Travel Review: Dreams Resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic (Part 2)

I recently vacationed at the Dreams Resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. I was there with my husband, my son (age 5) and my daughter (age 2). Dreams, an all-inclusive resort, is located on the same property that used to be the Sunscape Resort. The city of Punta Cana has over 70 resorts, most of them being all-inclusive.

All-inclusive resorts are a great option for families who are traveling with kids who are picky eaters. At Dreams, there are seven restaurants. We ate at three of them. The four that we missed either had an adult only policy or the line to eat there was too long and we headed over to the buffet.

I will review the restaurants I ate at and give an overview of the others.

World Café Buffet

The Word Café buffet is where we had most of our meals. The restaurant is enormous and we never had to wait to be seated. The hostesses were extremely friendly and flirted with my kids. World Café is open for breakfast, lunch, dinner and late night snacks.

In the center of the buffet, there was a "Kid's Corner" selection where the serving table was lowered to a height that enabled kids to take their own food onto their plates. Kid-friendly food was always available at this station. For breakfast, you could always find pancakes and bacon, for lunch there were French fries, cut up hot dogs and mini hamburgers. For dinner, there was always a pasta selection, chicken tenders and French fries.

For the adult breakfast, the same variety of foods was offered daily but it would take over a week to eat the same meal twice. For example, you could have French crepes with chocolate syrup, eggs any style, rolls, bread or bagels with butter, cream cheese and jam. For a special treat, try the watermelon and papaya juices, which were available daily.

Lunch was special, with grilled fish such as mahi-mahi and salmon served with lemon or wine sauces. Rice or pasta can accompany the seafood and there were always fresh vegetables as well. If you wanted other lunch choices, you could try quiche or frittata dishes or tacos (this is just a small example).

At dinner, the buffet was themed. One night was Italian Night and the next night was International night. My absolute favorite part of dinner was the Asian station which was there every night. You could pick out the type of stir fry you desired and the chef would make it for you right there. One night I had beef with lo mein and vegetables and the next night I chose chicken. The spices which were added made the dish delicious and it was nice and hot when I took it back to my table.

El Patio - Mexican Style Restaurant

Two of the nights we dined at El Patio, a Mexican style restaurant. The décor in the restaurant was colorful and unique. Each chair was painted with a different Mexican influenced design.

The food was simply good at this restaurant. One night I ordered the crab cake for an appetizer and it had no taste and a grainy consistency. However, the other night I ate there, I ordered the same appetizer as my husband ordered the first night, the seafood cerviche. This was a better choice, as I enjoyed the tanginess of the cocktail sauce and the fish seemed fresh.

My entrees of tacos were fine. I am not a big fan of Mexican food to begin with, but we ate there because they welcomed kids and because my husband likes Mexican cuisine. The only negative was that there is no kids menu at this place. The waiter kindly offered to bring out French fries and pieces of grilled chicken for the kids, but I would have liked for them to have more dining choices.

Because we were at an all inclusive resort, we always ordered dessert. My advice is to skip the dessert at El patio. The first night we were there, I ordered the key lime pie off of the menu. Instead, I was served a lemon meringue pie (I didn't eat it).

The second time we ate there, the kids were getting restless, so we headed next door to the buffet and served ourselves dessert there.

Seaside Grill - Steak and Seafood Restaurant / Oceana - Seafood Restaurant

One night we ate at the Seaside Grill. This is an open air restaurant overlooking the beach. The main entrees on the menu here are grilled steaks and seafood. I ordered a mahi-mahi dish and it was seasoned perfectly and grilled to a tender bite. There is a standard kids' menu and the atmosphere here is casual.

However, the service was extremely slow and we had to skip dessert again due to the children getting restless. I had to order my mojito drink twice before the waiter remembered to bring it over. It was because of the service issues that we decided not to eat at the Oceana Restaurant the next night.

Oceana is attached to the Seaside Grill, so they have the same kitchen and kitchen staff. Knowing this, we decided to skip this spot. It has almost the same menu as Seaside Grill.

Bordeaux and Himitsu Restaurants

Bordeaux is described in the Dreams brochure as a romantic, adults only (18 years and older) oceanfront restaurant, featuring fine French cuisine. The dress code is "casual elegance" which means men must wear long pants and a short sleeved shirt with a collar. Women must wear a skirt outfit, a dress or a pantsuit. No flip flops, shorts or beach attire are permitted.

Brodeaux is located upstairs from the Seaside Grill / Oceana restaurants. You can select a table overlooking the ocean. We couldn't eat there because we were with the kids. However, I asked some of the other guests for their opinion and they enjoyed the food and atmosphere there.

Himitsu, a Pan Asian and Oriental restaurant is located in the main building, near the World Café. There are three Tepanyaki grill tables in which the waiters / chefs prepare the food in front of you. Himitsu has the same dress code and no children policy as Bordeaux so I didn't have a chance to actually dine there.

Da Mario - Italian Restaurant

Da Mario Italian restaurant is located in one area of the World Cafe buffet, so you might not notice that it's a separate restaurant. Here you can order specialty pizzas and pasta dishes á la carte, without having to walk up to the buffet.

The pasta dishes are made to order and there are offerings such as chicken parmesan, margharita pizza and spaghetti and meatballs. We skipped this restaurant since we have countless Italian restaurants to choose from here in New Jersey.

Everyone in my family really enjoyed the meals at Dreams Resort. There were plenty of menu selections and restaurant choices. We also appreciated not having to make reservations (a resort wide policy) and not having to leave a tip. But we found the waiters (there were no waitresses there) so hardworking and friendly that we tipped them anyway.