Spanish plain

Seville's
Wafi City, Dubai

Spanish cuisine has had to fight hard for recognition. That's a shame, because, like most other Mediterrenean styles of cooking, Spanish is based on good, basic ingredients — seafood, meat and rice, seasoned with tomato, garlic, red peppers (and its derivative, paprika), saffron, almonds and vinegar.

Spanish food was always excellent; it just had trouble telling the world that — fighting off competition from French and Italian is always a tough job.

The attention that began to surround the revolutionary chef Ferran Adria in the last few years has helped to change that — his restaurant on the Costa Brava attracted the attention of the New York Times and has three Michelin stars — although few of us have the means to dine on his food, and it is not exactly representative of Spanish cuisine.

But let's come back down from Adria's foamy heights. Where once before all malls had an Italian dining option and possibly an attempt at a French bistro, it was unusual to see anything resembling a Spanish restaurant.

Seville's, in the Wafi City complex, is one of the few attempting to change this, and it fares well, dishing out the classics decently, if without any real inspiration.

Decent classics

Although paella is an excellent dish, I decided to make my choices from the lengthy tapas menu.

(For food nerds as interested in eating their words as eating their food, here's a bit of etymology: Tapas comes from the Spanish for "to cover", and refers to the small dishes of bite-sized food, usually free of charge, that are placed on top of a drink in a bar, conveniently keeping the flies out of the drink and keeping the customers full.)

Tasting menu

It's a fun, although probably not entirely authentic, way to eat to Spanish food. Many dishes arrive at the table, keeping every kind of diner satisfied — and it's a way of trying new things without worry, since the plates and the prices are small.

We kicked off the proceedings with my personal favourite — a very simple dish, actually, but I won't hide it — I love patatas bravas. Perfectly fried chunks of potato, with either a creamy garlic sauce or a tomato one.

That's all it is, but it is a quintessential tapa, serving the original purpose. Along those simple lines, the bread continuously served at the table was also excellent. The large, thin slices of toasted country bread was topped with fresh tomato, garlic and olive oil.

The potatoes served as a good foil to the richer flavours which followed — chewy chorizo, gushing paprika-spiced fatty juices.

Garlic-sautéed prawns were disappointing and flavourless, however, as were the chicken skewers, which, although juicy, didn't really bring any life to the table.

Sadly, apart from a few bright stars, that was the theme of the day at Seville's. A good indication was the fact that, although we were ravenously hungry, most dishes went unfinished (patatas excepted).

One we did enjoy, bringing a flash of freshness and green to the table, was the goat's cheese salad. Spanish cheese is achieving better recognition these days, and happily, Seville's does have a good selection of manchego, of varying ages and cures.

A mussel dish ordered from the tapas menu came in a large bowl and doused in cream sauce — not what we had expected from a tapa, and again, satisfactory but not outstanding.

Cool reception

Octopus and cod ceviche, a cold dish of raw seafood in vinegar and citrus juice, the acids effectively cooking the fish, was refreshing and full of flavour, with octopus that was tender with just a little bite.

A cold trio of Spanish-style tomato variations clearly had drawn some inspiration from Adria: a shot glass of too-salty gazpacho, a square of toast with a tomato reduction, and a tomato sorbet which could have been pleasing but was overpowered by vinegar.

Aside from the so-so food, however, Seville's is an enjoyable place to spend an evening. There's a pleasant terrace, the service is quick and to the point, and a couple of charming and talented Spanish guitarists are always welcome additions.

Checklist

Getting there: In Pyramids, Wafi City, Dubai.
Open: Noon — 2am.
Decor: Rustic chic
Seating: 300
Dress code: Smart casual

Recommended: Patatas bravas with garlic, octopus ceviche.