Dubai Restaurant Review: Dean & DeLuca, Dubai Mall

In a nutshell: great view out to Dubai Fountain and Burj Khalifa, small menu but great food

4/5

Dean & DeLuca is a bakery-cafe-gourmet food shop all rolled into one. The floor to ceiling windows give fabulous views outside but for some reason I totally forgot to take a photo! The downside of having such large windows is that at lunch-time it makes it pretty toasty inside - and that from the girl who is never without a cardigan on when she's inside in the A/C. The menu is limited to breakfast, salads, sandwiches and cakes but sometimes it's good to not have to read through page after page of menu items. Once you've finished eating you can browse the rows of pastas, sauces, soups, biscuits, teas, coffees and more in the gourmet shop section or buy some bread and pastries to take home with you.

Simon's chicken tikka wrap had been grilled like a panini which gave it a great look and flavour. The tortilla wrap itself was quite thin which meant that when you ate it you could really taste the filling and didn't get a great mouthful of dough. The level of spiciness was perfect for him, but I couldn't have eaten a whole wrap since it was just a little bit too piquant for my delicate taste buds. The accompanying side salad was very small, but then there was salad in the wrap itself and the chips were perfectly cooked so as not to be too greasy.

I opted for a healthy salad of prawn, mango and avocado. There was a good variety of lettuce leaves as well as tomatoes and beans so it was very well balanced. After the lycee and pineapple prawns of the day before, I was really getting into the combination of fruit, veg and protein. The only small complaint against the salad was that the dressing was very lemon-y and so quite sour sometimes; the lemon bias is probably because of the prawns but I think it could have done to be toned down a bit. Apart from that...delicious and a big thumbs up.

When we were there it was very busy with a steady turnover of tables. Despite this, the staff didn't come across as stressed and were attentive and friendly throughout. Their uniform is akin to a chef's outfit so I'm not sure if they all multi-task as front and back of house - would certainly make their jobs more varied and interesting! Someone at a table near us was having a very late breakfast of pancakes with berries, and I have to say they looked delicious - wheat, milk and eggs but I still have a feeling I will have to try them one day.