Located at: Baniyas Road, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Visited on: 08 Apr, 2018

Here’s another spot that doesn’t disappoint. This was our first visit since Fish Market’s facelift from the rustic, bamboo and thatched-roof interior to the more contemporary white and teal décor. Quite nice, I must say. In fact, the restaurant looks more open and spaced out with the new layout. For anyone who hasn’t been there before – this is the kind of place where you go and pick out your seafood and vegetables and have them served in a preparation of your choice (another place with this concept – The Lagoon at Cinnamon Grand, Colombo https://theeatlog.com/2017/09/25/the-lagoon-cinnamon-grand/). Pricing varies and depends on weight, so I haven’t mentioned prices below for the seafood dishes.

As a starter, we requested for fried sprats, which was served with red sweet chilli sauce (AED 15). It was lovely, well-done and crisp on the outside, tender and meaty inside. Of course, one must always look out for stray bones that look to embed themselves in one’s throat when indulging in these! The sprats were very slightly oily, but nothing too much to handle. A good choice of starter.

They served our chilli-garlic prawn shortly after the sprats. And it was scrumptious! The prawns were large, even out of their shells, and crunchy to perfection. The sauce was mouth-wateringly good and would work well with any rice. Absolutely enjoyed this dish – kudos to the chef!

We picked a substantially-sized halwa fish – which, I believe, is the equivalent of a red pomfret – to be grilled and prepared with some sauce. What was served looked more or less the same as the chilli-garlic prawn dish. But I wasn’t complaining, because somehow it felt different – probably due to the different textures of the prawns and fish – and this was delicious too. Again, the fish was nice and soft but firm and meaty. Perfect.

To go with the mains, we ordered a bowl of mixed vegetables in oyster sauce (AED 50). The oyster sauce was a rice-puller. In fact, I’d say this light sauce, with a wonderful balance of flavours, was more of a rice-puller than the thicker chilli-garlic sauce of the prawns. I enjoyed the combination and crunchiness of the flat beans, bean sprouts, baby corn and other veggies. A good choice of side dish for the main course.

For rice, we ordered a portion each of steamed rice (AED 25) and garlic rice (AED 30). The former was fine, not too sticky or dry. The latter was tossed with fried chopped garlic, giving it a subtle flavour rather than a strong hint of garlic. I felt like a little more flavour wouldn’t have been too much, but also didn’t mind it much since I was enjoying the rice with the sauces of the other dishes.

Steamed rice (L) and Garlic rice (R)

Next was dessert. We were shown a tray of the four desserts of the day, and we ended up trying three of the varieties. One was a mango cheesecake (AED 40). Soft, subtly creamy, and fresh. With small chunks of mango at the bottom. Good. The second was a lemongrass crème brulée (AED 40). An ordinary crème brulée with a touch of lemongrass – interesting twist. And finally, there was the chocolate cake with coconut sprinkles (AED 40). This was a visual tease, a vision of perfection. And it tasted delightful. (Of course, the chocolate dessert was my choice!) Almost gooey on the outside and a soft cake on the inside, the chocolate element was a fine balance between milk and dark. Not too sweet and not bitter. It was a wonderful finish to a delicious meal. I do hope to have this again some time.

Top: Chocolate cake (top); Bottom: Mango cheesecake (L) and Lemongrass crème brulée (R)

Food apart, the service seemed to be chaotic on the day. The staff of mostly new faces were hurriedly running around between kitchen, bar and tables, looking stressed and possibly short of hands. They were courteous and friendly at the table nonetheless, but it sort of made us feel a little uneasy seeing them so tense. Hopefully, whatever it is will be sorted out by the time of our next visit. Until then!

Yummy Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

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