The Belgian Beer Café, affectionately known by regulars as the BBC, is a chain of bar-café-restaurants specialising in Belgian beers and Belgian-inspired food, cocooned within a warm, classical European café-style environment. I am lucky to have one right in-front of my office in Barsha Heights and frequent it far more regularly than my wife appreciates. … Continue reading This is Madinat, here is the news…
Located literally next door to Flurrys on Park Street, Peter Cat is as much a Calcutta culinary landmark as its famous neighbour. But it doesn’t, as many believe, date back to the Swinging Sixties. Peter Cat originally opened in the middle of the Super Seventies, before which it was known as Omar Khayyam. Is that … Continue reading A cool cat on Park Street
Texas de Brazil is a hugely popular Churrascaria (Brazilian steakhouse) located beside the cinema at MOE. It features a wide variety of carved-at-your-table, all-you-can-eat meats, an extensive salad bar, and desserts. As its name suggests, it (in its own words) ‘combines the cuisines of Southern Brazil with the generous spirit of Texas’. Marketing blah blah aside, … Continue reading A meat-fest of epic proportions
Arrows & Sparrows Café and More…looks and feels inconspicuously like a leaf out of the Tom&Serg book. And like T&G, the two BFF owners have named their second outlet something completely different to the first, the popular Friend’s Avenue in JLT. Fans of grey epoxy floor, blacken exposed ceilings and modern-retro, minimalist furniture (again, similar … Continue reading The best Cafe in the Greens, Barsha Heights and Emirates Hills
The Bridge is the Park Hotel’s all day dining restaurant. It is without doubt one of the best restaurants I visited during my week-long culinary tour of Calcutta. And let me tell you why – service. Service at the Bridge is outstanding. It’s far better than any of the other establishments at the hotel (hotel … Continue reading Breakfast at The Bridge
Rhong Tiam is an amazing Thai restaurant located on the ground floor of the Wasl Vita Boutique Shopping Plaza, opposite the Civil Defence Station in Jumeirah. The franchise comes with the Michelin star-pedigree of founder/owner Chef Andy Yang (https://vimeo.com/136186588) yet is unpretentious, and far more authentic than its casual, modern interior suggests. The food is … Continue reading One of the better Thai restaurants in Dubai
No matter who I asked where to get a good mutton biryani in Kolkata pointed me in the direction of Arsalan. I was told this branch, near 7 points crossing, was the original so I thought I try this one first. It’s a no frills kinda place which instantly reminded me of Ravi’s in Satwa, … Continue reading Biryani on Park Street
By the time I write this review, this branch of the Barbeque Nation franchise will have received in excess of 5,700 votes, and nearly 2,700 raving, 4+ reviews; more than double the highest number I’ve even seen for any restaurant in the UAE. Interestingly it is identical in concept to the darling of the Indian … Continue reading Rock on!
Mamagoto (http://www.mamagoto.in/) has been one of the most pleasant surprises of this Calcutta trip of mine. It’s the home-grown (Indian) take on casual pan Asian cuisine, very much in the same mould as Wagamama, Busaba Eathai and our own Jumeirah’s Noodle House, only it’s funkier, more colourful, more fun. I loved the graphic, playful interior … Continue reading Hello MamaGoto!
Flurys is a Kolkata landmark, an institution. And I hear it’s a decent bakery and dessert parlour too. As a restaurant, specifically where breakfast is concerned, it leaves much to be desired. Expecting so much from the endless reviews and recommendations, my father’s more than anyone’s (although not Indian, he spent ‘the best years of … Continue reading Runny eggs on Park Street
