Stay By Yanick Alleno (**), Dubai

by theepiphanyofmrkugla

1 Comment

  1. theepiphanyofmrkugla

    This is one of only two restaurants in Dubai that has 2 michelin stars. Overall very enjoyable; just traditional French Haute Cuisine with no gimmicks or surprises. The restaurant interior is ofcourse lavish, and upon entry we were met with a warm towels and taken to our table. We opted for the 4 course “emotion” menu without wine pairing instead opting to order cocktails.

    Service was overall very good except for a few hickups; the cocktails took really long to prepare and the first was brought after our first course already arrived. One of the courses also took nearly 15 minutes to come out, which is a bit too long in between courses in my opinion. Otherwise it was professional, attentive and not overbearing.

    The food though generally was exceptional. The first 3 dishes pictured in particular were real highlights and tasted about as good as I imagine those dishes could. I would recommend a visit just for them alone. The Foie Gras especially was some of the best I have ever eaten.

    The last 3 dishes were a bit of a let down in comparison. While they were ofcourse delicious, I didn’t find them to be anything truly exceptional or memorable like the first 3 dishes. The spinach that came with the lamb was a bit dull flavour wise. The panfried mullet was well cooked and fresh but also lacking in flavour and I wish I ate the bone marrow separately since that was the tastiest part of the dish but was drowned out by the fish. The Pears Tatin was great but I found there to be a little too much pear and not enough icecream.

    The presentation overall was definitely basic and a bit messy; a few things the photos don’t capture is that some of the dishes were in part plated at the table such as the bone marrow being carved out and placed on the fish, which added some much needed panache. We were also brought a few nice extras not pictured or mentioned in menu; a palette cleanser at the beginning that was mostly forgettable and some dessert finger bites at the end that were really good.

    Cocktails were tasty but uninteresting, largely indistinguishable, forgettable presentation wise.

    This menu was 200usd per person excluding any drinks, but there is a slightly more expensive one with extra courses and rarer ingredients.

    Overall, this restaurant is an excellent choice if you just want to simply eat delicious traditional french fine dining cuisine without any gimmicks, theatrics or concepts. If you are looking for something more novel or experimental then I would probably look elsewhere.

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