Social by Heinz Beck
Caveman
What does it take for a German to run the best restaurant in Rome? Luckily, you can find out right here in Dubai since three Michelin-starred chef Heinz Beck opened the Italian-themed Social at the Waldorf Astoria Dubai Palm Jumeirah earlier this year.
The ambience: Beck himself has said he thinks restaurants should be relaxed and welcoming and that service should be precise and attentive but that staff shouldn’t spend all evening at your table trying to talk to you. He meets his own requirements admirably. Service is anticipatory but never intrusive and the staff is well versed with the menu. The decor is refined, masculine and very New York in dark wood and grey. Best of all, however, is the glass-fronted kitchen leading off the restaurant, where chefs calmly go about their business with German precision — no Ramsay-esque yelling or screaming here.
The food: Beck sets the tone with a molecular olive as amuse-bouche — olive jus flash-frozen into a sensational, real-looking olive that literally explodes in the mouth and has me wanting more immediately. From there on, it only gets better. My starter, veal vitellato, reminds me of the tight, fulsome taste of ox tongue. It comes with mayo, a dehydrated tomato, black olives, grated celery and pansy petals. Hard as it is to imagine all of those together, Beck succeeds.
My main is a curried John Dory, with pine and basil pesto — once I’ve spied it on the menu, I have to order it right away. Thankfully, the spicing doesn’t overwhelm the delicate fish; instead, the end result is a bag of sweet, nutty notes that allow the buttery taste to shine through, even when paired with a side of mashed French potatoes.
We hate: Being offered a table next to a pillar when there are empty ones with better views. We’re at the restaurant on a Sunday, and although it’s busy for a slow night, it isn’t full.
We love: Dessert. It isn’t palaeo in the least, but the Raspberry 1.0 is one of Beck’s signatures, so I’ve saved space for it. One fruit done in ten different ways — cream, sugar, biscuit, sorbet, gelatin, meringue, crystallised, chocolate, fresh and frozen. It’s rich and mellowing, and with the different textures harmonising with each other, transports you to an Italian piazza on a gorgeous summer day. This is the sort of dessert you want to propose marriage after. And I see why the hot-blooded Italians love Heinz Beck.
Omnivore
Heinz Beck is renowned as a master of modern gastronomy, and his Dubai home proves he’s well worth his three Michelin stars.
The ambience: Classy, stylish, upmarket — exactly what you’d expect in a five-star venue.
The staff: Take their recommendations to heart, but beware the aperitif offered. With a favourite Russian base it has quite a kick.
The food: I’ve always been a little sceptical of molecular gastronomy. Not because I’m against using modern science and technology in cooking, but because it’s always seemed more of a fad, lacking substance. Then I was converted by a molecular olive — a delicate gelatin skin holding an explosion of flavour so intense it’s hard to believe it originated from a drop that small. It’s all that’s good about olives without the aftertaste I’m not too fond of.
The rest of the menu continues this trend, focusing on flavour without resorting to gimmicks. The thin rind is the only clue my tuna, served cold, had been anywhere near heat.
The meat inside still beautifully deep red, I could be having sashimi — a sense supported by the wasabi mayonnaise, which is almost too pronounced but thankfully doesn’t overpower the freshness of the fish. Thinness seems a recurring theme, with the snigger-inducing fagotelli being quite un-pasta-like, the parcels bursting open at the slightest touch to release its wonderful cheesy contents. However, the black pepper ground over it lingers just a tad too long.
The lamb mains harness the best of the meat’s full flavour, a coterie of veggies swimming in its jus providing some colour. We order a side of caponata Siciliana — an aubergine-based ratatouille-like dish — which, although robust and tasty, is almost too rustic for the main attraction.
While all the dishes up to this point are presented sans frills, both desserts at our table vie for attention in the style stakes. Call me biased, but a ruby red hollow iced pomegranate sphere posing on top of pips of the same fruit, which sit on a lake of milk chocolate accompanied by a creamy cannelloni wafer is always going to win. And yes, it tastes as good as it looks. Even if liquid nitrogen was involved in its creation.
We love: Sous Chef Giuseppe Molaro’s demonstration of molecular gastronomy and the creation of the pomegranate sphere.
We hate: This is a huge property, and the bathrooms are a bit of a trek away.
Social by Heinz Beck, Waldorf Astoria Dubai Palm Jumeirah 04 818 2222
Omnia Gourmet
Caveman
At EAT, we’ve been testing the palaeo credentials of the country’s restaurants for two-and-a-half years now, and have spent many evenings asking chefs exactly what goes into their food.
So it’s a relief to be dining at Omnia, celebrity chef Silvena Rowe’s new healthy all-day cafe here in Dubai. Most ingredients are locally sourced and everything on her menu is either organic, raw, gluten-free, dairy-free, palaeo, vegan or some combination of these.
The ambience: Omnia, at the hard-to-find Jumeirah 1 Fishing Harbour, recreates the feel of an Arabic garden. It’s green, light and airy — no mean feat for a restaurant that has no windows. Barely a week into operations and popular with UAE nationals, it’s a refreshing departure from the glass and concrete jungle we’ve all become accustomed to.
The food: You can choose your food from large trattoria-style display cases, and clear labels on everything are a welcome relief for diners used to asking waiters and chefs about ingredients, provenance and cooking techniques. We order two half portions of salad to start. Mine is made from beetroot and courgettes and is paired with a refreshingly spicy Harissa dressing — but it’s the Omnivore’s burrata and tomato salad that really delights. I skip the burrata; the yellow and red cherry and heirloom tomatoes are a burst of summer and take me back to my childhood, when everything was organic and nothing tasted like cardboard and nothing tasted like cardboard.
Rowe is able to replicate that with an orange-and-honey glazed chicken, which she teams with spicy cumin-tossed potatoes and sweet red peppers. Strong flavours, nicely brought together and perfect for summer.
But it is Rowe’s palaeo dessert menu that should prove to be the big draw. Her chocolate and raspberry brownie is raw, nutty, sticky and the perfect accompaniment to coffee. There’s raw carrot cake, a cocoa and cashewnut butter tart you’d never be able to tell isn’t cooked, and cocoa-dusted tahini truffles. Just the thing for afternoon tea or a late-night suhour snack.
We hate: The fact that the thought process doesn’t extend to the drinks menu. A sugar-free vegetable smoothie wouldn’t go amiss.
We love: Palaeo desserts!
Omnivore
Celebrity chef status in and of itself generally fails to entice me. The proof of the pudding, and all that… But restauranteur and TV personality Silvena Rowe delivers pudding, salads and mains — without raking up too much of a carbon footprint.
The ambience: Think Garden of Eden in a Turkish courtyard, with Ottoman-inspired tiles and rich foliage hanging from the ceiling.
We hate: This whole complex is a hidden gem, in the true sense of the term. Call for directions.
The food: Great concept — healthy food with a strong Arabian connection. I must admit I’ve never gone for the health food trend because trial-and-error has taught me to expect bland and boring concoctions. Not here. The burrata
(made to order in Sharjah) might not be as smooth, creamy and almost runny as I prefer, but the tomatoes in the salad prove there’s something to organic produce.
The shawarma lamb main is deeply rooted in the Middle East, having been marinated overnight in Chef Rowe’s favourite bazaar spices, with the slightest hint of some Asian taste, before being cooked for about five hours. Served with a smooth and healthy aubergine puree, it has a lovely full, rich flavour, but I find the meat a bit stringy. The chef swears she doesn’t use oil in any of her dishes, which makes me even more appreciative of the flavour.
The café has only been open four days on our visit, and already there are clear favourites among the desserts. The Caveman (who’s everything-intolerant) is in ecstasy at the vast range of gluten-, lactose- and fat-free options, while I go for the dish that sports a number of missing slices — Silvena’s cheesecake. This delight has restored my faith in baked cheesecake. The filling is not too sweet and super smooth, with the raspberry topping adding just enough tartness to offset the sweetish oats base.
But if you’re going to put your name on a pudding, it had better be worth it, right?
Omnia Gourmet, Jumeirah Fish Harbour 1, Jumeirah 1 04 343 7181
Bushman’s Restaurant & Bar
Caveman
Getting to Bushman’s is a bit like getting to the other end of the world. It’s miles away from anywhere, and even once past the airport, there’s often endless driving to your destination. Very appropriate for an Australian restaurant in Dubai, then.
The ambience: Once the taxi’s dropped me off in the middle of what seems like a little piece of Thailand, complete with tapering roofs and finials — the restaurant is part of the Thai-run Anantara Dubai The Palm — I step through a door into what could be a restaurant in the outback. Aboriginal-inspired art, boomerangs, cushions featuring Aussie jokes, wire sculptures — it may sound a bit twee, but all comes together wizardly to take you to Oz.
The food: I want to try the kangaroo sirloin, but the Omnivore has already claimed it as his, so I pick the Australian antipasto platter of five dishes that ticks all the boxes: it’s exotic, it’s contemporary, it’s fine dining. There’s seared emu fillet with salsa verde, as well as smoked kangaroo — both broad gamey flavours that are nicely piqued with spicy, astringent notes.
But it’s the main course that really wows. Of course I order the steak — 200-day grain-fed Angus tenderloin — and am singing its praises from the moment I cut into it. It’s exactly medium-rare, cuts like butter and packs a wallop of flavour. With a piquant quangdong chilli glaze, it’s one bit of meat I’d be happy to come back for and pay the Dh240 asking price again.
There’s barely space for dessert, so I pick at the palaeo-friendly bits on the Omnivore’s pavlova, which is assembled at the table and has some 14 different ingredients of varying textures and consistencies. Whatever diet you’re on this is worth breaking the rules for.
We hate: The long wait for a taxi back. The hotel orders us one, but we end up having to wait a fair bit — hardly the thing you want on a nice night out.
We love: The fun décor, the selection of Aussie bevvies and chef Natalie Bolt’s tableside manner.
Omnivore
I last visited Australia more than a decade ago, so I go to this Aussie outpost with great anticipation.
The ambience: The outback gets a sophisticated yet relaxed make-over.
The staff: Chef Natalie Bolt is a gem supported by an enthusiastic team.
The food: I came with the single-minded objective of having the kangaroo steak, so I know what I’m having for mains.
The Australian antipasto is a great way to get there, simultaneously serving as an introduction to what are staples Down Under and the tastes particular to the country — unique bush herbs and spices play a big role. Among the five items on the tasting platter, the emu stands out — seared and presented carpaccio-style. Dollops of a green sauce (made with fruit of the indigenous lemon aspen tree) don’t detract from the natural flavour of this deep-red meat.
With the slices of kangaroo — smoked and caked in paperbark — I find the spice a tad overwhelming. This isn’t the case with my mains — the kangaroo sirloin lived up to the hype. Served medium-rare, it has a gamey taste, enhanced by the earthen tones of bush spices, while a chilli glaze tempers the whole lot. I find out afterwards that the hint of sweetness detectable in the thin sauce coating the meat stems from the use of quandong (another native plant) in the glaze.
For dessert, go for what is literally a showstopper: deconstructed pavlova. Chef Natalie Bolt wheels a trolley to your table, lays a sheet of wax paper on it, then scatters berries, other fruit, caramel, meringue and dollops of chocolatey stuff haphazardly, in the manner of Jackson Pollock. Then she takes a blowtorch to the beautiful mess, bringing forth a wonderful smokey sweetness from mango that is otherwise none too sweet. This creation could possibly revive even Anna Pavlova’s Dying Swan.
We love: The rustic charm infused in everything from the décor to the food.
We hate: The humidity, which is noticeable even indoors. Dress for comfort, not style.
Bushman’s Restaurant & Bar, Anantara Dubai The Palm Resort & Spa
04 567 8304
Cut by Wolfgang Puck
Caveman
Wolfgang Puck knows steak. The Austrian-born chef is the son of a butcher and a pastry chef, which explains why people at his restaurants ooh and aah over his deft touch with meat and his beautiful home-made bread. Not that I go for any of the latter, when there is all that beautiful meat to dig into. Cut, Puck’s restaurant at The Address Downtown Dubai, is the latest in a pedigree that begins with the venerable Spago in Beverley Hills. He may have Californian, Italian, Chinese and Asian concepts, but it is the Cut brand that is exported around the world, from New York to London to Singapore and Dubai.
The ambience: A trendy bar serving elegant mixes sets the tone for the evening. Designer Tony Chi’s masculine dining room, in tones of red, beige and wood, with music low enough to carry on a long conversation over dinner, attracts Japanese shoppers and UAE nationals alike — although even in this heat, a few brave souls opt to sit outdoors, on a balcony overlooking the Burj Khalifa.
The food: The menu lists meat by region and provenance and you can choose from a range of organic, grain-fed, USDA, Australian and Japanese steak or Welsh lamb. Or if you’re crazy enough to order fish in a steakhouse, a small variety of seafood dishes.
Mine is easy: a tasting flight of New York sirloin with USDA Prime from South Dakota, Australian Angus from Stockyard, Queensland, and true Japanese Wagyu from Shiga. You can pair them with a variety of sauces, including chimichurri and wasabi-yuzu kosho butter, or just let the smoky meat speak for itself, as I do.
Oddly enough, it is the Angus that worked best: beautifully crusted and pink on the inside with a woody, smoked flavour. I expected the Wagyu to elbow its way to the front, but it’s a little underdone for my medium-rare, with a little fat still to be rendered down. I’m not usually a fan of US beef, but Puck clearly knows where to get the finest meat — the South Dakota cut is clean, savoury and very tender indeed.
We love: The no-frills emphasis on meat. Dinners with a fussy fish-eating companion have left me apologetic about ordering steak — but Cut’s unabashed presentation and variety of meats is worth going back for.
Cut by Wolfgang Puck, The Address Downtown Dubai 04 888 3444
table 9 by Darren Velvick
Omnivore
I hate surprises in my personal life, but I relish them while dining out. And Darren Velvick’s award-winning table 9 is full of surprises — all good.
The venue: This elegant, intimate venue offers privacy even when a number of tables are occupied.
The food: Every plate in the four-course tasting menu is a revelation. Chef Velvick clearly relishes the restaurant’s concept of unbridled creativity. Think pineapple (infused with pineapple juice so every bite delivers a burst of flavour) tempered with goat’s cheese and balsamic for a sweet, tart and smooth experience; or what looks like a hard-boiled egg with a crispy breaded coating (the result of deep-frying) that reveals runny yolk when opened — truly mind-blowing.
My lamb main is equally unexpected — “lamb, mint potatoes, malt vinegar, turnips” reads the menu, but the cut of meat set before me doesn’t resemble lamb at all. Dense and soft, it has the texture of ox tongue, apparently from being vacuum-sealed and dunked quickly in boiling water before a quick stint on the grill for a perfect finish.
Breakfast for dessert? Why not? Our super-waiter recommends the cornflakes, and the cereal is elevated by its pairing with milk and honey. Crunchy and comforting, the small portion is just enough to round off the meal while not resembling anything Mother ever served for breakfast.
We love: Every table is invited into the space where Velvick and his small team create magic.
Table 9 by Darren Velvick, Hilton Dubai Creek 04 212 7551
Ashiana by Vineet
Earth maiden
With his heart in Indian cuisine and a head in contemporary gastronomy, the iconic Vineet Bhatia’s Ashiana by Vineet opened just last month, and already mesmerised by his creations, I decide to check out what more he had to offer.
The ambience: The olde worlde charm can’t fail to impress, but I would have preferred more light.
The service: The crew knows what is being served, so if you’re unfamiliar with certain aspects of Indian cuisine, help is always at hand.
We love: The portions! It may be a pricey menu, but you eat like royalty. It’s easy to be fooled by the bite-size amuse-bouche — a delicious aloo bonda served with mint chutney — but the overeating is totally worth it. A mild and juicy prawn starter, grilled with Indian pickle spices, and cod in a crispy peanut crust paired with a divine beetroot couscous follow before I can turn to the raan.
Paired with a thin, buttery black olive and sundried tomato naan, the raan or roasted leg of lamb is so tender that the meat melts in my mouth. The burst of rustic spices easily makes it a meal to remember.
But the best comes last — rose-flavoured cheesecake (pictured) with a biscuit and gulab jamun base and rose and vanilla kulfi — all perfectly sweetened and wonderfully fragrant.
We hate: The lamb seekh kebab with cheese doesn’t really work. Both have such strong flavours that put together, it’s a bit much.
Ashiana by Vineet, Sheraton Dubai Creek Hotel & Towers 04 207 1733
Geales Urban Seafood and Lounge
Mermaid
Londoners may know that the 1939-established Geales is now the city’s poshest fish and chippy, but few realise it is in Dubai too.
The ambience: The sophisticated decor of muted shades has stamps of Britishness everywhere without being too blingy.
The service: Faultless. Follow the chef’s recommendations for the main dishes and the tips from the beverage handlers and you can’t go too wrong. The array of cocktails is huge and there are 26 varieties of a typical British beverage that goes particularly well with tonic.
The food: The speciality is seafood, so the starter has to be the Tower of Geales from the crudo menu. Oysters, mussels, scallops, lobster, prawns plus cured fish cuts sit on two layers of ice beds, which make a grand entrance to the table in a cold smoking haze. Wasabi, tartare, salsa and other home-made sauces are tasty yet subtle, while the base is provided by three small breads held in an innocuous brown paper bag.
Our favourite is the crispy battered fish and chips wrapped in The Specialty Times culinary newsprint. The batter coating is thin while inside, the cod remains soft, juicy and intact.
Perfecting this batter apparently took South African chef Darren Hall days of experimenting. “It’s all in the flour,” he says of the coating, which doesn’t balloon over the fish and reduce it to a sardine size.
The home-made mushy peas are better than that served up in a British pub.
On the dessert front is a truly British winner: Eton Mess. With scrambled bubbly-marinated strawberries, meringue and whipped cream, it’s simple but oh so tasty.
We love: The homely decor in the ladies loo. A black-and-white wallpaper of family photographs is plastered on the walls. You could browse through here all evening.
Geales Urban Seafood and Lounge, Le Royal Méredien Beach Resort & Spa
04 316 5550
Safi Seafood Restaurant
Omnivore
Few things compare to the feeling of leaving the hustle and bustle of the city behind, even if it’s for a little while. And this seafood restaurant could have been set on an island.
The ambience: This is a relaxing venue, conducive to unrushed meals in the chic inside space or on the terrace overlooking the garden, pools and ocean.
The service: The staff is attentive to a fault, yet not intrusive.
The food: Seafood’s in the name, and seafood is its game. My oyster (seasoned with a lemon and shallot mignonette sauce, to which I add a dash of Tabasco, for kick) still tastes of the cool, blue ocean it had called home. The soft-shell crab, also fresh, its natural tastes and flavours unencumbered by human intervention, is complemented by a pomelo salad and crunchy fried onions.
The restaurant’s standout feature is the vast fresh fish market, and the knowledgeable staff can recommend everything from perfect cooking methods to accompaniments. I have a white fish fillet, grilled, with hints of the Asian influences the restaurant is known for.
As for presentation, the meringue wheels coupled with pretty purple edible flowers and a berry compote take the cake.
We love: The freshness of the fish market.
We hate: That it’s probably too hot by now to enjoy the terrace.
