Stepping into Quest Restaurant on the 63rd floor at Jumeirah at Etihad Towers, the first eye-catching temptation is definitely the view. Be it the turquoise seawater glittering below during the day or the city lights twinkling at night, the view is stunning at any time and offers an undeniable invitation to dine.
When you do take a seat at a table overlooking the Corniche or downtown, Chef de Cuisine, Benjamin Whatt will ensure your visit is worthwhile as he indulges you in his dishes.
We opted for the recently-launched tasting menu, which Whatt described as, “Inspirational Asian fine dining.”
We started off with a passion fruit sorbet served inside a scooped-out passion fruit. We were told the sorbet is to clean the palette and we quite relished the jump that the sorbet made from the dessert side to the starters.
We moved on to the first course – a vegetable and fruit salad with tamarind dressing; fried chicken bits with anchovy powder; potato chips with chocolate and garlic crumble; dried fish with salmon mousse; and five-spiced cashew.
Coupled with the salmon mousse, the dried fish was the highlight. It was crispy yet soft, presenting itself as a perfect everyday snack. While the potato chips matched surprisingly well with the chocolate crumble, the salad fell short as it was topped with vegetable ash, which was too strong in flavour.
The next dish, California Maki, was a surprise by all standards. Based on the favourite Japanese sushi, the dish is an edible wafer-thin card with the image of a maki roll. The dish looks unusual but, bite into it and all the flavours of a California Maki are there. For those who like to experiment with their food, this is a dish not to be missed.
The menu also included a slightly spicy vegetarian aubergine dish; scallops with teriyaki sauce and cuttlefish pasta; and slow-cooked duck leg topped with slices of duck breast, which cut easily, like a knife through butter.
Whatt continued to work wonders all the way through dessert – pop corn dipped in custard along with nachos topped with custard and fruit bits. We imagine if movie theatres knew just how well custard goes with pop corn and nachos, movie snacks would be very different.
Explaining his iconic California Maki, Whatt said he came across a picture of a steam bun and thought it would be interesting to have food that is flat and thin.
“We thought why not make a flat sushi and what’s the most common sushi? California Maki. So we put everything on paper and brought all the ingredients and mashed them together to be flat,” the Singaporean chef said.
While the tasting menu has only one vegetarian dish, the à la carte menu has plenty more and diners can even make special requests for dishes or ingredients.
Whatt invited people to eat at Quest saying, “People have a nostalgic hunger for food so if they feel adventurous and want to have a new experience, I’ll be able to serve them things which they can’t have anywhere else.”
Don’t miss:
Serving time: starting 7pm
Price: Dh550 per person
