Restaurant review: Dopo Teatro brings a touch of Italian flair to the Esplanade

One of Singapore’s largest international art hubs , The Esplanade frequently hosts a revolving door of exciting art exhibitions, stunning dance performances, and breath-taking musical acts from all around the world.

Hence, it’s only befitting that Dopo Teatro — which translates to ‘after theatre’ — found its home amongst the Esplanade’s dining repertoire.

Inspired by the vibrant culinary heritage that is the center of Italian culture, Dopo Teatro brings with it a modern interpretation of the Italian way of life by incorporating Japanese flavours.

Adorned with chic dark marble, warm lights, hues of granite, with just a touch of bright geometrical colour, the interior of the establishment is elegant and cosy, perfect for intimate date nights or casual business meetings.

The 86-seater restaurant also offers waterfront alfresco dining, with a breezy, spacious outdoor seating area filled with rustic wood and a picturesque city view.

Focused on showcasing their premium Japanese ingredients through a medley of classic Italian dishes, Dopo Teatro presents an array of antipasti, salads, house-made pasta, and hand-stretched pizzas.

Of the antipasti, the Sake Flambé Mussels ($20) were a pleasant surprise. With locally-farmed green-lipped mussels served in an shio kombu (Japanese soy sauce kelp) sake broth, this dish was hearty and aromatic.

Made from dough that has been fermented for at least 36 hours, the hand-stretched dough of their signature pizzas was chewier than crisp and not as airy as expected. Fortunately, the toppings saved the day.

The Verde ($24) was topped with a generous spread of savoury mortadella (Italian luncheon), bocconcini, toasted pistachio, wild rocket, and based with pistachio crème; a combination that saved the pizza from turning into an underwhelming experience.

Dopo Teatro also offers a diverse selection of handmade pasta, of which the Seafood Paccheri (S$25) came highly recommended by the restaurant. Unfortunately, it was quite disappointing.

This pasta dish features paccheri pasta slathered with Japanese octopus ragu, sea urchin foam, ice plants and Japanese baby crabs.

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While the velvety uni foam was delicious, we were rather confused by the lack of Japanese baby crabs. Upon inquiry, we were informed that the baby crabs were incorporated into the ragu, though we still struggled to identify them in the ragu.

The paccheri was on the wrong side of al dente and overall, the dish was slightly too salty for us.

Contrastingly, our experience with the main course was excellent. The Barramundi Ballotine Arrosto ($32) was truly the highlight. Starring locally farmed barramundi fish seared to golden-brown perfection, the dish is a perfect balance of flavours.

The simple accompaniments of charred broccolini, preserved lemons, leek marmalade, pasta arrabbiata and rosemary mashed potato allow the naturally sweet flavour of the barramundi to shine.

When it comes to their desserts, the Pistachio Canoli ($16) is undoubtedly the best on the menu. Featuring crisp cocoa cannoli filled with lightly sweet pistachio ganache on top of milky matcha gelato, this dish had a strong pistachio flavour and was not too sweet.

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The Millifoglie Al Limone (S$16) was, however, let down by stale millefoglie layers.

In all, Dopo Teatro joins the ranks of mid-range, seafood-forward Italian restaurants in Singapore that offers little surprise in its offerings despite its use of Japanese ingredients.

In celebration of their debut, they’re offering a limited-time Celebration Set Menu for 2 ($79.90) that includes Japanese oysters and sake mussels, a choice of pizza, two pastas and a dessert.

Dopo Teatro is located at 8 Raffles Ave, #01-11 Esplanade Mall, Singapore 039802. +65 6534 5188. Open Mon-Fri 12pm – 3pm, 5pm – 9.30pm, Sat-Sun 12pm – 9.30pm.

This article was first published in City Nomads.