The Rock Bottom Café is a surprisingly good American themed bar-restaurant in Barsha Heights (previously Tecom). Located on Level 1 of the Ramee Rose Hotel, Rock Bottom has made quite a name for itself (famous or infamous, a name is a name). It also makes quite a lot of noise at nights. The right way of saying that is – the place rocks! And it’s been around for a while. So much so that it sometimes tends to get forgotten. Well, I certainly am guilty of overlooking it and was genuinely happy to have gone back.
To review Rock Bottom purely as a restaurant would be an injustice. It would be like reviewing the Hard Rock Café, a concept I am sure the owners of Rock Bottom had in mind when they originally designed this place, as a restaurant only. Like the Hard Rock, Rock Bottom is a bar first, and then a restaurant. And as an American themed bar-restaurant, Rock Bottom ticks all the boxes. The ambience is very much Cheers meets the Hard Rock, going from one to the other as the afternoon morphs into evening and night, where the place really, really comes alive. They have an excellent DJ and a kick-ass rock band as part of the live entertainment they offer…every night.
But lunch can be fun too, especially if it’s a latish lunch which falls into their happy hour timing (which I think is from 17:00 to 22:00). They currently have a buy one, get one deal on drinks including Hoegaarden. If you are a carnivore, you might want to try their steak specials. I tried the Jack Daniels Ribeye and was surprised at how good it was.
I specifically mention this because my guest ordered the same, cooked well-done as opposed to my medium rare, and returned it to the kitchen because it looked charred black and chewed like shoe leather (his words). For the record, I have never chewed shoe leather and cannot comment further.
My steak, however, was perfectly done and delicious. So, it was left to the pasta our other guests ordered to tip the balance – thumbs up, big tomato sauce stained smiles from them.
Okay, so what I think we established here was there’s some really good stuff on their menu, but output from the kitchen can be a little temperamental. OR, don’t be stupid and order your meat well-done.
Service is a Rock Bottom strong point. Our young Georgian waitress, Keti, was friendly, attentive and Speedy Gonzalez fast, especially with our two for ones. She addressed my friend’s steak issue without so much as a blink. In fact, she handled the situation so well, he actually left (after enjoying the pasta she replaced his steak with) looking forward to coming back…which I hear he did later the same night. That’s what I call good service. And it wasn’t just Keti, we got an acknowledgement and a smile from every single one of the staff members we made eye contact with – nice. All this goes to show there’s still life (and much fun) left in some of Dubai older establishments. I for one am putting this forgotten gem back on my pub-crawl list.
Waste NOT. Want NOT.
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