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WALNUT GROVE An upmarket South African cafè in City Walk Dubai

Walnut Grove

Walnut Grove is a high-end cafè/restaurant from Johannesburg, South Africa that serves fresh, Mediterranean meals, juices, coffees and dessert style cakes.

Coffee Walnut Grove DoinDubai

Location of Walnut Grove

Walnut Grove is located on the ground floor of the newer section of City Walk in Dubai. City Walk itself is a mixed development of shops, restaurants, cafes and flats by established developer Meraas. There is easy parking in the basement. Walnut Grove is in one of the ground floor malls and you’ll be sitting near shops like American Vintage and Sandro. So it’s a bit like an indoor section of Marylebone High Street in London!

The food at Walnut Grove

We visited for lunch and ordered a Mamma Mia pizza and burrata salad. Both dishes were beautifully presented, extremely tasty and made to a high standard. Portion sizes are on the generous side but prices reflect that. So our 2 dishes could have fed at least three hungry people if not four with ease!

Walnut Grove DoinDubai City Walk Pizza

We asked for extra chilli oil to add to our pizza, this could have had a little more heat to it but was good nonetheless. I would have preferred a little less pomegranate molasses on my pizza but the combination still worked very well. We really liked the salty, flaky flat breads that came with our buratta salad.

Walnut Grove Buratta salad DoinDubai

We somehow found room for pudding and opted to share a portion of what looked liked a very fancy lemon meringue pie. Again this could have fed 4 people easily if you were having a dessert after a meal.

The lemon cream part of the pie was a little too sweet for me. The meringue was more of a cream than a meringue top.

Desserts in general are a little extra sweet in this part of the world I feel. So this is not a classic lemon meringue pie, it’s a much richer version.

Walnut Grove Lemon Meringue Pie DoinDubai

Prices at Walnut Grove

Mamma Mia Pizza     AED 95

Burrata Salad AED    AED 96

Lemon Meringue Pie AED 45

There are plans to open another branch in Dubai Mall later in 2018 or early 2019.

This would be a great place for breakfast if you had a walk at Al Kazzan park opposite this bit of City Walk, or if you were shopping in the mall. Service was friendly and competent. I would go to Walnut Grove again probably for breakfast.

Breakfast is served from 8am to 12pm and I recommend the Smashed Avocado on Sourdough toast for AED 69. I am sure this would feed two people! Coffee is roasted in Melbourne, Australia.

Lunch and dinner come from a different menu and that starts from 12pm lunch time till 11pm at night.

Website for Walnut Grove

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LA VILLE CITY WALK

La Ville City Walk is a new, luxury boutique hotel that’s part of the Autograph Collection from the Marriott Group. There are 4 places to dine at La Ville City Walk. We checked out the 3 spaces  that were fully open in a type of culinary immersion experience! It’s easy to go from one dining space to the next.  Read on to see which bit of La Ville you would to experience most.

La Ville City Walk – A Culinary Immersion

There are 4 areas you can dine in at La Ville City Walk:

  • Chival  – a Californian style, bright, all day dining area serving modern food with a large courtyard setting.
  • Graze Gastro Grill – a Mediterranean inspired contemporary eaterie serving lunch and dinner opening out onto City Walk.
  • Grapeskin – a full service wine bar with a special week end menu
  • Look Up Roof Top bar  – located on the 5th floor with spectacular views of Dubai serving cocktails, mocktails and light bites.

La Ville City Walk DoinDubai Exterior frontage

We started at La Ville City Walk with some drinks and snacks at the Look Up Roof Top bar

This would be a perfect place to meet for some drinks and classy snacks before dinner or even for a light dinner itself! Expect gorgeous views of the Burj Khalifa on one side and the beach on the other. It was quite a cool evening for Dubai when we visited (Feb 2017) but we felt deliciously warm sitting close to the contemporary lampshade style heaters!

I recommend the peach bellini cocktail to drink, this can be made with or without alcohol. Choose any snacks you like the sound of, but we all really liked the chilli jalopenos. The Look Up Roof Top bar is situated on the 5th floor of the property.

La Ville City Walk DoinDubai Look Up Bar

Starters and Main courses at Chival

This was the 2nd time I was eating at Chival and it’s reassuring to see that quality has been maintained. We were served a Morrocan inspired spicy lentil and beetroot salad, some roasted cauliflower with freekeh (gluten free I think) and a very pretty plate of tuna tataki and cucumber salad. We all really loved the tuna tataki starter.

La Ville City Walk DoinDubai Tuna Tataki salad

Main courses consisted of a dish of roasted king prawns with yucca plant crisps, a plate of agnolotti pasta stuffed with ricotta and spinach and a prime burger served in a pretzel bun. The weakest dish for our party was the prime burger. Some said it was a little greasy, and while it certainly wasn’t a “bad choice” it wasn’t exceptional either. I don’t eat beef so I’m reporting honest feedback from my fellow diners!

We did however order a second plate of the very good agnolotti pasta. This was a completely vegetarian dish but hugely popular with the carnivores too!

La Ville City Walk DoinDubai Agnolotti pasta

Chival is the all day dining restaurant of the hotel, and it has 3 distinct areas you can eat in: the outside courtyard, the inside main dining area and a very cute private room within the interiors. This area would seat 10 comfortably, so would make a really good choice for a special occasion. This is where our group sat.

Moving on for some signature desserts at Graze gastro grill restaurant

Still on the same floor, but with a different feel and look, we moved to Graze gastro grill for our desserts and coffees. Some extremely modern techniques in evidence here, so I was impressed with the dessert selection. I LOVED my little pre dessert though!

La Ville City Walk DoinDubai Pre Desserts

We also tried a smoky, vanilla dessert in a glass jar, some dark chocolate Mississippi pie, some Japanese white cotton cheesecake and some white chocolate zabaliogne.

All very high quality desserts using fabulous ingredients and fun presentation without any gimmicky distractions! I really liked the dark chocolate dessert and ate this despite being full from my snacks, starters and mains!

La Ville City Walk DoinDubai Desserts at Graze

Our chefs for the evening were Pedro Joaquin Arceyut from Puerto Rico, David Schaumburger from Germany and Juan Pablo Dominges from Mexico.

This event was part of a Dubai Blogger Managed Event, so you can also see what my fellow foodie friends thought of their culinary immersion experience here. I’ll add their blog posts as they come up, see who’s views resonate with you the most. Do come back and keep checking the page.

La Ville City Walk DoinDubai blogger managed event

  • Nairuz of Nairuz Reviews could almost become a vegetarian based on what she tried!
  • Mohit of BigFoodBoy loved the coconut rice and is keen to go back for more at La Ville
  • Mark of MarkMyWorld thinks La Ville will always be fully booked!
  • Javeria of DineOutDubai loved La Ville, here’s why.
  • Meghana of MegsBlogged would love to go back to Graze, here’s why.
  • Rachel of BeingRandomRachel liked the Prawn dish best, find out why here.

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Thanks Monica.

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CHIVAL AT LA VILLE CITY WALK

Where is Chival at La Ville City Walk

Chival is the the all day dining restaurant at the new, luxury boutique hotel – La Ville located in Dubai’s City Walk extension. It’s part of the smart, Autograph Collection of hotels owned by the Marriott group. We came across Chival at La Ville City Walk while showing our Christmas visitors around Dubai!

Chival at La Ville City Walk DoinDubai Signage

Here’s a Google Map showing you exactly where it is:

What’s the food like at Chival at La Ville City Walk

In a word, excellent. We had dinner in the courtyard bit of the restaurant and shared starters, mains and desserts between 4 of us. I LOVED and highly recommend the puy lentil and beetroot salad dish and the Italian inspired agnolotti pasta plate.

Chival at La Ville City Walk DoinDubai Beetroot salad

I’m not big on meat but but glad I tried some lamb from the rack of lamb. I think I could be converted if all lamb tasted like this! Succulent, well flavoured and very tender all at once. Chival’s menu isn’t too extensive thankfully, but there is ample choice for those who like meat, fish or are vegetarian.

Chival at La Ville City Walk DoinDubai lamb rack

There’s an emphasis on light and wood fired/slow cooked food with a contemporary slant to most things. I’d happily eat lunch or dinner here on a regular basis and I think it’s great place for lunch with people exploring Dubai or catching up with friends. Our beets and lentil salad was AED 48 but the lamb rack was much more pricy at AED 240.

What’s available to drink at Chival

Chival is connected to the La Ville hotel, it’s licensed so you can have a selection of wines, beers, spirits or a celebratory glass of champagne. The red and white wines are available by the glass. I liked and recommend my Isxir “Altitudes” from Lebanon for AED 60 a glass. But watch out, some are much more expensive!  Everything available by the bottle is also available by the glass!

Where’s the chef from the Chival from

The Chef de Cuisine at Chival is David Shaumburger and when I first learnt he was from Germany, I wasn’t thrilled at my dinner prospects to be honest! Well it doesn’t pay to stereotype! David is a very accomplished and experienced chef who’s worked in a 2 Michelin starred restaurant in the past. He’s part of an international team that take a lot of time and effort in the planning process before they even get to the kitchen. He’s also eaten in some of Hong Kong’s most authentic and hidden gems and likes his food a little bit spicy! Here’s what he had to say about our food:

The ambience of Chival 

A different kind of ambience in the day and night, but both equally good. You have a great view of the Burj Khalifa from the Looking Up bar on the roof. But I also really liked the atmosphere of the courtyard outside Chival, in front of the new Grapeskin Wine Bar, that’s yet to open.

Chival at La Ville City Walk DoinDubai

I predict this will be a really popular hang out soon! Chef David, I’m coming back for my Japanese ramen breakfast very soon!

Chival at La Ville City Walk DoinDubai Look Up bar

Thanks Monica.

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