Review: DOMVS

DOMVS at Sheraton Towers has been around for a very long time, yet I've never had a meal there. Finally, after my mother had had an enjoyable lunch there, we decided to have a family lunch at the venerable restaurant one Sunday afternoon.


Notwithstanding the grandeur of its entrance, the price of the set lunch is decent, considering the generosity of the serving sizes. A two course set lunch is $29, while a three course set lunch will cost you $35.


On a Sunday, the restaurant is unnervingly empty, but presumably it fills up a bit more during the course of the week. Heavy drapes cut you off from the hotel lobby, preserving a personal space that soothingly allows you to enjoy the quiet company of your dining companions, insulated from the hustle and bustle of city life. The only jarring inconsistency is that the waitresses are somewhat ill-equipped for their jobs, as they can be difficult to understand and are not as at ease with the contents of the menu as they should be.


Apart from being generously portioned, the set lunch menu is also exceedingly expansive: each course offers you a selection of four or five different options, so you're pretty much spoilt for choice. Speaking of the generous portions, the parma ham with melon was a magnificent affair: it looked like a cascading waterfall of cured meat, and if anything, there was probably not enough melon to go around.


The tuna salad was a magnificent affair: a towering mound of tuna topped a bed of crisp lettuce leaves, surrounded by a moat of hard-boiled eggs.


The bruschetta was very good: the bread was not the typical toasted crostini, but resembled a slice of sourdough Poilane bread. The tomato concasse was fresh and sweet, though the restaurant could have been more generous with the basil, and the bruschetta could have benefitted from a little balsamic vinegar to give it a hint of sharpness.


I always enjoy mushroom risotto, but there was a slight difference of opinion concerning the one at DOMVS: I thought the rice grains were undercooked, whereas my sister felt they were exactly al dente. No complaints about flavour, though; the risotto was packed with earthy, mushroomy goodness.


DOMVS does good pastas, as you'd expect: my sister was happily tucking into her duck pappardelle, which was meaty and robust.


The set lunch is not all pastas, though, if you have a slightly heartier appetite, you might opt for something more substantial, like the beef cheek that's been braised to melting, silky tenderness.


Alternatively, there's a crayfish cappellini, which comes with two generously-sized crayfish, the fresh crustaceans split into halves for your convenient consumption.


The dessert for the day was a mango charlotte with a berry sorbet. This was a surprisingly enjoyable dessert, despite the fact that I don't usually like fruity cakes. The mango charlotte was light and fluffy, with a zesty flavour from the mango cream, which was matched by the refreshing, tangy, sweet-sour sorbet.


The cream component of the panna cotta was actually pretty decent, if a little firm, and presentation of the dessert was fairly spectacular, but this was marred by the strawberry syrup that had been liberally doused over the panna cotta, and which tasted somewhat metallic. The fresh berries were a nice touch, though.


Lunch also comes with complimentary petit fours, if you can still manage an appetite by this point.

DOMVS offers a generous set lunch at a fairly affordable price, with food that is of high quality and will leave you both satisfied and satiated. The restaurant is also a fairly private affair, creating an overall ambience that is alluring, classy yet understated. One of the more underrated restaurants in town, DOMVS is definitely worth a reservation.

DOMVS
Lobby, Sheraton Towers Singapore
39 Scotts Road
Tel: +65 6737 6888
Website