with pistachio ice cream. We had high hopes for the tart but when it made it to our table, we all let out a sigh of disappointment. It was large enough for three of us to share, but it was flat, with just a thin layer of fruit and it was partially overcooked to the point parts of it were burnt. This definitely was not an impressive end to our dinner at Dolada.

Luckily (for us), the restaurant never filled up so the noise level was never too loud and service throughout our dinner at Dolada was attentive without ever making us feel rushed.

While we had a nice evening, it was more to do with old friends catching up and not much to do with the food. The prices were on the high side but that seems to be the case in most of the upscale restaurants in London, especially those in the Mayfair area.

While it may be one of the good Itlalian restaurants in London, it is not one of the top Italian restaurants in London. Our rating for Dolada is between bombastic and not.

What I liked: The service was attentive.

What I didn’t like: The fact that none of our dishes swept any of us off our feet.

Restaurant Rating for Dolada Restaurant in London: Between bombastic and not.

Dolada Restaurant Address and Telephone Number:
13 Albemarle Street
London W1S 4HJ
Telephone: 0207 409.1011
Website: href="http://www.dolada.co.uk" target="_blank www.dolada.co.uk

If you are looking for the best Italian Restaurants in London I suggest:
Scalini Italian Restaurant
Cecconi’s Italian Restaurant

If you are looking for a upscale but casual restaurant to enjoy with a friends, I recommend:
Le Petite Maison

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