DoinDubai Magazine

An Honest Guide to Life in Dubai

Home | EATING | Page 60

Welcome to EATING places here on DoinDubai

Dubai loves eating and why not? Enjoying food is a great pleasure. Dubai has been the focus of many new restaurant openings, attracting celebrity chefs from all over the world. However there is a huge range of smaller, less well known restaurants that you must try. The “melting pot” of Dubai’s nationalities has brought with it some authentic international cuisines. But how to choose where to eat? Well that depends on how fat you and your wallet are feeling ! Browse restaurant reviews here or go to the eating out menu bar and select the category of food you feel like today. If you have a restaurant that you’d like to feature on DoinDubai get in touch via the Contact form link in the footer of the website.

by 16 Comments

THE FARM RESTAURANT AL BARARI

 UPDATE JANUARY 2013 We visited for lunch and the Farm is still Fabulous ! We had an authentic selection of Thai food in the garden on a table for 8 people. One of my best lunches of 2013, but NOW YOU HAVE TO BOOK BEFORE HAND ! Up to at least a week in advance for lunch, otherwise you’ll have a wasted journey. Monica

Lunch at the Farm was as far removed from Farm Like as you can imagine, think Zen/Buddhist garden complete with water features, wooden horse made from twisted twigs and cool white fabrics with speakers discretely disguised as friendly rocks.

The farm is as far as I know the only eaterie in the uber lush Al Barari but the restaurant is not exclusively for residents (yet) so lunch with the family on Friday was a welcome break from GCSE revision, and for once not too far from us in the Arabian Ranches.

The Farm Al Barari

 

Do expect high quality, fresh ingredients well put together served in elegant, modern surroundings, my soup was hearty and wholesome and the kids meal of chicken tenders and chips was thankfully miles away from some frozen imitation, the sweet potato chips were good.  Accompanying bread baskets were again fresh, herby and with the soup provided a filling meal. Alas the pasta portions were tiny, despite ordering extras of tomato sauce, parmesan cheese, anchovies and garlic (pic and mix pasta) with his spaghetti my husband could have eaten twice his portion with ease and in fact the meagreness of the pasta portions has come up with a few diners to date. The salads though were faultless, fresh ingredients, well put together, with lovely dressings, we had a Thai inspired prawn and vegetable salad as well as a red grapefruit and green leaves salad.

The Farm chicken and chips

While the pasta portions may have been small, the pudding portions were sensible and in the case of our chocolate brownie slice, I would say huge ! Deliciously thick chocolate style brownie mousse enough for two or three people! (But maybe we got this as we complained about the pasta portion)

Try it for lunch while the weather still permits us to sit outside and tell me what you thought of it. How did you find the experience of ordering your meal via an IPad ! (the restaurant has 50 of them!)  And lastly do like and share on Facebook if you liked this post, thanks Monica.

 The Farm is the only restaurant at Al Barari so far, it serves a changing menu based on locally grown (often organic) ingredients. It’s open for breakfast, lunch and dinner from 7.30 am to 11pm daily. You will need to order via an I Pad.

It’s located just off the Emirates Road on the opposite side to Arabian Ranches, just follow the signs to Al Barari and then drive in for a couple of minutes till you see signs for the Farm, children seemed welcome, at least in the daytime. There is no alcohol licence as yet.

The number is 04 392 5660

by Leave a Comment

THE IVY DUBAI EMIRATES TOWERS

 I’m not a Friday brunch person at all and really don’t like buffets for small numbers of people, no one seems to be sitting down at the table at the same time together, but as my birthday fell on a Friday, we decided to try the Ivy, their brunch offering is not a buffet but there is more than adequate choice. The restaurant is based on the ground floor of the Jumeirah Emirates Towers hotel opposite the new Alfies Cigar Bar/lounge. The ambience is just what I expected, clean and simple lines with elegant artwork on the walls and soft white linen table cloths with a couple of plump rose buds in a tiny purple glass vase. The set brunch at Dhs 275.00 is good value as it includes an aperitif and 3 courses with tea or coffee to finish. I had a zingy Bellini, the children substituted fizzy water for the alcohol in their Bellinis and we also ordered a Virgin Mohito which turned out in fact to be a very good but unexpected Virgin Mary ! While starters and puddings are very good, I was slightly surprised at the burger and chips and fish and chips options available, similarly the fish pie and fishcakes type options would fit more comfortably on a gastropub menu (at least in the UK) than at the Ivy.

But the elderflower jelly studded with raspberries and blueberries, and a lemon curd coupe (excellent lemon curd on fresh vanilla ice cream with a light meringue biscuit) are relatively sophisticated puddings and so didn’t quite fit with the high end pub grub mains. The restaurant kindly accommodated my request for a seafood cocktail from the a la carte menu and this was sadly disappointing, the underwhelming presentation and oversmothering of the seafood with gloopy Rose Marie sauce was entirely unexpected.

A real draw is children under 10 get to eat for free at the Ivy, perhaps this would explain the simpler options ? Have you been the Ivy in Dubai ? What did you think ? And perhaps a reader can tell me what chocolate sourdough with Cru Virunga actually is ? (from the special dessert menu at The Ivy in London)  

Please let me know how the new format of the pictures comes out on Ipads, Iphones and normal computers, is this a good format for readers to see real pictures?

 If you liked this post, please remember to like and share via Facebook. Thanks Monica.

by Leave a Comment

ABOUT ITALIAN FOOD : AL DENTE

Al Dente restaurant serves authentic Italian food in a trattoria type setting at reasonable prices. In fact their set lunch menu (helpfully lunch starts at 11am and finishes at 5pm) has to be one of the best deals in Dubai at Dhs 48.00 that includes some complimentary bread and olive oil, followed by a choice of fresh soup (I had pumpkin) and then a small salad (again there was a choice between mozzarella or fresh green salad) followed by a main course of either pasta or pizza.

You don’t have to walk through a mall to get to the restaurant, the hotel Byblos where the restaurant is located will valet park your car, or you could park on the street towards the back of the restaurant and walk straight in. My Margherita pizza was generous in size and tasty, and while the soup portions were not huge, as part of this fabulous set lunch deal they were what I would call sensible, the same goes for the salad portions too. Did I mention the cup of excellent coffee (mine’s  a freshly ground decaff with hot skimmed milk) that is also included ? What more could you ask for, and if you really wanted a glass of red or white, it’s on the menu as the restaurant is part of a hotel, but of course that’s extra. The chef – Alessandro Miceli, was clearly visible working in the open kitchen, is Italian and this lends an extra air of authenticity to the food. I also liked the huge artistic paintings of Italian produce on the walls.

Al Dente, a great little place serving good Italian food that’s excellent value for an extended lunch, the restaurant would be ideal for a large group going for lunch or for friends and families. You just have to get to the TCom buildings near the Greens area of Dubai.

And for those of us watching our waists, I liked the fact that pudding cost extra, if you had room !

Try it and tell me what you think, I was impressed. Click here for what you NEED TO KNOW about eating at Al Dente in the Byblos Hotel.

Please don’t forget to like this post and www.doindubai.com on Facebook if you haven’t already done so, thanks again, Monica.

by 4 Comments

SOUTH INDIAN CHICKEN CURRY

Classic Chicken Curry

Many Indian Chicken curry sauce bases rely on tomatoes for sourness or tang, so are usually a staple in most Indian homes but because I didn’t have them in my fridge and really did not want to drive to our local shop, we used yoghurt with excellent results !

Fresh curry leaves easy to grow in Dubai

Intro to the Chicken Curry recipe

There are a couple of parts to this chicken curry recipe, firstly making the marinade for the chicken, then frying the marinaded chicken to seal in some flavor and provide some colour, and lastly finishing off cooking the chicken in a coconut broth combined with the remainder of the marinade and finally garnishing with some sizzled curry leaves and mustard seeds.

Indian spices really easy in the spice box

Despite the coconut, the gravy is light as I use low fat natural yoghurt and the initial marinade has no oil at all in it but you need to use oil to fry, try out alternative Valentine’s Day Dinner Dish !  Try it and tell me what you think by leaving me a comment in the box below thanks.

Fresh_corander_dubai

Recipe PDF of Chicken Curry is good for printing out your shopping list 

Click on this link for the Chicken Curry recipe in an easy pdf format South Indian Chicken in a Light yoghurt and Curry Leaf Gravy

error: Content is protected !!