Abu Dhabi restaurants with a view
A feast for the eyes. Samantha Wood tries out a selection of Abu Dhabi’s finest restaurants, which offer splendid views of the Arabian Gulf and city skyline.
I wear a number of hats - a writer, PR practitioner and event organiser with over two decades of in-house and consultancy experience in the United Kingdom and the Middle East. I set up my own business in Dubai seven years ago – an impartial restaurant review website, FooDiva, which launched in February 2011, and has collected ten awards, including BBC Good Food Middle East's Food Blog of the Year. I also organise mystery #DineAroundDubai restaurant experiences. I have featured prolifically in local and international media including a guest segment on CNN Go’s travel programme on Dubai. Furthermore, I take on freelance writing commissions, plus PR/ F&B consultancy. I am a regular speaker and industry awards judge on my favourite subjects - food, restaurants, hotels, travel and social media. That's enough I think!
A feast for the eyes. Samantha Wood tries out a selection of Abu Dhabi’s finest restaurants, which offer splendid views of the Arabian Gulf and city skyline.
It boasts five times more antioxidants than any other tea, fortifies the immune system and is believed to lower cholesterol levels, boost energy and burn calories. This is matcha, a variety of green tea most commonly used in Japanese tea ceremonies and now a rising superfood trend in the UAE with a dozen cafes and stores already serving it, in addition to leading supermarkets stocking it on their shelves.
It took awhile, but with at least six eateries in the UAE either dedicated to serving raw food or incorporating raw dishes as integral menu components, the raw food movement appears to have arrived. The newest venture appears also to be the capital's first raw food restaurant: the aptly named Raw Foods, which opened this summer in the new World Trade Center Souk.
The UAE has its very own Wikipedia entry under brunch, alongside only one other country, Canada. No other destination features. Not a surprise, really, given a weekend brunch is an institution here - and a bucket-list experience: the free-flowing dining and drinking variety, from all-you-can-eat, indulgent buffet feasts spread across hotels to more refined à la carte dishes in independent restaurants.
The much-lauded Chinese haunt Hukama in The Address Downtown Dubai may have gone, but in its place now sits a steakhouse, Cut. This isn't your run-of-the-mill steak restaurant, primarily because the name above the door is Wolfgang Puck (it's actually "pook", although often mispronounced).
Within footsteps of the beach sits an al fresco taverna, yet I feel like I am walking into someone's home, albeit a rather grand one. Forget clichéd blue-and-white chequered tablecloths; instead, a row of miniature olive trees graces one wall, while another sports reclaimed shutters in natural hues.
The beauty of Taste of Dubai lies in its simplicity: sampling bites from a spread of restaurants across the emirate, all in one spot at Dubai Media City. This year, 14 out of 30 eateries are first-time participants in the three-day festival, each serving mini appetisers, main courses and desserts.
A couple of months ago, in New York, I found myself queuing at an eatery hidden behind velvet drapes in an ultra-modern hotel. The only indication of my pending lunch: a neon burger sign. Twenty minutes or so later, I was at the counter placing my order.
The much-lauded Chinese haunt Hukama in The Address Downtown Dubai may have gone, but in its place now sits a steakhouse, Cut. This isn't your run-of-the-mill steak restaurant, primarily because the name above the door is Wolfgang Puck (it's actually "pook", although often mispronounced).
When a star-studded cast of chefs - think Anthony Bourdain, Eric Ripert, José Andrés and two Daniels (Boulud and Humm) - congregate in one spot, the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman, for an annual cookout at the start of a new year, there are two questions at the tip of my tongue.
There's a new name, of sorts, above the door. It's still Table 9, but Nick Alvis and Scott Price have moved on and at the helm is a new chef patron and another Gordon Ramsay protégé, the 39-year-old Englishman Darren Velvick.
He played the drums for the American singer Lauryn Hill four years ago, a hobby he juggled with 14-hour shifts in the kitchen. A passion for cooking and a more stable career won over. Meet the 43-year-old Louisiana man Jeff Whitfield, who swapped New Orleans for Dubai as the head chef of the newly opened Cajun restaurant Cravin' Cajun in the Novotel Al Barsha.
Grandiose is perhaps an understatement for Dubai's latest dining spot. The lift opens on the seventh floor directly into an old-world restaurant reminiscent of The Great Gatsby era - minus the flapper dresses.
With all eyes peeled and ears pricked for the World Expo bid announcement at the end of this month, Dubai is gearing up to host its first significant showcase for Emirati cuisine with the inaugural Dubai World Hospitality Championship (DWHC), held from Saturday to Monday.
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