I have a love affair.
With breads.
No, not the usual slightly sweetened white loaf at the local bakery. I’m in love with brown breads, rye breads, herbal breads, sour dough, farmer, focaccia, panini and all breads that are chewy, substantial, heavy and give a gorgeous mouthful.
It’s hard to find real breads like that in this town. But I found a pretty decent source in the form of Delizze up at 101, a pretty big delicatessen that has a decent range of hams and sausages, salads to go, tarty desserts and of course, breads. For the longest time, the Delizze banner hung from the windows of its second floor. Nobody knew what it was going to be and when it would open. Then earlier this year, ta daaaa, fanfare and full speed ahead. There it was.
Beyond the breads, desserts and sausage counters is the dining area. Two floors of dining in space plus a large alfresco area on the side of the block (kind of pointless in the day under the tropical heat but I guess it’s ok at night, as long as it doesn’t rain). I finally got the opportunity to sit down and eat there one blazing noon. There were the usual salads, soups of the day, pastas, chicken and meat dishes, starting from RM6.50 and above.
I decided on the seafood chowder and the RM9.50 hot dog (with the 300g sausage, salad and chips). Sounded good. There was also a salad nicoise, just so I had a reasonable range from the menu to do a preliminary review.
My take for the dine-in experience: a subdued 4 out of 10. I expected better from an establishment of Delizze’s stature and calibre. The seafood chowder was a little on the watery side, the hot dog was overrated and the salad nicoise was…well, mundane. Most of all, everything was a little too heavy on the salt. The service was friendly enough, but attentiveness bordered on non-existent.
Don’t get me wrong. I still love the breads. The pastries and desserts still look tempting; the takeaway sandwiches and salads look pretty good and the hams look delectable. All the more reason for my disappointment in my dine-in experience.
I haven’t had the experience myself, but I hear that more than two people have made constructive comments about the dine-in food and received less-than-friendly retorts from the management. Oh well. For now, I’m just sticking to getting my breads from there.
