The Kempinski Hotel Mall of the Emirates is celebrating its tenth anniversary with a 10-day food festival from April 3 to 12 at four of its restaurants: Aspen by Kempinski, Salero Tapas & Bodega, Olea Truly Levantine and Noir.
Each of the restaurants will offer special set menus for lunch and dinner for Dh140 (after 6pm at Noir) including signature dishes by head chefs of each restaurant. Guests can choose to partake from palate tingling Spanish tapas to healthy salads to refreshing baklawa ice cream.
“Our food festival is an opportunity to showcase the culinary prowess of our chefs and enable our valued guests to sample our signature dishes at excellent value, while creating memorable moments to kick-start our anniversary month,” said Grant Ruddiman, general manager at Kempinski MOE, in a press statement.
tabloid! had a sneak preview of the dishes on a culinary journey around the restaurants, beginning at the cool Aspen cafe next to the hotel lobby. A salmon tartare with a sumac-flavoured guacamole, which became an instant hit with the diners sharing my table, whet our appetites for what would turn out to be a pleasurable evening. On request a delicious couscous salad was served — of course with the unbeatable guacamole — to two non-fish eaters. We washed it all down with refreshing raspberry lemonades before moving to the enchanting Salero. The tapas bar has tried to create an outdoorsy ambience with cane baskets of different sizes serving as chandeliers. Though the fruit-laden sparkling beverage we were served was enjoyable, the same couldn’t be said for the food. My companion’s pepper and tuna salad was disappointing though the lamb I was served as an alternate to the tuna was well prepared. Our hunger then took us to the Levantine eatery Olea where the chicken and lamb grills prepared under the aegis of chef Bilal Saleh was some of the best we’d had. However, the highlight of the evening was the coconut quindim we had at Noir Lounge as we ended our culinary journey. The mango and custard garnished with coconut macaroons, mango and passion fruit puree and passion fruit seeds will see us going back to the hotel soon.
While the Aspen café will also serve you a hot appetiser (ricotta-spinach cannelloni) and a lamb main course with berry creme brulee for dessert, Salero offers a range of tapas, from marinated anchovies to beef chorizo croquettes.
Olea’s Middle Eastern menu, apart from the melt-in-the-mouth kebabs and koftas, also includes chicken maklouba and samak harra. Noir’s menu features maki tuna salad and lamb chops apart from the delicious coconut quindim.
If a diner has a birthday in April, the birthday boy/girl’s food will be on the house.
Call 04-3410000.
