Dubai Restaurant Review: Aquarium, Dubai Creek Yacht Club

In a nutshell: fabulous food, excellent service and fantastic value!

5/5

The last time I ate at Aquarium at the Dubai Creek Yacht Club was in 1996 to celebrate my A'Level results! 15 years later, encouraged by my Entertainer voucher, I thought it was about time to try it again. Simon had eaten there 6 years ago and remembered the meal as being excellent and I'm pleased to say that our dinner was an unequivocal 5/5. The restaurant is upstairs from The Boardwalk and the floor to ceiling windows give great views out onto the Creek, if you are sitting with your back to the window then you still have a great view of the huge aquarium (apt considering the restaurant name) and its muticoloured fish.

The staff were all very friendly and we were surprised at how busy it was - we heard numerous diners greeted by name so they must have a loyal following of regulars. I had to change my chair because the table we were given had those low, armchair-style seats that I never find comfortable to sit in when I'm eating. There was no fuss made about my request though and the 'proper' dining chair I was given was much more to my liking.

The menu offers a fixed price 4 course dinner...for only Dhs 160! The first course was sushi and the second course choices were carpaccio of salmon or a crab trio. I don't like raw fish (and can't eat it anyway since I'm pregnant) but decided that selecting the fixed menu and then asking to change the options was not quite the way it is meant to work. I later saw that the sushi appetiser was actually a cooked prawn over rice (I'm sure it has a specific Japanese name!) and a California roll - so no raw fish after all. Oh well. There is also a fixed price menu at Dhs 190 that allows you to choose any three courses from the a la carte menu, barring a few expensive dishes that are asterixed as excluded. Simon and I did the maths to work out whether the fixed menu or the voucher would be most economical and the voucher won by Dhs 100. There are also fresh fish and seafood laid out 'market style' that you can choose from but we found the menu was missing information on the available side orders; our waiter informed us that each side dish was Dhs 18 but there was no actual list of sides to choose from - small thing to improve on the menu.

My starter of scallops wrapped in smoked salmon on a bed of tagliatelli vegetables (Dhs 74) was excellent. The scallops were perfectly cooked through without making them chewy and the salmon gave them that extra bit of flavour since scallops can be a little bland sometimes. I loved the presentation of the vegetables and I read in a recipe book the other day that you can make these vegetable ribbons by using a potato peeler - I'm going to try it later this week. Simon's prawn spring rolls (Dhs 58) were also beautifully presented and tasted delicious - not greasy even though they were deep fried - with a zesty alcoholic lime dressing.

We both opted for the surf 'n' turf for our main course. This wasn't actually on the a la carte menu, it was only on the set menu but they said we could have it. We were a little surprised at the price of Dhs 140 since the whole 4 course menu was Dhs 160 but as we were getting one free with the voucher and we both really fancied some cigali (Omani lobster), we went ahead with it regardless. The portion size was perfect with just enough potato and vegetables to eat with the fillet steak and lobster - I wasn't able to finish all my steak but my human food vacuum polished it off for me. We had a small consternation when I requested no garlic because the waiter informed us that all their sauces were made with a stock including garlic. Luckily we did not have a repeat of an experience I had at Hunter's Steakhouse at the Westin Hotel a few years ago where the chef came to see me and I had to tell him to simply add some wine and cream to the steak juices to make a non-garlic sauce! The chef at Aquarium made a lovely mushroom sauce for me. The whole main course was fantastic.

Now for dessert...the only disappointment of the meal. We had planned to share a mixed berry pavlova and a dessert that sounded delicious on the menu: coconut tart with lime cheesecake topped with pineapple and coconut ice-cream. As we were both pretty full after the main course we decided to go with just 1 dessert and the coconut tart was (sadly) the dish of preference. The tart was not the light pastry I expected but a heavy base that tasted more like a crumble topping (think mouthful of dry flour), the cheesecake was rock hard and tasteless and the ice-cream was full of ice particles. We saw a pavlova getting delivered to another table and it looked divine. Despite this disappointing end to the meal, I still feel that the overall experience and the non-dessert food was delicious and that the value for money for such a meal was amazing. We have 2 more vouchers for Aquarium and I have a feeling we'll be using them both!

Dubai Restaurant Review: Karat, The Address, Dubai Mall

In a nutshell: Great value, fantastic afternoon tea with wonderful sandwiches.

5/5

Many people think that you should go to the Burj Al Arab for the ultimate afternoon tea, personally I think it's over-priced and I find the Burj ostentatious and garish - although the views down the coast are spectacular. Next in line for great afternoon tea has to be the Ritz-Carlton which offers a more refined experience in its fabulous wood-beamed lobby lounge, although a full afternoon tea is quite expensive (about Dhs 165 last time I went). When I heard rave reviews about The Address' afternoon tea, priced at just Dhs 125, I decided that would be the perfect place for Simon and I to take our mothers whilst his was here on holiday...and it was.

All The Address hotels offer the same afternoon tea, I'm told, but we went to the Dubai Mall (not Downtown) one. Getting into the hotel when you exit Sheikh Zayed Road from the Jebel Ali direction is quite circuitous and not particularly well sign-posted and even once we got inside we had to ask how to get to the lobby since the hotel is a rather strange shape and you can't see the reception as you walk in. We finally found Karat and immediately felt more relaxed as the calm, relaxing vibe of hushed voices and the large comfy armchairs in shades of beige, gold and cream worked their charm on us. We had to laugh at the wall paintings though: rather than being hung on the walls, they were all stood on a shelf that wrapped round the room and were balanced against the wall. Maybe this is the new thing in interior design, but to us it just looked like they were waiting to be put up - I should have asked about it but got so wrapped up in our food that I forgot.

The staff were all very friendly and our waitress was happy to explain how they run their afternoon tea and to recommend teas from the vast menu (all freshly brewed from leaves - no tea bags in sight). Many places bring out a cake stand with all the food (scones, sandwiches and cakes) placed on the various tiers but The Address serves it as separate course: scones, then sandwiches, then cakes and finally chocolates. Tea is unlimited but coffee is limited to only one cup. I ordered a caffeine-free tea which I really didn't like and so I shared Simon's good old English Breakfast tea. It's always worth trying new things, but often it's the tried and tested ones that still come out on top.

The scone course was delicious and included not just 2 scones (no fruit scones though, which I adore) but also a small brioche and 3 madeleines. The pinnacle of this course was the passion-fruit jam...absolutely delicious. Jam can be a bit too sweet for me sometimes but this had a wonderful sharpness to it and I couldn't get enough of it. The sandwiches then arrived in a presentation box and what a presentation! Bite-sized toasts with various toppings: quail's egg, roast beef, tuna, turkey and tomato with a cheese mousse. The most impressive was the cucumber which was a thin strip of cucumber wrapped around thin layers of bread interlaid with cream cheese...I won't be trying to replicate it at home that's for certain! The most original was a light, crunchy falafel on a tiny Arabic bread. The fact that each sandwich was so small meant you weren't over-faced and you were able to enjoy the different flavours without feeling stuffed full of bread.

The subsequent two courses were both wonderful but slightly too sweet for me. The cakes included 3 different small pieces of cake and the chocolates were not only chocolate cake and home-made chocolates, but also baclava, pistachio cake, a fruit tart, macarens and a chocolate eclair. We all agreed that it would make more sense to have the sandwiches first and then the scones since going from sweet to savoury and then back to sweet seemed rather the wrong way round. When we arrived our waitress had said that we could have the meal in any order we wanted though, so next time I'll ask for the sandwiches first. In fact, what I'm already planning to ask is whether I can have 2 rounds of sandwiches, then the scones and then just the fruit tart - not sure that will be possible since their pricing is based on the set menu but it can't hurt to ask.

There is something so civilised about going out for tea and we love to do it when we have visitors. Karat was so delicious, such good value and very chilled out...we will most definitely go back.

Dubai Restaurant Review: Rhodes' Mezzanine, Grosvenor House

In a nutshell: fantastic service, wonderful complimentary additions, fabulous food but very pricey.

5/5

This is the first 5/5 score in quite a long time and Rhodes' Mezzanine at Grosvenor House Dubai most definitely deserves it. As you approach the restaurant doors to find them being thrown open for you by a smiling hostess, you enter a red & white world of space and refinement. Some fine dining restaurants can feel stuffy, but Mezzanine's minimalist, modern decor ensures that you feel you are in a funky, not fusty venue. As, presumably, the only 19:30 booking of the night, the hostess greeted us by name and we were offered the choice of having a drink in the lounge or heading straight to our table. Although the sofas and armchairs of the lounge looked inviting, we decided to go for our table and found that we were the only diners. Luckily, as the night progressed the restaurant filled up to about 2/3 capacity; the private dining area within Mezzanine was also in use by a large group (great for their privacy and for us to not be disturbed by the chatter of a large table of people).

The Mezzanine menu is very small (I think there were just 8 starters, 8 mains and 8 desserts) so if you are particularly fussy then it would be worth calling ahead to check on the menu before visiting. Thankfully the three of us all love fish as the vast majority of the items were fish based. The waiter informed me that the menu changes every 3 months and the new menu launches tomorrow (6 December) with Gary Rhodes himself arriving on the 16th December to work on next year's menu. A great touch that I've not seen in Dubai before, was that all allergy information was included on the menu - unfortunately for me every dish included dairy but I decided not to worry about it for one night! I'm sure that a lot of the dairy was actually the sauces rather than the dishes themselves and that they could have conjured up alternatives if I'd asked. Another fantastic idea is that in addition to the main menu, there is a 'taster menu' which offers smaller portions of certain items from the full menu. I ordered the smaller portions and they were full portions for my appetite - I was so full at the end that I couldn't even face dessert.

Whilst we were perusing the menu, the first of 3 complimentary courses was delivered to our table: bite-sized Scotch eggs (using quail eggs), foie gras on ginger toast and hot gouda cheese between 2 filo pastry layers. Foie gras is not something I would normally eat, but in a tiny portion it was edible and the eggs and cheese were both delicious. After we had ordered, the 2nd complimentary course arrived: tomato soup in a small china cup - not red tomato soup, though, this was a pale pinky-white colour with a huge head of foam. It was just enough to exclaim at the fabulous flavour without being too much to make us question whether ordering a starter had been a bad idea. The 3rd complimentary course came at the end of the meal and included small chocolates (quite usual in a fine dining restaurant) as well as tiny scones with jam and cream (not usual but totally yummy) - I just wish I had had room to eat them, I only managed half a scone!

I started my meal with a delicious, creamy scallop soup. When my bowl was placed in front of me there was a nest of leeks with a large scallop on top but no liquid - the soup was then poured over the scallop from a jug...impressive presentation. Simon's crab lasagne (see above photo) was also very snazzily presented with delicate pasta layers and a generous amount of fresh crab. Kath's salmon plate had sounded like it would be a huge dish but it was actually very manageable and provided a fantastic range of flavours and textures: a small cup of crab bisque, layers of salmon in the form of a terrine and a small piece of grilled salmon.

My John Dory main course was meant to be served on a bed of mushrooms but the waiter informed me that these were marinated in garlic, instead I opted for the salmon accompaniment of crushed potatoes and peas. It was a fabulous dish and I think the change to peas and potato was maybe even better than the official mushrooms would have been! As the original dish wasn't served with any potato, I had ordered a side of creamed potatoes and the 3 of us did each need just that little bit of extra potato or we would have been left with fish and nothing to eat with it. Simon and Kath both chose the Red Mullet which was also beautifully presented and full of flavour.

I couldn't face eating a dessert but decided a single scoop of rhubarb sorbet (an original flavour that was very tasty) would just cleanse my palate - and we weren't charged for it. Kath went for the British Plate which consisted of a small bread & butter pudding, a jam roly-poly and a sticky toffee pudding! Simon's rhubarb souffle was perfectly risen and once laid in front of him, the waiter cut into the top and poured the custard into the middle...divine.

The staff at Mezzanine are excellent; very attentive without being over-bearing, knowledgeable about the menu and friendly. Our only other visit to Mezzanine was over 5 years ago and when we left the waiter said he hoped we wouldn't wait so long to come back next time. Such great service and food does come at a price though...in our case just over Dhs 400 a head. Wine by the glass is very pricey at Dhs 50-60 a glass and my small side order of potato was Dhs 50. On the main menu, starters are over Dhs 100 and mains are close to Dhs 200 whilst on the taster menu the starters are around the Dhs 60 mark and mains about Dhs 130 or so. Worthwhile for a special occasion, but not somewhere we would go too frequently. I'm already planning our return though...wedding anniversary in March perhaps?

Dubai Restaurant Review: PF Chang, Mirdiff City Centre

In a nutshell: great food, service and price!

5/5

I had heard great things about the new Mall of the Emirates branch of PF Chang and when Simon and I came upon it in Mirdiff City Centre we decided it would be worth a taste. We were not disappointed! I liked the decor of dark wood, Chinese lanterns hanging from the ceiling, walls painted with scenes of Chinese life and large stone statues - from a life-size horse at the door to an emperor and his hencemen inside. The restaurant is very big and it was almost full, which we rightly took to be a good sign.

We were seated by a friendly hostess and our waiter came to take our drink order immediately. During the meal, Simon had almost finished his rice and the waiter came to ask if he'd like more...very observant and attentive. We were surprised to see an American manager but PF Chang is an American chain and they clearly decided that brand expertise was required to successfully launch the brand here - good strategy. The staff have all clearly been well trained although I found it strange that the manager didn't talk to any guests at all. We also saw the chef come out of the kitchen - a Western woman who we presumed must have also come over from the US.

The menu is extensive, but not so huge as to be overwhelming. I was thrilled to see that they offer BROWN RICE (no additional charge) - finally a restaurant that realises the health benefits of wholegrain rice. As the restaurant is in a mall, there's no pork but you can find everything else including chicken, duck (no duck pancakes though), beef, lamb, fish and various seafood. We started our meal with steamed shrimp dumplings, just to share as we had been warned by my parents that the portions are very generous. Really delicious, although sharing was a good idea since I couldn't have managed an entire plate of them alone. The accompanying ginger soy sauce gave that little extra kick to the tastebuds.

Not wanting to go for a commonplace option, I ordered chicken in ginger with broccoli. Simon went for sweet & sour chicken...not very adventurous and he didn't like it as much as my dish. There was nothing wrong with the sweet & sour, but once he tried mine he realised that he could have had a much more interesting meal. My chicken in ginger was fantastic, the ginger added great flavour without being too strong, the sauce was definitely freshly made (not like my Chop Chop experience) and the broccoli was cooked al dente so I felt that I had eaten a really healthy meal. If you have a starter then I would recommend sharing a main course; we had shared our starter but still couldn't manage to finish both mains.

There was no way we could even consider a dessert, especially as their cakes are suitable for 4 people to share! A cheap way to have dessert anyway. To help people choose their dessert, they've made replicas out of plastic and when you order dessert they bring you over a tray showing what they all look like. I'd never seen that before but thought it was a great idea and less wasteful than having real examples laid out. Maybe next time I'll avoid the starter and save some room for dessert. For the entire meal, including drinks, we spent just AED 150 and we left feeling that our money had been very well spent.

Dubai Restaurant Review: Benihana, Amwaj Rotana

In a nutshell: great food, great service and great vibe.

5/5

Last night we had our second Japanese meal of the week but what a difference from Sakura! Benihana is an international chain but they do provide a fantastic Japanese experience - I've eaten at them in Seattle (USA), Abu Dhabi (UAE) and Amman (Jordan) and never been disappointed. The Amwaj Rotana has just opened in Jumeirah Beach Residence. We weren't sure where it was so we drove the whole length of the cobbled Walk and it was of course at the opposite end to where we started. It's almost opposite the Sheraton Jumeirah which is down the last crossroad on the main road if you're coming from Dubai (1st one from Jebel Ali). They also have an Italian restaurant (Rosso) that looked really good so we will try that next time.

The layout of Benihana suits solo diners as well as groups. The drinks bar is combined with the sushi bar where the chef makes sushi more or less fresh to order. If you're dining alone then you can sit at the drinks/sushi bar, alternatively the walls of the kitchen are all glass and they have a bar along the full length of the window into the kitchen so you can watch the cooking action as you eat. At the far end of the room, shielded by screens is the teppanyaki area with 3 large teppanyaki tables and of course diners all have to sit next to each other around the hot plate which can be a great way to get to know your fellow diners. We chose to sit at a regular table since the noise from the teppanyaki, plus sitting in a row around the cooking station make conversation a bit difficult at times. Sometimes you can leave a teppanyaki restaurant smelling of oil and food, but the screen separators meant that we weren't affected by the live cooking at all.

The menu is very comprehensive and includes a huge array of sushi, sashimi and maki as well as other Japanese staples such as yakitori, tempura, soups, salads and of course teppanyaki. We had some edamame and a single portion of california rolls (6 pieces) to whet our appetites - the edamame were a little undercooked but the california rolls were extremely fresh and we were asked if we'd like to have them rolled in sesame seeds since we didn't want roe. It is possible to choose a variety of starter dishes to share and then follow this with teppanyaki (the price includes grilled vegetables and rice) but we went for the teppanyaki specials which include miso soup, Japanese salad, your choice of teppanyaki with rice and vegetables plus dessert. At AED 170-210 (depending what you have) that is fantastic value for 4 courses.

The miso soup was nice, but the same as anywhere. The salad was also fine (lettuce, carrot and a mustard dressing) but nothing special. It was the teppanyaki that was the show-stopper. Simon and our friend Dara went for the Surf 'n' Turf which was beautifully presented with a lobster tail on top of the lobster and steak and the mixed vegetables layered underneath the meat. Both the lobster and steak had been sliced so they could be easily eaten with chopsticks. Louissa's chicken and steak was similarly beautifully presented. My assorted seafood was gorgeous. A medium sized piece of salmon with 2 large prawns and 5 scallops...melt in the mouth, juicy and divine! There was more than enough vegetables to go with all the fish and the rice was served separately - as with most places, brown rice was sadly not an option and that is the only thing I would say would have made the meal even better. For dessert we were offered a choice of banana tempura, tempura'd ice-cream, a scoop of ice-cream, a scoop of passion-fruit sorbet or fruit salad. Simon, Dara and I all had the sorbet which was delicious and tasted like freshly squeezed passion-fruit whilst Louissa had vanilla ice-cream.

I will definitely go back to Benihana, although first we'll have to try Rosso. Some of the staff didn't speak very much English, possibly because the hotel has just opened and they are still learning. Our waitress, Dimple, was the epitome of great customer service and the real WOW factor: she used my name throughout the meal! Since I'd made a reservation they had my name and both she and the manager made a point of personalising the service by using it - now that makes you feel special.

We had our voucher from our last Rotana meal (Channels) so with that and the 25% Rotana Rewards discount we had a total of AED 560 taken off our food bill. We did have quite a lot to drink but ignoring that, the meal itself for 4 people came to AED 850 (before discount) which is just over AED 200 a head for 4 courses. We then received another discount voucher for AED 400 plus we were given a scratch card and we won a free night's stay in the Amwaj Rotana! The free night's stay and the discount vouchers are all part of Rotana's summer promotion and it really works. If we hadn't got the voucher from Channels we wouldn't necessarily have looked to go to Rotana again last night and with our 2nd voucher we now plan to go to Rosso before the expiry of the voucher in September. The free night stay doesn't include tax, service or breakfast and when staying the night we'll also have to have dinner and lunch so it is a great way to get people into the hotel spending money they wouldn't otherwise have spent. Simon and I won't actually be using the Amwaj night because we have another one for the Bustan Rotana from dinner at Flavours on Two - I'll have that review up very soon.

Dubai Restaurant Review: Hoi An - Take 2

We were at Hoi An in the Shangri-la Hotel last month and my 5/5 review inspired one of our friends to suggest that the four of us go there for dinner since we hadn't seen each other in a couple of months (time flies so quickly!) The big question was whether it would live up to our previous fantastic experience. The answer was...almost but not quite. I wouldn't hesitate to eat here any time as the service is so warm and friendly and the food is excellent so it is still worth its 5/5 rating, I just think my menu choice wasn't the best last night and hence the less satisfying meal.

Hoi An is doing a special summer promotion fixed menu of AED 160 for 2 people which includes 2 starters to share, soup, 2 mains to share and 2 desserts to share. Fantastic value but I just didn't find the menu appealed to me and it wasn't suitable for my current 'restricted diet' since there were spring rolls (fried), crab cakes (wheat), spicy main courses and ice-cream (dairy). Our friends shared the promotion menu and they said it was really good, although the poultry (we think it was quail legs but we couldn't remember what the menu said and they were way too small for chicken) was extremely spicy - it couldn't be faulted for value for money though. I should have asked if the menu changes on a daily / weekly / fortnightly basis since I presume it would do to encourage people to keep coming back.

Simon and I both had rice paper rolls, which are Vietnamese spring rolls - rice paper with prawns, vegetables and coriander inside and served cold not fried. They were gorgeous and I much prefer these to the Chinese spring rolls. We had actually had a small 'amuse bouche' beforehand in The Balcony Bar next door since we'd arrived quite early - chicken satay which was tender and flavourful although it had sweet chili sauce on it and I prefer the more traditional Malaysian style with peanut sauce. Since Asian food in general is quite light, we were still able to easily eat our meal despite the double-starters...although we couldn't manage a dessert!

I ordered sea bass wrapped in a lotus leaf for my main. We celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary at Hoi An in March (since we got married at the Shangri-la last year we thought it apt to celebrate our anniversary there too) and I had eaten the sea bass then which I remembered as being really moist, delicate and 'wow'. This sea bass was served with a rather stodgy sort of herb covering which didn't taste bad, but didn't match up to my earlier experience of it. I wrote this on the comment card and Luyen (I think she was last night's supervisor) came to speak to me as soon as she read it and explained that because I'd asked for no garlic, the chef had made the dish differently to normal. She was extremely apologetic and even brought the chef out to see me so he could explain why the dish wasn't as I remembered it! Top marks for genuine guest care and for caring what diners have to say about their experience.

On this visit the temperature of the restaurant was a lot better than last time (not that I'd found it warm last time but Simon had been very hot). It was a Wednesday night and yet was absolutely packed, so the promotion must be working. My only slight issue with the set menu (noted last time as well) is that the service is super-fast; your next course comes the minute your plate is cleared. It's understandable at that price that they want to turn over the tables as quickly as possible but after the soup course I asked our waitress to give us fifteen minutes before bringing the mains since I just felt too rushed. As before, what really sets Hoi An apart is the free welcome drink and the hot towel you get on arrival which immediately make you feel special. Still a top choice.

Hoi An, The Shangri-la

In a nutshell: Vietnamese food with a flair and a smile
Score: 5/5
We’ve eaten at Hoi An numerous times and it never disappoints. As Dubai’s only Vietnamese restaurant, it offers a refreshing change from the proliferation of Chinese, Thai and Japanese restaurants. Vietnamese food is similar to Chinese food but is generally lighter as it’s not so deep-fried and dishes often include coconut milk, although they’re not spicy like Thai food. My sister lives in Vietnam so I’ve had the opportunity to eat the real mccoy – Simon’s and my best meal in Vietnam was actually in the town of Hoi An itself!

My Mum had read that for the month of June, Hoi An was offering an early-bird AED 99 set menu (although when you add in the cost of side orders, drinks and a bottle of wine it came to just under AED 200 per person - still very reasonable though). So we decided that would be the perfect place to take my Dad for Father’s Day. We had to order before 19:45 to be able to take advantage of the set menu but even though we were on the ‘budget’ scheme, we were still served with a welcome drink. It is a small touch that no other restaurant I’ve been to provides; a glass of non-alcoholic cocktail on arrival – a lovely start to a fabulous meal.

Hoi An’s décor is traditional Vietnamese with shutters on the windows and big fans gently stirring the air and the staff are dressed in the traditional flowing robes of Vietnam (Ao Dia). It is relatively small and pretty much all the tables were full during our meal. With only 3 staff to serve everyone, you would have expected slow service but this was not the case. The service was very slick and the ladies always had a smile on their face. It’s a testament to the quality of the staff and food that there were so many regular guests there – I lost track of the number of times a new arrival was welcomed by their name. I found the temperature of the room was perfect but both Simon and my Dad felt like they were melting towards the end and wanted to get out to the cool air of the lobby - perhaps it's a male thing!

There is a choice of 2 set menus and I couldn’t quite understand why as the starter was the same for both, I would have thought it was easier to have 1 menu with 6 main course options rather than 2 menus with 3 options each. In any case, the starter plate was a selection of 4 items: a Vietnamese spring roll, a fried spring roll, a lobster ravioli and a salt-&-pepper squid. Last time we ate here we had the full menu and I wanted to try all of the starters – and then found they offer a taster plate as a starter with a small amount of pretty much every item. Perfect.

Vietnamese spring rolls are so much more delicate than their Chinese counter-parts since the vegetables and chicken are wrapped in a rice paper pancake and it is not fried. I made them myself once but found 1. the pancakes from Choithram’s tasted quite dusty, 2. cutting the vegetables into tiny shreds was too much hard work and 3. dipping each hard pancake in hot water to soften it and then filling it with all the bits and pieces was also too much like hard work when I was hungry. Getting them perfectly made and ready to eat at Hoi An is by far my preferred way to eat them!

The main courses on the full menu are varied (last time I had fish cooked in banana leaves which was divine) but I found the options on the set menu were a bit too Chinese – sweet and sour prawns for example. I ordered the scallops which were perfectly cooked and absolutely delicious on a bed of fresh greens. Everyone else at the table had the prawns, which they all agreed were full of flavour.

I thought we had a choice of 2 desserts but it turns out you were supposed to have the dessert that went with the menu you’d chosen for the main course. I was served with a mango soup with coconut ice-cream, when I had been planning to order the crème brulée. Luckily my Dad swapped with me, although I could have eaten the soup I just didn’t fancy a cold dessert. Although it may seem that crème brulée is not very Vietnamese, Hoi An offer Vietnamese food with a French flair. Why? Vietnam was a French colony for many years so there remain a lot of French influences in Vietnamese cooking.

You may be wondering where the photos are now that I’ve figured out how to load them up. Sadly I forgot my camera!!

Japengo’s Café – Ibn Battuta Mall

In a nutshell: Great menu, great food and great service!
Score: 5/5


I have to admit that my favourite restaurant for casual dining is still Japengo’s. They are all over Dubai so it’s easy to find one in pretty much any shopping mall you visit. With Japanese, Italian, Lebanese, Chinese, Iranian, European, sandwiches and salads I reckon you’d have to be extremely fussy to not find something you want to eat! We stopped in here on our way to the airport to go on holiday to the UK and we were not disappointed.

We chose to sit ‘outside’ which is actually in the main part of China court opposite the Junk. With the restaurants on each side only separated by a wooden partition and it being a busy Thursday night, the atmosphere really was buzzing and lively. The black décor with a single red anthurium flower in a black vase on each table lend it a contemporary, sleek vibe. Sitting ‘inside’ means that you get a great view into the open kitchen and the chefs at work.

Juices, as with most Bin Hendi restaurants, are freshly squeezed and are mouth-wateringly good. My grilled salmon was a good portion, pepper-free (!!) and perfectly cooked to my liking. The vegetables were fresh and crunchy, so anyone who prefers soft veg would need to request that. Simon’s burger was huge and instead of the usual iceberg or local lettuce, there was rocket in the burger which gave it that little bit more oomph.

The fresh juices bump up the price and totalled 1/3 of the final bill. Without the drinks our meals would have cost just Dhs 120 but each drink is almost Dhs 25 – well worth it though. Only negative point was that our waiter was chewing gum but apart from that the service was efficient and friendly and we left feeling sated.

Dante - Grand Millennium Dubai, Al Barsha

In a nutshell: great food, fantastic service and reasonably priced.
5/5

In Dubai we are so used to eating at restaurants where you need to wave your arms in the air for 10 minutes to get anyone’s attention, where the waiter has to ‘ask the chef’ about any questions you have on the menu and where the quality:price ratio does not quite add up. Well not at Dante!

We ate here about 2 weeks ago and when we arrived last night one of the staff, Dinesh, met us at the door, recognised us and welcomed us back. Salvatore, the restaurant manager also recognised us and checked on how we were enjoying our meal regularly throughout the evening. All of the staff from the barman to the live singer were genuinely friendly and welcoming. Top marks for warmth of welcome!

The restaurant is a fine dining Italian but it manages to avoid the stuffy feeling of some fine dining establishments. They also have outside seating (where I plan to eat next time – weather permitting) with plants and a wall fountain. The ceiling has cherubs painted on it and candelabra-style chandeliers, not in the tacky sense though. At the entrance is a large bar area with a pre-dinner seating area. The only shame was that the restaurant wasn’t busier, it was only about half full on a Thursday night. Best of all though, the restaurant is not chilled to arctic temperatures.

A live Italian singer performs in the restaurant. Whilst she was really good (and she came round all the tables to speak to diners and ask them if they had any requests), we all felt that the restaurant is not that big and live music can make it a bit hard to talk. If you were sat at a table right next to the singer then I would say talking would be virtually impossible.

Service is speedy and efficient and we were able to catch a staff member’s eye whenever we looked up for assistance. We were asked if we wanted a breather between courses and couldn’t even manage dessert because we were so full! All the questions we had on the menu were answered without any hesitation by the staff and it was clear that excellent training on what each item is has been given to the team.

The menu offers a wide variety of choice. Starters include soups, salads and various Italian specialities. Pasta is available in either starter or main size and pizzas are made in a pizza oven actually within the restaurant. Mains were the usual mixture of meats, fish, seafood and poultry. What I really liked was the fact that each main course comes with an accompaniment so you’re not forced to order additional side orders which can add a significant cost onto your bill.

The food presentation was perfect: not overly fussy but enough to look special. A simple caprese salad was made original by its tangy vinaigrette, my melon and parma ham had a sprinkling of pomegranate seeds over it and the charcuterie plate was so fresh that you couldn’t help but finish it all – even though the portion was really a bit too big for a starter. Apart from the charcuterie, the other starters were of a good size and left you with room for your main course.

Lasagne can sometimes be too creamy, but Dante’s lasagne had just the right level of sauce to be rich without being sickening and my husband had to admit it was one of the best he’s had. The prawns with asparagus were served with in-season thick asparagus that was soft and didn’t have that chewy texture that asparagus can sometimes have and a ‘solverino’ sauce (anchovies, olives and garlic). The lamb cutlets came on a bed of mashed potato with shallots and were perfectly cooked to still have a slight pink tinge in the middle. My grilled salmon was delicate and flavoursome, my only complaint was that the asparagus accompaniment was a tiny portion related to the size of the salmon and I had to order an additional side of mixed vegetables (grilled Mediterranean veg). The only other improvement that could be made is that the food should be served on hot plates, our plates were room temperature and so the food did go a little cold.

I can’t eat garlic and pepper (as in black pepper, not capsicum!) and I’ve lost track of the number of times I inform a waiter of this and then have to send my food back because it’s covered in pepper. I didn’t have that problem last night. All my food came as requested – in any case black pepper is offered at the table with a huge pepper grinder. When I ordered the extra vegetables those were also delivered to me with the words ‘and they have no garlic or black pepper’. Sigh of relief…

We had no room for dessert but the desserts included parfaits, Italian ice-cream and sorbets and of course tiramisu. I asked for a peppermint tea but they only had Moroccan mint tea or fresh mint leaves in hot water. They had no problem providing me with hot water for me to add my own peppermint tea bag though. The liqueur coffee was rich and strong and had chocolate shavings on top of the cream which then melted into the coffee…I don’t drink coffee but I was told it was divine. The only delay of the evening we had came with the Arabic coffee as this was served quite a while after the other hot drinks had been delivered to our table.

So what was the price for this fantastic meal? The total for four people was Dhs 1,157 (Dhs 300 per head) but this includes alcoholic drinks. For the food alone the cost was Dhs 750 which is less than Dhs 200 per head for a 2 course meal. Not bad at all! We are Grand Club M members (the Millennium loyalty programme) so we had 25% off our food and 15% off drinks which brought the total meal price down to just Dhs 910 (just over Dhs 200 per person including drinks).

Overall, starters range from Dhs 40-60, pastas as a main course range from Dhs 65-80, pizza is Dhs 70-80 and main courses are Dhs 110-140. Additional accompaniments were Dhs 25 each and desserts Dhs 40.

Definite thumbs up. A great start to Bon Appetit!