Honeymoon in Greece - Dreams Luxury Suites Santorini

I saved the best for last. This is all about our hotel in Santorini...one of the best and most luxurious hotels I've ever been in. They only have like 6 suites and they're all different. They are all designed in the traditional Cycladic style, which is like cave dwellings. And each one with a private terrace with pools and/or jacuzzis. It is beyond gorgeous and they keep the place spotless! Housekeeping came twice a day, so the room and terrace is always clean. Our suite, Iokasti, had both a pool and jacuzzi. I think the pool is a necessity since it's so hot during the day. I'd make sure I spent some time every day in the pool and laying out on the lounge chairs. :) 

Dreams Luxury Suites
Imerovigli, Santorini
www.dreamsluxurysuites.com
 

The service Was on point!!! The hotel managers, Vivian and Ioanna, were fabulous. Always eager to help and super nice. They gave us a ton of great recommendations and took care of everything for us. All we had to do was ask, and they would do the rest. And Giannis, not sure what his title is, but he did everything! From taking our bags to the rooms, room service, and fixing anything around the hotel. They truly made it a real vacation for us. By the end of our stay, we had become friends. I hope we can visit them again in the future.

Now... the food!! OMG. Some of the best meals we had on the trip was at the hotel. They had a brilliant in house chef that made everything fresh including all the breads baked from scratch. We had free breakfast every morning. As much as we wanted. :)
By day 3, we had pretty much figured out all the things we liked best and just ordered multiple quantities of each. haha.

First night dinner. We sat on a deck that had a better view of the sunset. Apparently Imerovigli doesn't have a great sunset view because of it's location. But still, we can see most of it and it's really nice. 

Breads (with red pepper sauce). The breads were warm and perfectly fluffy on the inside. That sauce... oh man. We asked for extras.

Caprese (tomatoes, balsamic, mozzarella, pesto) Everything was so fresh and amazing. Greek tomatoes are awesome. 

Salmon Tagliatelle. One of the most memorable pasta dishes I've ever had. The pasta was perfectly cooked. The salmon was tender and perfect with the cream sauce. It was soooooo good!

Risotto Primavera (saffron, zucchini, carrots). This was just ok... needed meat for sure.
And seriously... everything looks and tastes better with this view!

We took our dessert back at our private patio. Ravani. Not exactly what kind of cake this is. But the cake is soaked with some sort of syrup. And the ice cream is topped with caramel sauce that doesn't taste like any caramel I've had before.

The breakfast... Oh the breakfast. One of the highlights of everyday. I'm just going to list everything I remember that we had throughout our stay.
Croissants - our favorite thing. We doubled our order after we discovered how good they were. Baked in house. Super buttery and fluffy. Perfect with their marmalade and honey. These were a staple every morning. 

French Toast
Greek Omelette. They're baked in a dish instead of a omelette you'd find in the states.
Spinach Pie
Smoked Salmon
Fresh fruit
Homemade Marmalade
Honey (it tastes different in Greece. It's lighter!) 

 

Apple Juice, Orange Juice, Pineapple Juice. They gave us a complimentary bottle of champagne when we arrived so we got juice in the morning to make our own mimosas! Cheers!

 

 

 

Iced Coffee
Bacon and Eggs. This turned out to be our favorite main dish. We ordered it a lot.

Homemade Mosaiko (with chocolate sauce)

Hot Tea
Corn Flakes
Museli

Cheese Sandwich

Cucumber, Tomatoes, and Olives

Chocolate Cereal
Toast with Tapenade 
Hot Chocolate 

Ham and Egg Scramble

We had lunch in the hotel one day. Just shared an order of the Club Sandwich since we had a big breakfast. The sandwich was good, but the fries stole the show! Those wedges were fried to perfection!! I couldn't stop eating them!

 

Last night in Santorini. We decided to have a quiet dinner on our terrace. They come and make it look all romantic too. With lanterns and table cloth and stuff. :)
The hotel sent us a gift (Greek olive oil), and complimentary smoothies for our last day.

Everyone at the hotel are super sweet. I miss them so much. 
Breads (with red pepper sauce). We ordered double this time, plus extra sauce. hehe. 

Caprese (tomatoes, balsamic, mozzarella, pesto) 

Salmon Tagliatelle. We had to get this one more time before we left. Still amazing!

Chicken Fettucine. This was also delicious. They used dark meat chicken so it was super tender. The pasta was perfectly al dente. Yum!!

One of the most fabulous and relaxing stays of my life. I'm so glad I found Dreams Luxury Suites. I highly highly recommend it. Even if you just go for 1-2 nights...it's well worth the money! And I'm glad I chose Imerovigli to stay in. It's much quieter, and the view is just absolutely breathtaking!

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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~

Origin Kitchen + Bar

My wedding planning has officially commenced, y'all! Last Saturday was my very first bridal show... I went with a friend of mine who is getting married this fall and some of her bridesmaids. Mine isn't until mid 2016 so I've only just begun. And it's only been a week so far... I'm already stressed! Venues are soooo expensive! XP We'll see what happens, I guess. I just know we gotta have some damn good food!! haha.

Anyways, this is about food, not the planning. The bridal show was in the afternoon so we decided to go for Sunday brunch beforehand. My friend told me that she started a cleanse so she can't have any meat and sugar for several days. So I suggested Origin. I've been wanting to go there for awhile and they seem to have healthier options.

Origin Kitchen + Bar
4438 Mckinney Ave. Ste. 150
Dallas, TX 75205
(214) 484-3970
http://originkitchenandbar.com
Price (for brunch): $$

I made a reservation for 6 of us at 11:30AM on Sunday. Good thing I did, cuz the place was pretty packed when we got there and by the time we got our food, the bar was overflowing with people waiting for a table. It's a pretty small space with an open kitchen and bar. I really liked the decor...lots of wood, rustic... that whole farm-to-table feel that became so popular lately. I really like that vibe.

Our waiter was really nice. He gave some suggestions to my friend who was on the strict diet and helped her pick out a dish. Everything sounded so good...we all had a hard time choosing what to order.

I had so many options to choose from but decided on The Diamond Head (blackened salmon, basil pesto, arugula, lemon aioli, toasted ciabatta, choice of side) $15~ For my side I ordered the Brussels Sprouts (normally $5~)

To be honest, having the ability to choose a side to go with my dish helped me make my decision cuz I really wanted the brussels sprouts. haha. And they were delicious. Charred perfectly... I still don't know how restaurants char their brussels sprouts cuz I can never get it to that level. The salmon comes in ciabatta but I saw on Yelp that someone got it in a pita. I asked the waiter and he says they can totally do that. It was so good! The salmon was cooked well, had so much flavor. The pita was warm and soft. The basil pesto and lemon aioli paired so well with everything. I was hoping I could take some to go but I finished everything! It was a good size too cuz I was full but not exploding. When we got the check I did notice there was a $1 extra charge for getting the brussels sprouts. The menu didn't indicate the upcharge and neither did the waiter when we ordered, but he told me later that because the brussels sprouts was a dollar more than the other sides, there's an extra $1 charge. Hmmm.. wish I had known that. But I don't think that would've really changed my order. Still, after tax and tip... I didn't think I'd spend over $20... 

My friend on the cleanse got the Seasonal Hash Bowl (two eggs your way, sweet potato, apple, bacon, toasted sunflower seed, dried currants, golden raisins) $8~ She had them replace the bacon with avocado so she can stay on track. It was a big portion. The sweet potatoes were cooked well. She really enjoyed it.

Man Cakes (Berkshire pork tenderloin, buttermilk pancakes, eggs your way, jalapeno jelly) $15~ This sounded amazing. I think the girl who ordered this was expecting a big portion. I think we all were. I mean... with a name like "Man Cakes" I want it to be a manly portion! It was pretty small. When they brought it to the table we all looked down and kinda laughed. She said it was good though. She finished it all and then ate the rest of her friend's dish. haha.

The King (vanilla French toast, rum spiced caramel, grilled banana, sea salt almond butter mousse, bacon) $15~ This looked awesome. We were all wishing we ordered it when it came. I got to try a bite. Yummmm! I loved the almond butter mousse. The toast was done well too. I'd get this next time I go.

Wake Up Omelette (chorizo, pickled jalapeno, Dallas mozzarella, avocado lime creme, frites) $12~ Looked like a pretty standard omelette... a little small, but my friend said it was tasty. The fries were really good. We couldn't stop eating them.

It was a great meal. I think everyone liked what they ordered. It took a while for the food to come out though, I wonder if that is normal since they were really busy. And most of the dishes came out at the same time except one... But we weren't in a rush so no worries. I'll definitely go back!

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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~