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Bel Fiore Italian RestaurantRESTAURANT NAME: Bel Fiore RESTAURANT TYPE: Italian LOCATION: Your gallivanting gourmets decided to review this well-known eatery as an obscure restaurant on the grounds of it being "newly-obscure". The new location has only been in operation one week as at the time of writing The Bel Fiore has changed its previously well-known location on Seoul Street to a far more obscure spot. Head into the setting sun along Peace Avenue. On the corner of the road that leads up to the White House, you will see a three story green building. It shares the ground floor with an oriental eating house that we will mention later. The night owls of Mongolia may recognise the location if we describe it as being more or less diagonally opposite The Money Train. HOURS: 11 a.m. to midnight.
ATTENDANCE: Three tables full of Mongolian groups at first. RESTAURANT STAFF: One keen young Mongolian bloke. Munkh was of the "don't let the spoon hit the plate after the last mouthful, before whipping away that course" genre. Great, keen stuff. He will develop and one really shouldn't complain of course - the alternative is worse. But be prepared to be slightly paranoid about Munkh peering from behind columns, waiting to pounce as you finish your course. Points were subtracted not for that, but because poor Munkh - as smartly dressed and good as he was - fell on the wrong side of the gender line (see our criteria page). SERVICE: No complaints at all. We threw all sorts of curved balls at Munkh but he did the job and the food came fresh, hot and on time.. MENU: The same menu as at the "un-obscure" location. A delightfully jumbled, Italian-orientated English/Italian/Mongolian offering. Sweets before main course and just under soups that followed pasta that came after entrees………. But wide-ranging and enough to satisfy any Roman refuge. The Italian founder/part owner was away in Turin, but they have retained their long standing Mongolian kitchen staff and the food reflected the two years these people have put into getting the Italian taste. FOOD: An Italian Restaurant Review without trying the pasta?? Shame on your forgetful foodies. However, we did try other just-as-Italian courses. Shel was delighted with the quaintly-named Capricious Salad. Doug's veal in tuna mayo salad was just as tasty. The tuna mayo was especially delicate and worthy of eating on its own. We hopped into the Roman Soup and a Vegetable Soup. The latter being a tomato-based Italian classic. Both delicious. Doug fell into devouring the chopped liver "Venetian Style" as if it was decades since a good plate of "lambs fry" came his way. Question - "Why, in a land of meat, meat products and animal eaters, do Mongolian restaurants have few, if any, offal offerings?" Shel had weakened momentarily and had lady-sized portions of deep-fried cauliflower as his main course. Wolfed down. The sweets (a caramel custard and a fresh fruit salad) just about sent us both down for the count. We started daintily on a glass of house red for us each, but soon graduated to the bottle - a French Merlot that was almost too quaffable. Luckily for us, the delightful Mongolian owners (Ganbold and his two sisters) took pity on us and we suspect a lot of the latter glasses/bottles of wine were put down in the books as "lost stock". The family has a fair Italian involvement, with the elder sister in Italy almost permanently. Jargal helped us on the night. This was one the few restaurants we have reviewed where English is understood and spoken well. They almost had their "obscure" title taken away!!! Overall a worthy 8/10 for the food. HYGEINE: No apparent roach, dirt or hygiene problems. Just the opposite. Toilet inspections were limited to the gents - no celebrity guests being present. However, the male side passed. COST: Impressively cheap, considering the genus. Forgetting the wine, we had the above-described four-course meal each for under 10,000Tg each. With the wine it was 12,000Tg, but we suspect we received favoured treatment. Not - we might add - that the restaurant was aware it was being reviewed. Despite the temptation, your culinary connoisseurs still rely on the anonymity that the back streets of Ulaanbaatar afford us. No, we think the hospitality was freely offered. RECOMMENDATION: Well worth a visit, even if it means fighting the traffic, the atrocious road, the amazingly unreliable traffic lights and the sun setting in your eyes, obscuring the suicidal pedestrians. Then climbing the most uneven outside stairs in the world. They almost did Shel and his wooden hip a mischief. The co-tenant Chinese Restaurant could well be worth looking into as you leave. The vibrant maitre de and her waitresses are more than willing to say hi and exchange business cards. If you dodge that, there is the Money Train over the road to dance off the Venetian Liver. RATING: our first four - 4/5
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APPEARANCE & AMBIENCE: A real winner, and probably the best of any restaurant reviewed or frequented in our time in Ulaanbaatar. An attractive island bar, surrounded by comfortable chairs and tables, all spaced at just the right distance from each other. The tables set with good, heavy silver cutlery, embroidered napkins and great condiments. The lighting was just right for either business or romance, not that your gastronomic guests were there for either. Italian music was playing, but way back in the Coffee Shop - a new addition that would surely become a favourite haunt if it were a wee bit closer to downtown. Patrons of the old location will recognise the Italian memorabilia, paintings and gold medals.