Dome Restaurant and Bar

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Dome Restaurant and Bar, located in Hockessin, Delaware’s Lantana Square, is the sister restaurant of Eclipse, located on Union Street in Wilmington. Both restaurants have a similar hip, modern feel, although Dome is much bigger than Eclipse, featuring a bigger bar area and outdoor dining, as well as another smaller room for private parties. Dome’s cuisine is described as “urban American,” including steak, seafood, pizzas, salads, and sandwiches.



Jeff’s Take:
The appetizers we started off with—fried calamari, pork pot stickers, and the hummus plate—were for the most part good, but slightly flawed. The pork pot stickers featured traditional Asian-style fried pork dumplings in a sweet and sour ginger glaze. Dumplings are usually served with a saltier soy-vinegar sauce, but Dome went in the opposite direction with the sweet and sour. This mild sauce was tasty, but was overpowered by the stronger flavors of pork, scallions, and ginger in the dumplings. The fried calamari, which featured a spicier Thai chili glaze that was drizzled over the plate, featured a breading that was a little too grainy and calamari that wasn’t as tender and fresh as it should have been. The hummus plate was highlight of the starters, featuring delicious toasted pita triangles dusted with garlic powder, and a creamy hummus dip topped with feta cheese and olives.



For my entrée, I went with the rigatoni Bolognese. This was admittedly a pedestrian choice that I would usually avoid, but I was attracted by the fact that the tomato cream sauce offered a trio of meats—veal, pork, and beef. I figured that Dome might be able to put a unique spin on a generally uninspired dish. Unfortunately, I was wrong. The light tomato cream sauce was smooth and sweet, which I liked, but didn’t have much else going on. Some other flavors would have made it more interesting. I found the crumbled meat in the sauce was delivered in dry, flavorless chunks. A proper Bolognese sauce features meat that has been slow cooked in the sauce, so the meat can absorb the flavors of the sauce and break down into smaller, juicy pieces. Dome’s version made it seem like someone threw the leftover meatloaf in some tomato sauce.






Mike's Take:


As far as the appetizers go, forget about the calamari. While I'm not a huge calamari fan, I'm even less of one after having Dome's version. The hummus was really good too, but it's hummus. I definitely liked the pork potstickers the most. I agree with Jeff that the pork flavor dominated the nice but subdued sweet and sour sauce, but I actually liked that since I found the flavor of the pork and other innards quite tasty.


As Jeff will admit, I got the far superior entree. I selected the slow braised beef with garlic potato wedges, honey glazed carrots, and au jus. Iwas delighted to get a delicious piece of slowcooked meat that melted in my mouth. I really have no complaints about the meat since it completely exceeded my expectations. However, the entree's side items were lackluster at best. The honey glazed carrots were undercooked and far too firm. The garlic potato wedges were bland and poorly cooked as well. The potato itself was very starchy and dry inside. The potato wedges were edible only after dipped in some delicious au jus from the braised beef.


The Bottom Line is that Dome is very inconsistent. There were elements of the meal that greatly exceeded expectations (Dumplings, Hummus, and Braised Beef for me) but there were always missteps along the way. Dome really needs to up their consistency and quality to compete with other "hip" fine dining restaurants. Maybe that's the problem....there's not much competition in Hockessin.







400 Lantana Square
Hockessin, DE 19707
http://www.domerb.com/


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