I have been to Dozo two times and it has not disappointed me.
There are private rooms to allowing business dining.
This Japanese and French fusion cuisine is a gastronomical delight.
Good for value for the quality of food you are getting.
Friendly service though notice some of the servers could be blur about the order.

I am not really a food person BUT I really enjoyed myself in my maiden trip to Dozo and hence have decided to write this little review of the restaurant.

Service:
On the whole, I think the staff have been very well trained. Despite the sophisticated items on the menu (compared to fast food), the staff have pretty good food knowledge and are able to advise the customers well on the different food items on the menu. In addition, what I like best is that the staff are extremely polite and helpful. Why do I say this? Well, I had this nasty ecounter at a up-class Japanese restaurant when me and my friend requested for plain rice for our Sashimi bento sets instead of sushi rice, the waitress actually rolled her eyeballs (which screamed "id....") in front of us, as though we are petty troublesome people. Since then, I do not take good service for granted.

Ambience:
I think the ambience is great. The restaurant owner is pretty smart to pick this place because the location is very strategic. As this rental slot is positioned in the building front, most of the tables are window seats and the night time view is very pleasant too, which is a real bonus for customers.
And actually, what I liked best is the lounge, it is a nice quiet place where I can envision myself just have a long nice pleasant discussion with my friends, as well as my bank's client.

Food:
My selection was:
- Sashimi platter
- gratinated escargots
- Crab bisque
- Beef tenderloin
- creme brulee
- Japanese mo-chi (I actually asked if I could try this, even though I order creme brulee and they let me have a free sample (of good proportions) on the house!)

On the whole, it was a really good mix of East and West, and there was no compromise in quality and authenticity. What I love best about the food is that it is extremely rich in flavour. For example, the Crab bisque had a really strong "crabby" flavour, probably something that you could not get in other lower-end restaurants.
As for dessert, if you guys believe in what I am writing, you should go for the creme brulee. Yummy*yummy*yummy.


ドゾのレストランでは食べ物がとても美味しいですよ.
みんなさんは食べてみ下さいませんか.

アルヴィン

Back for the 3rd time, and happy they have something new on the menu. Let me just review on the new items we had:

1. Duck salad - BF isn't a big fan of duck but decided to try it anyways. Must say the meat was so moist and goes well with the cranberry...delizicous

2. Onion Soup - Light, unlike the French ones which can sometimes be heavy

3. King crab salad - It's the big claw that I always prefer, but it was a bit difficult to get it off

4. Cod with puff pastry - Fresh fish is alway welcome and in this case, bring it on. Nice with the puff pastry under it, the sauce was good too

5. Cheese cake - A pity that it's only a very small slice, would have love it if it's bigger

What can I say...truly a winner :) but I hope the waiters, waitress can say something different each time we are there, we know that it's totally rehearsed but it all got stale by the 3rd visit.

Oh dear, this isn't going to be easy nor pleasant.

French and Japanese. My two favourite cuisines. At $58++, this sounds like a dream come true.

Unless of course you love overkill.

AMBIENCE:

Step right in and I thought I was in a high-class karaoke joint. A noisy table with yuppies toasting wine was a tip off that this is anything but 'high class'.

We were shown to a table along the walkway, that had 1) POLYESTER table cloth that was TOO LONG; 2) tacky colour; 3) too noisy and bustling

However, upon request, they did accommodatingly give us another table that was less harrassing.

SERVICE:

OK, now the service. Some service staff have it (that is poise, charm, eloquence and wit). Undoubtedly the wait staff at Dozo were friendly. BUT, come on, repeating the SAME CORNY jokes to the next table is a real turn off. If you haven't got natural chattiness and charm, please, save it! Not to mention, their spoken English was so horrendous that our poor assigned server had to repeat what he was saying at least 3 times. Even then, we had to guess what those rolled together words with appalling pronunciation, were. On top of that, the service was very intrusive. I mean, come on. I don't need to be attended to every 30 secs! Sorry. You people are lovely, but too much of a good thing is a waste.

FOOD:

What was I eating? Actually, I know what I was eating, but I do not need the wait staff to explain to me as if I had just stepped out of my home for the first time in my life. Please. Oh, and to use my cutlery to cut my steak to explain 'doneness'...well, I thought that was plain rude and inappropriate. Service staff should NEVER touch my food with my cutlery. And besides, I like my steak rare...It came medium/medium well.

Let's see, if the chef would like to indulge himself by cooking supposedly 'high-end' food, then work in a high-end restaurant. Instead, the food came off over-presented for the price, over-manicured, overkill overkill overkill. It wasn't exceptional. It was forgettable. Then again, what do you expect for $58? Threw me for the loop the way it was all brought out. What's with all the gimmicks? A truly great restaurant never has to rely on gimmicks and cosmetics to draw people back. It's like a plain looking girl that wears too much make-up in order to get noticed (HAHAHA)! Sad but true.

7-courses - that's how good 'value' this place was supposed to be.
But 7-courses of what? Tiny bite sizes of overly presented, forgettable food. And the 6th course is an ice refresher? What's that? A glorified name for fruit juice with cut fruit bits and tea. The dessert, our server was boasting, was the 'best choc lava cake' in Singapore. Really? Sorry for the disappointment. I've had better. WAY better.

The Japanese bit wasn't really good. Then again, the French bit was a huge disappointment too. Pity. It didn't encapsulate the essence of Japanese (simple concepts, natural flavours) and French (robust flavours with simple home-grown ingredients) cuisines. Once again, too much cosmetics!


VALUE:
$58++ for 7-courses initially seems like a good deal. On hindsight, I'd rather pay more to have a beautifully cooked 2-course meal, than pay less for SO-SO, FUSSY, FORGETTABLE (not here not there) and GIMMICKY food that's nothing but cosmetics. Not so good value after all.

To sum it up, Dozo pretends to be a fine dining restaurant without the 5-star price. Isn't that just pretentious then? The old adage of quantity does not equal quality is applicable here. Always best to be good at a few things, then to try to be overly ambitious and not be very good at many things. Scale down from 7 so-so bite-size courses, and focus on 3 or 4 good size portions of signature courses and do it really really well. In the end, ultimately it's great food that wins. Not the number of courses and gimmicks a restaurant throws in.

(** This was written by a friend, http://rutherdorm.blogspot.com, with whom, I went to dinner with)


Dozo is the name of the restaurant and it serves fine Japanese-French fusion cuisines. For lunch the restaurant serves a 6-course degustation which includes a starter, side dish, soup, main, dessert and drinks for $39.80++. While during dinner hours, the restaurant serves a 7-course degustation (similar courses to lunch with extra cold dish served in between the starter and the side dish.) for $59.80++.


The cuisine are "inspired by the simplicity, sophistication and elegance of Japanese cuisine" , infused with elements from French and European cuisines. As to how the dishes are inspired, the decor of the restaurant, silverware and their china are fitted to the style of the fusion as well. The sitting areas are separated into 3 different types - function rooms, private rooms and communal dinning area to suit different needs of the customers.


Items pointed with arrows are the ones ordered.


The menu is foolproof and provides simple description of the food. The service provided from the waiters and waiteresses in the restaurant is superb as well. They are knowledgeable with their products and will provide you with further description on the dishes upon request.

My first time here was a great experience because I would've never thought such a place would exist in this part of Singapore. The waiter that served me did not have that "in-your-face" attitude that sometimes intimidate most diners but rather they were really friendly.

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The first thing served up to you is a really innovative snack.

Deep fried Japanese noodles

Rating:
Its really simple to eat and is made only from noodles (most probably spaghetti and dried ramen) battered in light tempura. Traces of paprika could be tasted. Really simple and gives you a slight preview of what you can expect from the rest of the dishes.

We devoured the snack so fast, it was gone in a matter of minutes (probably because we were both hungry after waiting for me.), and this is where the good services came in again, they cleared the dish, only to replenish us with another serving of this delightful snack. The manager said this as well: "Well I saw that you guys love this snack so much, so I just give you another portion of it."

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Mango Sorbet

Ratings:

I have had sorbets during fine dining before and most of them are made from citrus fruits. So this one was kinda new to me. Albeit it being sorbet, it felt more like mango juice with crushed ice to me. It did the work of cleaning my palates but there is a reason why citrus fruits are the common choice for sorbets.


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Starter (Foie Gras, Pan-seared scallop and Norwegian Smoke Salmon)

Ratings:

This is the standard starter served by the restaurant. Consist of petite size of Foie Gras, Scallop with asparagus and Smoked Salmon with cream. Sequence should start from the Foie Gras down to the Salmon.


The last time I had Foie Gras (at BROTH), I didn't quite like the texture of it because it was done really mushy(Glenn commented that Foie Gras should be done that way). So this time I was quite apprehensive about the liver. This one turned out to be good, at least not as mushy. But I can never understand such sophisticated food.

The Pan-seared Scallop is sweet and has no other flavoring other than its own. Lightly flavored with salt, pepper and seared on olive oil, the flavor is subtle and not too overwhelming. I'm not a connoisseur of smoke salmon so I can't comment too much on it. But the combination of vanilla cream and smoked salmon is ingenious (is this original way people eat it?).


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Scculent King Crab Claw Salad drizzled with Sesame Vinaigrette

Ratings:


Not the simplest of salad but its good. This salad is not your boring Garden Salad with *insert dressing*, this one has got interesting components like Dragon Fruit and corn inside. I don't know why, but I'm such a sucker for the sesame vinaigrette, its so fragrant though not over-whelmingly strong.

The crab claw is a portion of a Alaska King Crab's leg. And the portion is quite generous as well. I think its boiled in lightly salted water or steamed because it taste so original. The crab claw goes really well with the sesame vinaigrette dressing as well.


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Gratinated Escargot topped with Yuzu butter

Ratings:
I haven't had any Escargot prior to this and this happened to be on recommendation by the waiter so I just ordered it.

It comes done in 2 ways, cream baked and butter baked. I'm not too sure which one are the Yuzu (click on link first) Butter ones since both of them doesn't have any tangy taste to it (or maybe I've been a gourmet idiot that point of time). But still its good, tasted kinda like this (that is not escargot but a genus of shell fish).



I loved the cream baked one more that the butter baked ones on one very basic basis: the portion is bigger. Okay maybe not. Its because I like things that are baked with cheese and cream and this one was not too bad and the cream isn't really that heavy. But it was really oily though.


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Infusion of Cepe Mushroom and Truffle.

Ratings:

Allow me to be crude over here: This is fucking GOOD SHYT!!

Really, I have had mushroom soups in my life but this!!...This is something else. When you think of mushroom soup, 8 out of 10, you'd be thinking of Campbell, white, creamy and rich with virtually no mushrooms in sight. But this...every spoonful is Cepe Mushrooms.

I remember having something similar to this in one of the restaurants in CHIJMES (and I did a blog post about it as well. But don't bother searching for it.) And I love that soup alot. So this soup came as quite a surprise for me.


This one was way better because it has got the fragrance of truffles in it (most probably truffle oil). Truffles are really one of the best fungus on Earth. That minute slice in the picture on top, is really delicious, it may taste a bit weird for first-timers but trust me, no fungus on Gaia taste like this 'diamond of the kitchen'.


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Beef Tenderloin on 'pu-ye' and granite hot stone.

Ratings:

Sorry I can't find any information about Pu-Ye but I know its a type of plant (I think that was a himbo moment).

The main is served on a hot granite stone which emits earthy smell of the leaf on the stone. The beef is cooked to rare before serving to the patrons. Patrons can choose to grill the beef slices on the stone more to cook it even more or till their prefered doneness.



The sauce on the side seems more like an additional seasoning rather than something that should be ate with the beef. The beef is good enough by itself, moreover its infused with the fragrance of the leaf. This is definitely a must try for the new patrons. Of course the pebbles are inedible.


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Freshly baked warm chocolate cake served with Ice-cream.

Ratings:

As I've said somewhere in my past blogs, I'm very bias and particular when it comes to desserts. It has to be nicely presented, taste good and above all make you happy. This satisfy all of the criteria.


The chocolate cake is definitely freshly baked (and I wouldn't be surprise if its microwaved as well). Its not too sweet but it'd be better if they had use a chocolate with more cocoa content in it (I think the percentage of cocoa is roughly around 55% to 60% in this one). But it has got an oozy surprised inside.

The outer crust is nice and firm while the insides of the cake is warm, gooey and soft. Coupled with the vanilla ice cream (yea chocolate cake ALWAYS goes well with vanilla ice cream). If the ice-cream is hand-made, it would have been better, but I'm not complaining.

Hot Roselle Rythm.

Nice and sour to clean the palates. This one is served before the dessert to cleanse out the tastes of your main on your tongue. But there are better choices of drinks like this one.

Ice Fruity Refresher.

This one suits patrons that doesn't really like hot tea. This drink is sweet, mainly the taste of citrus fruits and orange. Glenn had this so I don't really have much comments about this one.

Other than this Glenn ordered these as well.

Air flown seasonal sashimi platter.



Stewed beef tendon Japanese Style.



Crab Bisque.



Oven-baked Hamachi Kama on a bed of Risotto.



Dozo's "mo-cha" creme brulee


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Overall the restuarant is a nice, peaceful and quiet place to dine in. The service is excellent as well. You wouldn't feel the presence of the waiter around you but they are attentive enough for your needs and they are definitely not "in-your-face", unlike artsy fartsy high-crass restaurants that have waiters surrounding you like hungry vultures waiting to clear away your plates.

The food is great as well and I like how they serve strawberry green tea instead of the traditional green tea for free flow.

The total bill for 2 person amounts to roughly around $140 for the dinner set. I think its really worth the money to dine in such a restaurant. Not to extravagant yet not too shabby.


Dozo is located at 491 River Valley Road #02-02/03 Valley Point Shopping Center.

Opening hours are from 11.30am to 2.30pm (lunch hours) and 5.30pm to 10pm (dinner hours, last order at 9.30pm).

To make a reservation you can call: 6838 6966 or email them at reservation@dozo.com.sg

Visit their website for more information.


For more reviews and pictures, please visit http://www.hungryepicurean.com/