Manchester

Travelers' Takes

Rates and Deals

Dubai

More Photos
Liam Hetherington
Liam Hetherington
First Reviewer
4 out of 5
Avg. Member Rating
1
Review
4
Photos
Editor Pick

44) Dubai - A Gulf Above The Competition

44) Dubai - A Gulf Above The Competition

United Arab Emirates – 21/07/09

I was excited to spot a new take-away open up on Wilmslow Road in Rusholme. There is usually a pretty rapid turn-around of establishments along this thoroughfare and already this year I had missed my opportunity to go to King Cobra (Sri Lankan) - now Beirut (Lebanese) – and West Bank (Palestinian) – now Zam Zam (who knows!). And the Iraqi Marmara now seems to have been rechristened Sports Bar. So I was determined not to miss out on this new place. Its name? Dubai!

Other Middle-Eastern eateries Paul and I had visited this year originated in the ‘fertile crescent’ – Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan. This was our first visit down into oil-rich Arabia. Of course, whether the food would be truly representative of the cuisine of the United Arab Emirates would be debatable – the menu featured Lebanese dishes, and one of the staff wore a Libyan football shirt.

But if we (and Paul’s girlfriend Ana) went expecting just another bog-standard Rusholme kebab house we were more than pleasantly surprised. Like Dubai itself, the joint was a cut above. Obviously it was new, and so the fact that the place sparkled should have been no surprise. It had some very funky décor – a job lot bought from Ikea according to Paul. The whole place just looked classy.

There was a selection of Arabic food on the menu - baba ghannooj, Arabic salad, stuffed vine leaves (wark inab), falafel, fried halloumi cheese. They also did the expected burgers and pizzas (Ana had a 10" pizza, which at £3.70 was really good value!). But Paul and I wanted something more obviously middle eastern. Paul ordered Chicken Meshwi; I ordered Kofteh b’senieh. On the spur of the moment I decided to get a pastry. There were a selection of pastries on offer ranging from £1.90 to £3.00 in price. We both ordered one.

How’s this for service? As our dinners were being cooked some plates and dishes were brought across to our tables. We were presented with flatbreads, hummus and tabouleh as appetisers, all free of charge. And when we’d got through the plate of flatbreads, more were provided with a smile without us asking. So we merrily munched away as we drank. Paul was drinking Arabic tea (£1.70) – no surprises there. Ana had a £2.50 hot chocolate. And I had a fresh lemon juice for £3.00. It was exceptionally sour (which is the way I like it!), very cold, and had seen some mint added at some stage to make it yet more refreshing! It was very nice.

The pastries rather blindsided us when they were produced. I think both of us had expected something about the size of a Danish pastry. Instead they had the footprint of an 800g loaf of bread! Each was cut into eight sandwich-sized triangles. However, they were both absolutely scrumptious, fresh baked, piping hot, and crispy. Paul had a Jebneh B’agin, a ‘baked pastry topped with fetta cheese, fresh parsley and sesame seeds’. It was, he said, a posh cheese toastie. When I tried a piece the parsley and sesame were not immediately apparent, but the sharp sheep’s cheese was glutinously tart. Though I have to say that I prefered my Fatayer b’sabanekh: ‘baked Lebanese pastry filled with spinach and onion, lemons, olive oil, pine kernels and sumac’. It tasted to me that the green-speckled filling had a cheese base, but again it was rather wonderful, the sort of thing I would visit again just to enjoy. Though I think it would be enough to share with someone else. And I was only half-way through when our main courses arrived.

My kofteh b’senieh (£5.00) took me by surprise a little bit. Rather than the meatballs I had expected, it came as a minced beef patty, topped with slices of fried potato in a tomatoey sauce. It was attractively displayed on a nice plate with salad, pickles, olives and cucumber yogurt. Again, more than I was expecting. The size of Paul’s dish was even more impressive. His £6.00 Chicken Meshwi saw a charcoal-grilled half chicken stuffed into a flatbread. Salad, olives, and sauces came on the side. And the whole thing sat on a bed of wild rice. The chicken was not boneless, as the menu had advertised, but it was a pretty substantial half-bird, and certainly a vast improvement on the Rusholme kebab we had expected. In fact, to his dismay he was unable to finish all his meal. So he asked whether they could bag up his remaining food – alongside the remains of our two pastries (he had managed half, me three-quarters). This they were happy to do. So I suppose we did have a take-away after all!

Much as Dubai itself has a more luxurious reputation than most places in the Middle East, so its namesake restaurant is a cut above the usual run-of-the-mill kebab houses lining Wilmslow Road in Rusholme. With its great service, wonderful food, and the care and attention to detail Dubai really does deserve to prosper. Any complaints at all? Well, the fried potato slices in my main were not fully cooked through, and Paul said his chicken was a little drier than he preferred, but really these are quibbles. The meal we had here was far superior to anything we were expecting, and a return visit is definitely in order, even if just for their fabulous oven-baked pastries. Yum!

From journal Around The World In 80 Meals! (part 5)

Compare Manchester Rates

1. Enter travel information

City

2. Select websites to compare rates

Each selected website will open a new window.

Manchester Travel Deals