If you had to choose between looking like an armani model, or eating Armani desserts, the second would be more fun
There is a lot of beauty at the Emporio Armani Caffe in the Mall of the Emirates. If you dine there, the odds are you won't be the most fashionable thing around. For one thing, most of the mannequins you pass on your way there (in the Rodeo Drive windows of Dolce & Gabbana and such), will probably outfashion you. From the Caffe's walls larger-than-life pictures of brooding models with skimpy waists and ironing board stomachs will give you the lazy eye while you guiltily dine on your pasta. And even the waiters and waitresses seem (although this is mere speculation) as if their physical attributes might help them along in the job.
It will be quite understandable therefore, if your fashionable aspirations got awakened and you decided to skip the stomach-stretching pizza and hip-inflating chocolate
mousse.
That would also be a shame. The Emporio Armani Caffe's major lure might be the cutting edge of Dubai brand glamour, with even the luminous bar counter slowly changing through a set of colours a la Burj Al Arab, but the food is good the tastes of passionate Italian cooking combined with the looks of cool couture.
And Italian though it is, you need not stick to the pizza-pasta regime. If only munching, you can go for a range of bruschettas, decked out in florets like a supermodel and even the salad garnish comes statement dressed with slices of parmesan.
If you order the mushroom soup though, do it for the taste, not in the misbelief that it will go low on the calories it doesn't. Creamy and tasty and very peppery, it has sufficient taste and body to more than fill a Kate Moss size tummy.
If you go for a main course, the pizza comes highly recommended, but also give thought to these less starchy alternatives: The grilled baby chicken with sweet paprika
manages to be tender and firm. But top billing must go to the salmon fillet in a tangy terragon sauce, served with parsley crusted potatoes and fennel cream. And no, don't worry that the salmon will be served in insipid slices as thin as a runway waif. The salmon comes in a hefty chunk of pink, erring on the side of being too much rather than too little the tenth bite is somewhat less exciting than the first.
My sympathies to everyone who's on Body For Life. By far the most exciting part of dinner at Emporio Armani Caffe is the five star deserts. Consider these: The warm chocolate pudding comes in the form of a little cake break the cake and molten chocolate cascades out. Or the panna cota with chocolate mousse and wild berries it's the richest mousse I have ever eaten and you might find yourself grabbing bites of the panna cota just for a break between bites of mousse.
The mood in the Caffe is definitely A-list. People go to see and be seen, but on a recent weeknight, it was mostly mall goers popping in for a coffee or quick starter, shopping bags next to their seats. If background music was played, it was too soft to hear.
So you might as well go just for coffee, or you might go for the food. If the food, you will leave having somewhat delayed your attempts to look like the models on the Caffe's walls. You will be smiling. Come fashionable, but come hungry.
