Dubai Restaurant Review: Paul's Cafe, Mall of the Emirates

In a nutshell: rather squashed location but great menu selection and fabulous fresh food.

5/5

I really am on a roll of eating out at great restaurants just now! Long may it last...Today I had lunch at Paul's Cafe in Mall of the Emirates and the salad I had could not have been more different to the uninteresting Saladicious one I endured a few weeks ago. Paul's is a French cafe that originates from France itself, so the menu items, breads and pastries are all authentically French. I've previously reviewed the Dubai Airport Terminal 3 branch of Paul's but that one doesn't offer the full range that you'll find at the Mall or in any of their other outlets around Dubai. The only downside of the MoE branch compared to, for example, the Mercato Mall one is that the MoE cafe is located right next to an escalator and so all the tables are squashed into a very tight space - shame they can't move to a better and bigger location because it is always jam-packed.

Paul's offers a range of salads, sandwiches, quiches, savoury crepes and some grills (i.e. salmon). Initially I opted for the crab salad (the menu stated it was fresh crab, not crabsticks which are actually fish and wheat) but then I saw the 'salade panachee' which included avocado, palm hearts, artichoke hearts, asparagus, sweetcorn, mushrooms, tomatoes and mixed lettuce - what a variety! For an additional charge you could add either chicken or prawns to the salad so I went for the prawns to ensure my protein was there. A basket of fresh bread (onion rolls, olive white bread and plain brown bread) was delivered to the table and I couldn't resist having a couple of small slices...yummy. The salad then arrived and this was beautifully presented and included everything it was meant to. It wasn't drowned in dressing but the lettuce had been tossed in a delicious French dressing and that was enough to give a mouth-watering flavour to every bite. Who said salad was boring? Certainly not if you're having one at this venue.

Prices are fairly standard with a salad averaging AED 50 but the additional prawns cost an extra AED 19 which I thought was quite expensive for 7 small prawns. Still, you get what you pay for and when I left here I felt my money had been very well spent. Next time I'll maybe aim for the Mercato one though just so that I can have a bit of room and personal space while I eat.