Restaurant
Le Sereno serves seafood, Mediterranean, and Italian cuisines. (Le Sereno’s sister
property is located in Lake Como Italy, where the chef and owners are from,
which explains the Italian influences.) The restaurant’s beachfront setting is
attractive. A few wooden tables are positioned directly on the sand and are
popular at lunchtime when guests take a break from the pool or beach. (On our
first afternoon at Le Sereno, we ate at one of these beachfront tables when we
enjoyed a late afternoon snack of a club sandwich and fries.) Most other tables
are positioned on the main wooden deck of the restaurant beneath the huge, high
thatched roof, with views of the beach and pool. The restaurant and bar are
open-air, but contain roll-down sunshades and clear side panels if the weather
is uncooperative. Some tables are stand-alone (with directors chairs), and
other tables share one of two long wooden banquette benches complete with
pillows to place behind your back for a more comfortable seat. Another part of
the restaurant is located a step up from the main dining room floor and holds
the bar and lounge area, where live entertainment played on both nights that we
dined there for dinner (on a Saturday and on a Monday). Bar Sereno offers a
place to have a drink before/after a meal or anytime of the day.
On our first
night’s stay at Le Sereno, we dined at Restaurant Sereno during their “full
moon” dinner, which occurs once per month. When we checked in to the hotel, the
(gorgeous!) desk clerks told us that we were lucky to be dining there that
evening because of the full moon. The view was incredible! The host led us to
sit at one of the two round tables for two, which was situated on the edge of
the deck of the dining room, so that we could enjoy an awesome panorama of the
full moon reflecting off the palm trees and the water in the cove. Our waiter even
moved our table a little farther onto the deck so that we would have a better
vantage point. As an added bonus, Robb Tito and friends provided live music
(popular cover songs) during our meal; the entertainment was most enjoyable. The
restaurant offers a special “full moon” menu in addition to their regular menu.
For our starter, we shared a scallop dish (pan-fried scallops with carrots,
fried leeks, and ginger puree) that was delicious but a little meager for the
price of $30 Euros. As our main courses, we chose Robata-grilled tiger prawns (which
arrived head-on and grilling on a tiny charcoal hibachi, a most impressive
presentation!) and the grilled mahi mahi (served with pea puree and spring
vegetables, this dish was undercooked and the fish stuck to the banana leaf beneath
it).
Another
evening that we dined at the hotel was Italian night. A special menu was
available in addition to the regular menu. We ordered the steak carpaccio as our
starter, which was pounded amazingly thin. We were also treated to a selection
of complimentary canapes from the chef; four different amuse bouche arrived
(with two servings of each), including items like bruschetta; the selection was
so impressive that we questioned our server as to whether it was complimentary
or whether we had received someone else’s appetizer by mistake (the former was
true). As our main dishes, we ordered the pappardelle with a rabbit ragu, which
was good. Our second entrée, the saffron gnocchi, was truly terrible! It had
the most strange and indescribable taste, but perhaps that is what too much
saffron tastes like! For entertainment, a gentleman sang and played music on an
electric keyboard, but his repertoire did not include many songs with which we
were familiar, and the vibe was much more sedate than when Robb Tito played on
a previous night when we dined.
We ate
breakfast on three of our four mornings at Restaurant Sereno. Breakfast is
included with the room rate, which includes fresh-squeezed orange or grapefruit
juice, coffee and tea, fresh fruit salad, pastry basket (with two croissants,
two pain au chocolat, two pastries, and two rolls), yogurt (either plain,
vanilla, or coconut, which came in little glass bottles – how very cute and
French!), granola cereal, and a choice of two eggs any way you like including
omeletes (We ordered only cheese omeletes, but you can add other ingredients;
however, we are not sure if there is a charge for additional ingredients,
because there is a charge for some menu items, although for the most part, it
is clear which items are not complimentary because you are offered a menu with
prices.) You could order breakfast to your room at no charge, which we did on
the morning of our departure; the girls who delivered it set it up on nicely our
back terrace table, including placemats and all appropriate utensils.
Overall, we
enjoyed our meals at Restaurant Sereno. The setting is beautiful, the staff is
attentive, and the food is good.
