DUBAI: Caramel sounds good, and the food there tastes even better.
This is a trendy cosmopolitan restaurant where clichéd orders are refreshingly absent. A lot of what's on the menu are signature orders and house specialities, meaning great food you won't find anywhere else. The award-winning restaurant in Dubai International Financial Centre oozes class and yet is very comfy and laid-back.
With so many never-seen-before dishes on the menu, we felt lost trying to place orders. Helpful staff quickly suggested the full course for us - and they were spot on.
Dynamite
A smiling team member walked up with a glass of TNT Shrimp, stacked up almost like a pyramid. It had ‘dynamite' flavour with a tangy kick (hence the TNT reference). The shrimps were lightly battered and tossed with spicy Japanese mayo. They gleamed in a wet orange hue, with a hint of sweetness at the back. We would have ordered more, but we had to leave room for the rest, of course.
A light Chinese Chicken Salad next was just right. Shaped almost like a bird's nest, it had softy juicy bursts of clementines hidden about, and it was great fun poking around with the fork to get to them. There was also the crunch - of cashew nuts and crispy leaves. It had plenty of wetness too, of honey mustard dressing that infused the salad.
But it was enough of playing around, no matter how delicious it all was - as it was time to get down to the Grand Plates (main courses). First up was Petite Kobe Sliders, three sliders or mini-burgers of premium Australian beef sitting pretty between slightly toasted buns. The first slider got me hooked and I was thankful the experience was tripled. They looked small but they were filling once I got round to all of them. There were also balsamic red onions and pickles in it. It was simple and it worked. Oh, there were the fries too on the side, garnished with garlic and Parmesan - crispy but not hard, juicy but not oily.
Then came the Veggie Risotto, a hot plate of creamy, cheesy pasta-like grains with baby spinach, asparagus tips, Portobello mushrooms, mascarpone and grated Parmesan. It was a mash of tablespoon after tablespoon. If you like cream or cheese, you will love this. This is a heavy meal, with the mushrooms tasting almost like meat. And it's most likely to make you dreamy, so have this first before placing other orders.
After a breather, dessert was served. And it was just the right thing to wake and shake us up - icy cold Passion Fruit Delight. It's an explosion of sour flavours in the mouth that screams "Hello". This is Passion Fruit heaven, with the parfait blessing appearing in four different forms in the sweet dish. There is also sorbet and fruit jelly with it. The beauty sits on a thin crust of almond sponge. Its texture is at once jelly, ice cream, cake and sponge all at once.
At the end of it all, I was left with a new epicurean experience that will be tough to recreate elsewhere.
