What does it take to make you love a meal? Something new? Something different? Something tasty? A bit of spice, maybe. And of course, a little something sweet to top it all off.

While not every meal you eat will be all that fabulous and a bag of chips, if you look hard enough, you can find a meal you are head over heels for. I was fortunate enough to have one of those epic meals that offered everything you want an eating experience to be at Olivéa, located at 719 E. 17th Ave. in Uptown.

Maybe it was because it was Valentine’s Day, but the intimate dining room brought out an undeniably dark and sexy feel to the restaurant. We sat at the corner of the bar, which we had almost exclusively to ourselves for the whole meal.

Olivéa boasts an extensive and moderately priced wine list, which we jumped on immediately. We went for a bottle of La Cartuja, which is a mixed bottle from Spain made of four different grapes.

The four-course V-Day special dinner started with a choice of a seafood trio or asparagus bisque. Neither of wanted to forgo the opportunity to eat amazing seafood so we double-timed it. The trio consisted of ahi tuna with pickled chilies dressed with bits of avocado, cilantro and olive oil; a slightly spicy red snapper with sea beans, capers, meyer lemon and black olives (not the nasty olives you usually get in the U.S., the real olives that must have come straight from the Mediterranean); and lastly, a dish of mussels made with sherry, garlic and chorizo served with what can only be described as an extra-long spicy Cheese-It.

Each part of this trio presented something different to your taste buds making for a well-rounded and incredibly delicious start to a great meal.

For the second course we went in different directions. I had the artichoke heart salad with mizuna, capers, the creamiest goat cheese ever, and almonds in a raspberry vinaigrette. The salad was placed atop the artichoke hearts, and it made for a multi-layered taste experience on the plate. The top was salty and savory, and then you add in the sweet artichokes to make each bite dance in your mouth.

My faithful eating companion went straight for the meat for this course. The love letters, a house-made pasta tossed with wild boar and served with tomato mint sauce, seemed like a Coloradoan take on Bolognese. The gamey meat was a nice touch to this dish, and I would liken it to pulled pork in a meat sauce.

Love Letters

Third course, we both agreed that more seafood was in order. The roasted monkfish with a baby beet and pea shoot salad over a cauliflower puree was another multi-level dish, but this time with temperature. The warm fish and chilled salad was another winning combination that seemed to melt away in my mouth.

Roasted Monkfish

Rounding out the meal with the sweet dessert course, I went for the passion fruit and caramel cremeaux cake. It was plated with straight sugar cane. Think of key-lime pie, amped up and redesigned for a five-star dinner.

The other option we also tried was the chocolate dacquoise with milk chocolate ice cream. If it’s possible to make a chocolate rice crispy treat fancy and delicate, then Olivéa has done it.

I can’t wait to go back and try this Mediterranean beauty’s regular menu and see what other tricks they have up their sleeve.

See the rest of the photos from the meal and others on the D.D. Facebook page