Eunoia By Carine is, without doubt, the least known of Izu Ani’s many restaurants. One reason could be that it’s fully independent of the Bulldozer juggernaut. Another could be that it is located, quite obscurely, at the extreme end of goodbye La Mer beach, blonk in the middle of the lobby of the equally obscure Hyatt Centric Jumeirah.
The restaurant’s interior doesn’t share the flamboyance of Ani’s other eateries, but that’s not to say it is any less elegant than the best of them….in a clean-cut, simplistic way.
I was enticed to lunch at Eunoia with the promise of excellent food, service and “the best fries in Dubai”. The fries were indeed very good but not a patch on my favourite – McDonald’s.
As has become the norm when I dine out with Luna, my favourite vegetarian food adventurer, we split our order between veg and non-veg with a bias towards veg, so she enjoys as much of the meal as possible.
Hence the all-veg starters which comprised of a Carrot salad with pistachios, tarragon and a sprinkling of Nigella seeds, a Watermelon with feta cheese, almond flakes and basil, an Onion tart with crème fraîche, and Burrata with cherry tomatoes, capsicum and pesto. The watermelon/feta was oh-hum (=boring! I mean, who still does watermelon/feta?), the onion tart looked suspiciously like a focaccia but was actually better than expected, the burrata was deliciously creamy but it was the carrot salad which stole my heart.
Luna ordered the Ratatouille as her main. It was delicious. I had the cotton tender, braised Beef Cheeks with Périgueux sauce which, thankfully, wasn’t overpowered by the taste of truffle (which I have OD’d on since living in Dubai). And of course, we also ordered “the best fries in Dubai” as a side – hmm. Although the restaurant is licensed, we only drank water.
I’m going to assume service is always as good as when we visited. Going there with Luna was a bit like going to a 1950’s club with Elvis – she drew the entire crew in like pins to a magnet. I left the restaurant in no doubt that this hidden gem deserves a re-visit. Perhaps their Ramadan iftar offering will be the excuse I need to go back. Highly recommended.