My Review of Two Michelin Star Restaurant DOM Restaurante (D.O.M.)
While planning our trip to Brazil, we made sure to hit up the highly rated D.O.M. Restaurant during our short stay in Sao Paulo. According to S. Pellegrino “World´s 50 Best Restaurants”, D.O.M. is currently ranked as the 9th best restaurant in the world, in addition to its two Michelin Star rating! It is a unique restaurant without claiming to be eloquent. If you’re thinking of dining there, check out my DOM Restaurant review below!
The DOM restaurant was actually recommended to me by someone I met on a trip to Croatia during the Ultra Europe Festival. I had hinted that I was also attending Tomorrowland in Brazil and she mentioned that Michael and I should dine at DOM if we could get the opportunity to. She also said that the chef is a huge proponent to saving the rain forest and so he centers his courses and cuisine around that. Of course hearing all these, we just had to make the reservation!
The entrance to the restaurant is elegant, and the door is quite large. When you enter, you’re greeted by a large canoe figurine, and a bar to your immediate right. The place itself has very high ceilings with a small second floor (however, I’m not really sure what is upstairs).
I loved the vibe when I entered the restaurant. It had the perfect amount of lighting – just dim enough to give you that warm and inviting feel. The kitchen is located at the back left corner of the restaurant and it’s got open windows so you can watch them make and prepare food while you dine.
We were seated at a table pretty close to the kitchen and were able to watch the chefs in the kitchen. There was a lot to take in. Very tall ceilings and lots of decor and items all relating to the rainforest. We looked at pictures online of the DOM prior to visiting and apparently they’re known to serve you with at least one dish containing a cooked ant from the rainforest (there are so many pictures of this online). We were expecting one of our dishes to contain an ant on display however, there was absolutely no was I was about to eat an ant! I had Michael eat mine instead.
The menu on the left was actually given to us at the end of the dinner, but I wanted to present it to you now so that you can compare it to the dishes we were given during our twelve course tasting.
The first dish we got was the one with an ant (also depicted in the menu). It was a sort of starter dish to get things going. The ant sat on top of a piece of pineapple candied square. The pineapple was good, but I skipped eating the dish and had Michael eat mine instead (see video below, and my “Oh my goodness!” reaction, haha).
In the images below, the courses are shown in the order in which we received them. You can also follow what they are exactly by referencing the menu above.
I’m not a big drinker, so I tried one of their mocktails which is depicted in one of the photos below. They use a berry that is native to Brazil called the jabuticaba. It looks like a little blueberry but rounder – and they grow like moss on trees rather than hanging like blackberries on vines.
I really enjoyed the Catfish Nest and the Cashew’s Texture bites. Cashews are one of my favorite nuts to eat. The texture of the bite was like eating peanut butter. It was creamy but not as flavorful or as salty as peanut butter. The Catfish nest was also another good bite. It had a spicy mayonnaise taste in a crunch “bird’s next” like shell.
The watermelon bite was also good (shown below in a green shell and what looks like salmon sashimi but is actually watermelon). It’s a cute looking dish that is supposed to resemble a small half watermelon. The pine nuts and blue crab dish (middle right) was very flavorful, and I very much enjoyed the Cassava bread with the Puba Hummas (bottom right). I think you were supposed to eat it throughout the rest of the dishes, but it was so delicious, I ate it all in one siting before the next tasting dish arrived!
I personally wasn’t a fan of the Pirarucu Moqueca dish (top left below). I believe it was a type of fish with a wafer. But for me, the taste was too fishy and hard for me to enjoy it. I tend to like white, buttery, flaky fish (like sea bass or haddock). I loved the large shrimp drenched in a tomato like sauce, paired with black rice pasta. The sirloin wasn’t too bad (middle left) – I’m not much of a read meat eater unless its Japanese wagyu, but I did try this dish and finish it all. I did skip the beans side though (not a fan!). And of course, I just had to eat the dessert in its entirety! The coffee ice cream was very creamy and a perfect way to end the meal.
Honestly though, by our 7th or 8th dish I was getting full and could’ve honestly eating at that point. Those small bites really do add up. You think you can’t really get full on a bunch of small finger-like horderves, but if you’re looking at a twelve course dinner, your eyes are definitely bigger than your stomach!
Would I rate this a 2 Michelin star? Yes, I absolutely would! I found the service to be very professional, the restaurant to be well decorated , intimate and comforting to dine in. The servers and staff were well informed of all the dishes, spoke English and they even answered all of our questions about the wine pairings in great detail (like where they originated, how they’re made, etc). I was very impressed!
The food itself was tasty but not as flavorful as I had envisioned. But given the nature of the ingredients and where they originate from (the rainforest), the restaurant wanted to incorporate these ingredients to tell a story and make those dining aware of the rainforest and its importance. Most of the dishes I enjoyed save for one (the fish) which wasn’t my cup of tea. But otherwise, everything we well presented in small, bite size finger foods I’d recommend if you are going to try not to eat for the entire day before because twelve courses is a lot! I was very full by the 8th course, but I trucked on like a trooper and ate the remaining courses!
At the end of the dinner, before leaving, the chef Alex Atala invited us for a tour of their kitchen along with photos with him! We were so grateful to get our photographs taken with him!
Don’t forget to check out my other Michelin Star restaurant reviews from other parts of the country & world!
Overall, I do give this a two star myself and if you’re traveling to Sao Paulo, Brasil, please check out D.O,M Resaurante while you are there! Hope you enjoyed my DOM Restaurante Review review and that it entices you to check them out!
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