Shades of Delight

DUBAI There is a slight nip in the air and the weather is just about perfect to enjoy the infinite pleasures of casual al fresco dining under a starlit sky.

Fortunately, Dubai has some great restaurants, cafés and lounges that offer quality food with irresistible outdoor dining opportunities during this time.

One such place is Shades. If feasting on good grub while taking in the breathtaking skyscraper views of the city are high on your wish list, then you can’t possibly go wrong with this award-winning trendy terrace lounge located on the fourth floor of The Address Dubai Marina Hotel.

During the day, Shades serves as a poolside restaurant, but in the evening it transforms into a night-spot with live music and signature cocktails.

A gentle sea-kissed evening breeze touched us as we took a prime spot near the poolside and pored over a very elaborate menu.

A lady with a lamp – actually a pretty attendant carrying a reading light – came to our rescue so that we didn’t have to strain our eyes in the dim light. I was impressed.

As we waited for our orders, I looked around. I noticed that Shades has two kinds of sitting arrangements – glass tables and wicker chairs for a formal dining experience and huge white comfy sofas for those who want to relish their drinks or smoke shisha before getting down to the business of eating.

The food is largely Tapas style, which means it’s neither starters nor a main course, but a collection of small plate dishes where the focus is as much on the food as it’s on the ambience.

Surprisingly, the portions weren’t as small as we had thought. The supposedly mini plate of wagyu beef with crispy potatoes and balasmic shallots (Dh70) turned out to be fairly big. We finished it off in no time before moving to yet another delicacy from the skewer section – chicken tikka (Dh40) with cucumber and tomato raita.

Shades is famous for its seafood platters. But we chose to stay clear of the lobsters and prawns and instead settled for corn-fed chicken peri peri (Dh90) from their a la carte offerings, inspired by cuisines from the Mediterranean to the Far East

We didn’t regret the decision. Marinated to perfection and laid on a bed of rocket leaves and fingerling potatoes, the chicken had flavours so sublime its taste lingered on long after we had stepped out of the hotel.

We rounded off the meal with baked cheesecake (Dh35) which came with a savoury mango sauce. We could have tried their hugely recommended chocolate almond torte and strawberry panacotta too, but for that we had to make room in the stomach – a proposition that was seemingly impossible that evening.

Overall, Shades was a deliciously faultless experience. If there is one restaurant I can’t wait to go back to in the next few months, it probably will be this one.