Showing 1-9 of 9 results
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Bella Donna
There's a sea change afoot at Dubai's malls, with decent food taking its place alongside the heat-lamp horrors of the chain restaurants. So we come to pay homage to Bella Donna, at the head of the mall restaurant revolution, serving up fresh pastas (try the excellent Bolognese) and pizzas, as well as superb coffee.
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BiCE
Expats from Italy call BiCE the best Italian restaurant in town. We can't disagree. In the classic tradition, the cooking is clean: the chef uses just a few top-quality ingredients and lets them shine.
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Café Chic
Two-star Michelin-rated chef Philippe Gauvreau oversees Café Chic, a stalwart of haute-contemporary French cuisine. Top ingredients are flown in daily from France - line-caught fish from Brittany, Red Label guinea hen, Valrhona chocolate - and they're transformed into art by executive-chef Pierrick Cizéron. Go for a set menu, and request the sommelier pair wines - his list is one of Dubai's best. The room is dated, but the culinary acumen is spot-on.
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Casa Mia
Though one of the most dependable Italians in town, Casa Mia is well off the beaten path in Le Meridien Village. Friendly service and reliable cooking justify the trek. Start with beef carpaccio, then move on to wood-fired pizza or housemade pasta - scarf up the sauce with fresh-baked bread. Mains run high, upwards of Dh130 for a steak (albeit properly juicy and tender); stick to starch if you're on a budget.
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Certo
Overlook the dining room (reminiscent of an office-tower lobby) in favour of the house-made pastas, properly cooked al dente, and tender thin-crusted pizzas with inventive toppings. But the real standouts are the mains - go for the lamb alla bracce, four chops with wilted romaine, fava beans and pancetta. Some dishes fall flat - if a dish sounds too starchy, it is - but it's worth coming if only for the succulent prosciutto, a rare treat in pork-shy Dubai.
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Emporio Armani Caffé
The revolution in Dubai's mall food offers no better example than this outpost of the Armani empire. The coffee is as smooth as an Italian waiter, the food is as stylishly presented as the staff, and the Italian flavours so good we wish they had a liquor licence.
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Glasshouse Mediterranean Brasserie
It must be hard for the folk at Glasshouse not to want to throw stones at their neighbouring restaurant, Gordon Ramsay's Verre. While Verre gets all the media attention, Glasshouse has quietly reinvented itself as one of Dubai's most accomplished brasserie-style restaurants. The British-heavy comfort-food menu lists dishes like risotto with mushrooms, and rib-eye steak with chips. It's executed with style, unlike the service, alas. Great wines by the glass.
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Paul
European expats flock here in droves on Thursday and Friday nights to linger over French pastries and dream of home. By day, it's a good spot to refuel on salade Niçoise and quiche while shopping in the BurJuman Centre.
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Tang
Tang raises the level of culinary discourse in Dubai, but does it feed you dinner? The chef is more scientist than cook - he unabashedly calls his cooking style 'molecular' - fetishising food for its atomic structure, not for its sustenance. This amounts to a lot of complicated (and expensive) cryogenics: instead of a hunk of tomato with basil, you may get a paper-thin tulip made from tomato purée blasted with liquid nitrogen, then garnished with a crumbled, flash-frozen basil leaf.
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Showing 1-9 of 9 results
