Hit and Miss at Dulcinea

Before anything else, let me first enthrall you all with a short story. My grandmother is a very snooty cook. She was very particular with all the ingredients, as in EVERYTHING! But she gets snootier than ever especially when it comes to cooking Spanish delicacies. Her father and grandmother were pure Spanish so she grew up eating AUTHENTIC Spanish food. And when we (her precious grandkids) came into the picture, we were able to have authentic Spanish food at home. We'd have lengua, caldereta and callos for lunch and dinner like it was the easiest thing to whip up in a kitchen.

And so this leads me to say that when my Mother and I decided to eat Spanish food at Dulcinea, all I could say was I was really disappointed. Can't really blame them for being not so spot on with their Spanish fare. But if they promote their restaurant as a place to have a feel of Espanya, well they better do a much better job.

Mom and I ordered the usual Spanish dishes. Mom's very fond of callos (she makes great callos by the way), so she ordered one for herself.

Number one, when you say you have callos on your menu and it states it has twalya (ox tripe) MAKE SURE IT ACTUALLY HAS OX TRIPE. It had like 2 pieces of ox tripe, and that is like THE essence of a callos dish.

Number two, use real tomato sauce base. I get how we Filipinos LOVE and would actually die for sweet stuff in everything that we eat. But since this is supposedly a touch of Espanya, it's not really supposed to be that way. The callos tasted like spaghetti sauce. I was sort of looking for that slight twang in the sauce, Mom and my Lola makes them a bit maasim at home.

Number three, make sure your meat is tender. My lola was very particular with this when she used to cook stuff for us. The meat was ALWAYS, ALWAYS tender. UGH!

As for me, I ordered their lengua.

This is WAY better than what Mom had. Their lengua was pretty tender, and the sauce very tasty. It's actually cool how they give you mashed potatoes as side dish, although it's not a Spanish thing. The sauce really went well with the mashed potato and I enjoyed picking on it (since I don't eat rice). I think this can pass.

For dessert, Mom and I ordered what made Dulcinea really famous: Churros Con Chocolate.

I give this a two-thumbs up! Mom said Dulcinea has already perfected the art of making churros, and I couldn't agree more. The churros was crispy, although it has to be said that it was a bit oily for my taste (maybe they should mop it up a bit before serving). The chocolate was semi-sweet and long after we've downed the churros, I found myself getting the spoon and finishing the entire thing. Delicious! This was a definite HIT!

I'm sorry to Dulcinea if I have to bash their Spanish feel. But hey, maybe you guys need to learn a thing or two about Spanish cuisine. If I were to come back to Dulcinea, it would be for the churros ALONE and nothing else.

Ugh...now I miss my Lola! :(


Dulcinea Greenbelt 1
G/F, Greenbelt 1,
Paseo de Roxas cor. Legaspi St.,
Ayala Center, Makati City
Tel. No. 817-7074