If you’re looking for a restaurant with an up-close ocean view, great ambience, good food and live music, Hyde Paradiso is the place to be. I was really excited to check this restaurant out because photos of it online looked incredibly gorgeous. It certainly lived up to my expectations!
Getting there was a little bit tricky (maybe because I was expecting it to be a standalone restaurant on the ground floor), and I almost walked right by it. Turns out, the restaurant is located on the second floor of the Peppers Soul Hotel. They should probably consider making the signage along the street a little more prominent.
Walking into and around the restaurant felt like a whimsical Alice-In-Wonderland experience. I was really vibing with the decor – the light wood panels, warm lights, pastel-coloured chairs and sofas made the atmosphere so vibrant and inviting. Natural sunlight through the floor-to-ceiling windows also made the place look extra magical.
Unfortunately, the restaurant seemed booked out for the afternoon with various birthday parties, big group gatherings and cocktail-mixing classes going on, so my husband and I were unable to get a seat near the balcony area with the ocean view (bummer!). Oh well, at least we got our live music fix (all 3 sets of it) from this wonderful singer with a lovely voice.
Once again, don’t always take my word for it when it comes to food reviews because I’m not much of a foodie, but I did enjoy the food served here. We ordered the hummus with pita bread, salmon with roasted vegetables and a vanilla bean creme brulee. Everything was well-cooked, well-seasoned and well-presented, although I did have to pick off the caramelized sugar top from the creme brulee to accommodate my aging tastebuds’ preference for less sweetness.
My overall rating of the experience: 4 out of 5 stars. The food was awesome, the ambience was great, the staff were courteous, the restaurant overlooks the ocean, what’s not to love? In terms of value, however, it wasn’t fantastic as the prices here were steeper than usual and because of the crowds that day, we couldn’t get to fully enjoy the ocean view from the balcony seats (which I was really looking forward to!). Maybe a prior reservation would have solved the issue. But overall, it was a nice experience and I even considered coming back here to chill out and read a book while my husband goes surfing (but that didn’t happen because he went really early in the morning and my mornings are for being in bed, haha).
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