Serenity Spanish Bar & Restaurant

Birthday dinner with the dinner buddy Glenn was a simple but satisfying affair at Vivocity's Serenity Spanish Bar & Restaurant. To be honest, we meant to head to Don Quijote at Lorong Kilat for its much raved about paella, but we eventually decided against it because of the pouring rain. Not to be deterred on my paella craving, I did a quick online search for something similar and it brought up Serenity with fairly encouraging reviews. The rest, of course, is history.


The interior of the restaurant has a light blue theme that resembles the typical seaside, with peach-white chairs and sofas to add a soft tone to the surroundings. Serenity doubles as both a bar and a restaurant, with live music on most evenings (Monday to Saturday) to accompany your dinner. If you're thinking what I'm thinking, it could be a good way to surprise your date with a song dedication or two ;)

Crema de Mariscos
seafood cream soup with mussel, prawn, dory and squid rings


While full of ingredients with a hearty feel to it, I did find the soup a bit too "starchy" for my liking. Would have been better if it was smoother.

Paella con Mariscos
seafood paella: tiger prawns, squids, mussels, scallops and saffron rice


This was what we were here for and I can say that while it was not exceedingly impressive, it did manage to satisfy that paella craving. Aesthetically, it does look pretty and pleasing.


The serving for two was huge, even for two growing boys, and it was a good thing we were not that trigger-happy to order platters of appetisers, as much as we had the urge to. The best thing about the paella was the rice, because it was nicely moist and sticky without slipping into the wrong ends of being overly wet or dry. The slightly charred parts on the side were especially good because it actually gave a wok hei flavour to this dish.


The ingedients were plentiful enough, with abundant squids in the rice and with four tiger prawns, mussels and scallops to share. I have to point out however that these seafood ingredients either need to be fresher or less overdone, because most were too chewy (rubbery, even) that it turned out to be quite a jaw exercise after a while. Maybe some softer crabmeat would be good.

Service
Very good.

Price
$8.00 for the Crema de Mariscos
$45.00 for the Paella con Mariscos

* Prices subject to the usual 7% GST and 10% service charge.

Place
Vivocity, #01-98/99.

Pictures taken with the Canon EOS 500D.