Things to do in Dubai and a review of a restaurant in the worlds top100 best restaurants.

Hope you’re all enjoying the current Easter break. It’s the end of my holiday period. Have been off work for a while now and it’s been a well earned rest. During my time off, I spent a few days at my sister’s in Dubai ( The same sister I stayed with in New York. Check out my old New York blog posts) and i’ll just like to thank her for being the perfect host again.

My first impressions of Dubai were mixed. A few of the places I have travelled to in the past have a unique vibe and feel. Dubai is a bit different. it was very hard to find that uniqueness and It seems like they’ve tried to create this feeling by building structures that are larger and better than anything we’ve ever seen. However there’s more to a place than the buildings. The people that live in that place play a major part in creating the vibe, uniqueness and atmosphere. In Dubai, the atmosphere is created by the various foreign migrant workers and as such you might not get a feel for the place unless you move outside of the down town areas and head towards the outskirts. A friend (Sophia) described the city has being artificial and in a way, I can understand this perception.

On a more positive note, its up to you to make of Dubai what you want. I actually found the city quite breath taking and couldn’t help but admire the vision and feat that helped to develop this modern city in the middle of a desert. There are many things to do in Dubai. It’s biggest strength is in the fact that it offers so many diverse urban experiences and activities. It essentially caters to everyone. Dragon boat racing, sand dune bashing, paragliding, dining at 2 of the worlds top 100 restaurants, the list goes on. So here are a few pictures detailing what I got up to.

Bars

Atelier M Pier 7

Very good location and views

Restaurants

St Tropez Bistro
This small French Bistro can be found in the mall of emirates. The ambience was decent, coupled with a friendly staff and good tasting food. Make sure you spend some time here if you ever find yourself in the mall of Emirates

Flavourful herby tasting steak

Moorish chocolate dessert with cream, strawberries and blueberries

The Fish Hut

I found this restaurant in Oud Metha, near Lamcy plaza. The décor might be simple, however the charcoal grilled Hammour fish i had was simply delicious.  No wonder its ranked 9th out of 5777 restaurants reviewed by diners on Trip advisor .

Sea Bream, Sherry, Hammour, Red Snapper, Salmon, Fascar, Squid…need I say more.

Really got on with this guy

 Zeta Restaurant/lounge

Based at the address Hotel, this restaurant has nice views of the Burj Khalifa and Dubai Fountains. The black cod and Wagyu beef dishes were some of the highlights of this trip.

View of the fountain from the dinner table

Decent Sushi

Mizo marinated black cod with pickled ginger and Yuzu Emulsion. This dish was close to perfection.

Wagyu beef tenderloin with sesame, sweet soya and onions. Another sublime dish

Awani Levant

First of all, the views and location ( close to the beach) were quite good. The food tasted decent. However all this was tarnished by the pretty poor customer service. We spent almost an hour waiting for our food, only to discover that they forgot our order (They said the till went down and they lost some orders). I read a few reviews on Tripadvisor and customer service seems to be the main failing on several occasions. That said, the bread did taste nice and the food was ok when it finally arrived. The management reimbursed a part of the meal after we voiced our displeasure.

La Petite Maison

The food at this French restaurant and the customer service were sublime and fantastic. No wonder 900 international restaurant industry experts included it in the World’s best 100 Restaurants list. The starters, main and desserts were all delicious. The Burrata, basil and tomatoes starter was melt in your mouth wonderful. My sister loved it so much she wiped a tear and waxed lyrical about how great the Burrata was. The Escargots were also very tasty.The canard a l’orange main ( slow cooked duck legs with orange glaze) was simply the best duck dish have ever had period. It was juicy, tender and bursting with orange flavours. This would possibly be my bench mark for other duck dishes. Le Saotico in Paris now comes a close second after carrying the mantle for 6 months. The chocolate dessert and it’s accompanying desert wine was also impressive.

Burrata et Tomatoes : Burrata with tomatoes and basil

Escargots de Bourgogne: Snail with garlic butter.

pretty woman moment

Canard a l’orange : Loved it so much I took multiple pictures

Dreamy duck

Grilled lamb cutlets with smoked aubergine. I thought this combination worked well.

Cheesecake

Mousse au Chocolat Chaud et Glace a l’Orange: Warm chocolate Mousse with malt ice cream. Went well with the recommended dessert wine.

I really loved this restaurant and can’t wait to visit again the next time am in Dubai.

The Creekside Restaurant and Cafe

This beautiful restaurant on the harbour really allows you to catch a glimpse of the old Dubai. The lovely sunset and Taxi boats were marvellous. The food tasted quite good as well. A nice place to watch the world go by. To get to the creekside, you would need to run through the souq first.

Think you have enough scarfs? walk slowly through the Souq and see what happens.

Omani crab cake: Paprika aioli burnt orange segments, baby roquette, pickled daily. I loved this dish.

someone ordered a taxi?

Took a taxi boat with my sisters friend and some of her guests.

Hotels and Food

Breakfast at the Royal Meridien Beach Resort and Spa

I joined my aunt at this hotel for breakfast and actually enjoyed what they had to offer.

Happy birthday aunt 🙂

Jumeira Beach Hotel

I had a nice time relaxing at this hotels lounge. Had some surprisingly very good sushi. The views aren’t bad either. Try to visit if you have a few spare hours.

Simply delicious Sushi.

Hope you liked the snapshot of a few of the dishes I had during my stay. A few other activities I was involved with in Dubai included:

Desert Safari with Quad biking, Dune Bashing, Sandboarding and Camel ride

We headed to the desert for some quad biking, Dune bashing and camel ride. My sister and I couldn’t quite muster enough bravery for the Sandboarding though. I think she mumbled something about her neck snapping and kindly asked me to do it while she watched.You can guess what my response was.

Rover got stuck in the sand a few times.

Dragon boat racing with the Dubai sea dragons

Saturday morning entailed dragging myself out of bed at 8 am (I got home around 3 am) for my first ever dragon boat experience. I actually felt like my shoulders were going to pop out at one point. I didn’t do a bad job according to the team, so that made me quite proud all withstanding.

Tried grinning through pain before?

Had a good time

I couldnt resist Barasti’s pancake stack right after dragon boating

Whilst your out there, make sure you also visit the worlds tallest building,The Burj khalifa Tower. The best time to visit is probably at night during the water shows. The lights, music and scenery were an amazing combination. We took some nice panoramic shots from the 125th  floor.

Hope you enjoyed a recap of some of the things I got up to in Dubai. I would really love to visit more of the outskirts on my next visit and hopefully do a cultural tour.

                                        See you soon and leave you with a few more pictures

Boat tour ride: Souk Madinat

                                                                                Thanks