Aman is one of the best luxury hotel groups in the world, you decide to treat yourself with a once in a lifetime stay at one of their properties normally for several reasons- 1. A special trip, 2. To celebrate something, whether that is a defining moment in your life/an occasion or 3. You are an Aman addict, and this will be just another ticked off the list in the portfolio. Whatever the reason, this is not supposed to be your usual hotel stay. There is an expectation held at the very top and an extraordinary price tag that comes with it. Aman stands out from the crowd; it is the snooty competition that likes to remove itself far away from everyone else, but when you find out that is all a show and Aman has ‘tricked’ you into thinking they are the best in the world, wow it is a serious, saddening disappointment.
I will try to stay on track with the food here, but as I am talking about food in hotels it is all intertwined, you don’t come to a hotel such as this to then skip their restaurant and go elsewhere. However sometimes you don’t have any choice… Arva is the hotel’s restaurant which we booked in on our first night here. We last visited in 2019 and here we were again a few years later. The food back then wasn’t particularly bad, but it wasn’t memorable either, the dining room is really what you come here for. It is just unbelievable to be able to sit and eat in this palazzo, boasting incredibly soaring high ceilings, the surroundings resembling a museum, with a feeling of being at home with your own dining table. This is fine but when you don’t have the highest standard of food to match this excellence, it sticks out like a sore thumb. I don’t like to talk badly about chefs because I know what it’s like to be on the other side of the fence, busting your balls during a service, however at the end of the day I am a paying customer, and from what I have learned, chefs prefer honest feedback… And for such a chef to have credentials at Da Vittorio (One of my favourites) In no way in hell did I see the connection here. Don’t fool me…
Firstly, let us start with the chairs, how low do you want us to go interior designer? We know you have a vision, but did you stop to think about the diner spending several hours here? Obviously not, I may as well have been sitting on the floor. Not good. My guest complained of back pains not too long into the meal and then we moved onto a normal table and chairs instead, “Much better!” We rejoiced. Bread automatically appeared which was nothing special, and I started with pasta, it was one of the better dishes of the night, a stuffed casoncella type pasta, served al dente. The filling neutral but the sauces brought it all together. My guest’s pasta lacked depth of flavour and interest, if you think about a photograph being unsaturated, to give it vibrancy you need to increase the saturation, and this is how I saw this dish, it needed more salt and more of everything to bring it to life.
For the main course of beef, we couldn’t believe what we saw. This was rib-eye and what came looked like two random off cuts scattered with sinew and fat. I couldn’t eat a lot of what was on the plate and If I were the chef, I would never send this out. With this was a disgusting sludge like stuffed accompaniment on the side. It looked horrible for a start and the texture made me want to vomit. It wasn’t nice.
Next for dessert the Mille-feuille, but I can tell you it looked like a ‘cheats’ version. Why don’t we just bake a whole piece of pastry, pipe a little bit of cream on the top, drizzle with some coulis and top with some pieces of marron glacé? Then we can sell this for a grand spanking price of say 22 euros? Great plan… This is not an excellently executed Mille-feuille, it is a shame to the French name. I took one bite and said, “I give up.” Where was the technique and quality?
I really don’t understand the concept and mind of the chef, he only has a small menu to manage, with a dining room not too busy, so there is the possibility to make it great, but it just wasn’t. The cookery level was not up to scratch, and at Aman prices they are taking the “beep.” You can always tell if a place is clearly a tourist trap, but what struck me here is that this IS one but hidden in pure disguise. I don’t remember the food being this bad in 2019, things feel different this time around.
To make matters worse, my guest became sick in the night after this meal having a severe reaction to the food, which ruined his night and the days following. An uncomfortable and lasting pain in the stomach, a mild poisoning. He was not well. When we brought this up to the staff, they offered to bring a tea to the room and announced that it wouldn’t be charged. (Well duh?) You just poisoned us so I imagine that would be the case?? And then with a comment “There is a bug going around these days” Clearly delusional. My guest made a firm and strong stance, reacting making sure the staff understood that it was their food that was the problem. Already trying to cover their backs? The service here is of a low standard in general, ghostlike figures passing across the halls, looking tired and uninspired, dark, depressing, and sad. Along with saying the wrong things and not really giving a crap about the guests they are supposed to be looking after. Something is wrong in this place. Nothing was adjusted in the bill, nobody believed the food was bad, or they did know but didn’t say a word about it. I was informed about a health and safety test they did recently too, “Well that’s obvious” I thought. All restaurants need to do one by law. This is nothing new, so why emphasise it? It’s part of the furniture.
This is all a tremendous shame because the palazzo is stunning, and I like the property a lot, but it seems to me that everybody just relies on this and has forgotten that it is a hotel, where you are supposed to look after your guests! It’s all a bit weird, all a bit wrong and unfortunately because of the low-level cookery and my guest becoming sick I will never come back. Aman Venice have a lot of work to do to improve things drastically in most areas, they need a reboot and a fresh way of thinking. Ciao.
