La Dolce Vita

Scoop and The Nerd readily informed me that the new proprietor of La Dolce Vita restaurant in the music square in Corralejo, the very charismatic Jason, derived from the East End of London, had placed an advertisement in Fuertenews and had specifically requested that he go on my Den of Jeniquity restaurant review page. I thought that this in itself warranted a visit although I would have gone anyway purely as he is now the token British business owner in the music square – a feat in itself, I thought. The restaurant lies next door to the restaurant Caracoles and there are a number of outside tables in the square itself immediately overlooking the stage – a prime site. I tend not to normally eat in the music square as it´s so busy with the tourist trade but it does in fact provide an extremely enjoyable evening´s entertainment and the atmosphere is buzzy and fun. The evening I visited there was a Spanish couple performing – with the girl singing excellent renditions of British hits with the man playing the electric organ.

Jason has been rewriting the menu and the new version comes out in a week or so´s time. The main addition to the menu is the sizzling dishes which are similar to Mexican fajitas. I had a look at the menu anyway which provides steaks, pastas, pizzas, fish and seafood and flambé dishes but opted for one steak and one prawn fajitas. We ordered some garlic bread to start as well as normal bread with, what Jason promised, was the “best alioli on the island” – another alioli connoisseur, apart from myself, I thought. His promise held up and indeed the alioli was thick, creamy and included chopped parsley – very nice. The fajitas are accompanied by a very generous helping of both homemade guacamole and homemade tomato salsa which, if you didn´t like garlic, would have proved completely inedible! Obviously, no problem in my case. They really were not for the fainthearted and would definitely keep vampires away! With each dish we were provided with two enormous fajita pancakes (about double the size of the Mexican style ones) and the two sizzling dishes arrived, yes sizzling, and full of succulent juices with finely sliced onions, peppers and more garlic. The prawns were enormous with their shells removed. The meal was extremely filling and you definitely could not leave hungry. We had an half bottle of (yes) Viña Sol and some agua sin gas with our meal and could not even contemplate a dessert.

While we were dining some neighbouring customers had the mixed kebab which arrived hanging on a large skewer from a cast iron frame served with rice, chips and vegetables and some other people were served two excellent looking fillet steaks served with either Roquefort cheese or pepper sauce, “Diana” style or with onions. The chicken curry is reported to be extremely good and the large selection of no less than 28 pizzas encompass a huge variety of combinations, for example the Pizza Dolce Vita with tomato, mozzarella, cream, nuts and smoked salmon or the Calzone Pizzaiolo with tomato, mozzarella, emmental, mushrooms, bacon, asparagus and olives.

The specialities of the house (on the present menu) are Lamb Shoulder, Escalope Dolce Vita, Fish Kebab with King Prawns and Vegetables, Sole with Prawns and Mushrooms and Salmon in Champagne (I didn´t notice this one previously and would be tempted to try that another time).

Jason is presently redesigning the interior of the restaurant and will be opening it up as a 50´s, 60´s and 70´s music and autograph bar (customers are invited to sign the visitor´s book). He felt that the music square itself lacked a late night British bar, as all there is Bar Rumba which caters more for a Spanish clientele with salsa and rumba music. He will be providing all types of British music and will, I believe, have TV screens for music videos and football coverage.

His manager, Dragon – a very experienced chef of nine years from Bosnia - is his right-hand man as well as the head chef and his PR is the very likeable Eric who many people might recognise from a few years ago when he lived here before a brief sojourn away where he has acquired a partner and child!

Jason´s confidence and enthusiasm as to his future plans for the bar and restaurant definitely rub off on you and I believe he will become an integral part to the music square providing something different to the British clientele other than the typical Canarian (albeit extremely good) food available at present.