D'fusion - The Grandeur Hotel, Dubai UAE

Not having ever heard of this place we were not sure what we got into when purchasing offers for Iftar online. We decided to do a small informal company dinner/iftar here. And after reading some of the reviews online, which were good I felt some what reassured about the place. Mr. Tony promised us some special dishes for the day. Mr. Kuldip also provided some wonderful service.

The place is not tough to find esp if your familiar with the Al Barsha area. The interiors are really well done with photos of yesteryear Bollywood actors and lovely lighting. 

There were nuts and dates already set upon the table. A variety of fresh juice, huge selection of salad, hummus and bread with butter. a good variety of both vegetarian and non vegetarian food, raita, mint chutney and biryani. The dishes were quite innovative in fact, living upto the fusion theme.

With fresh baked Naan and biryani rice to go with the curries. A good selection of sweets as well dal halwa, gulab jamun, cake and arabic sweets! Yummy! 

The service was very good as well. When we requested for pappad which was not there for a little kid in our group we were served them immediately. And the waiters are really attentive. 

Loved the place. One would never know such a place even existed if it were not for online offers :( Please advertise more guys!

Nadumuttam, Al Karama, Dubai

This places interiors really does justice to its name. Nadumuttam means an open inner courtyard traditionally seen in the olden style of architecture of Kerala, India. The nadumuttam here in the restaurant is styled beautifully with oil lamps and an uruli with water and lotus floating in it.

The thing that would catch anyones attention is the place mat or table mat which had both photos of Mamooty and Mohanlal (to satisfy both fan bases) :)

We were served fry ums(a sort of southie deep fried pappad) with pickle and lemon juice. The pickle served with the fry ums was just delicious! DAMN spicy but tangy with ginger and garlic, I wish I knew the recipe to that one.

I ordered the wheat parotta and egg roast and my companions got the Dum chicken biryani, fish mulakittathu with Dosa.
Order took around 15 mins to reach our table. The wheat parottas were good but the egg roast was just wow paired along with that pickle mentioned above. The dum biryani and the fish mulakittathu was good too as per others opinions.

Service was good, we had 1 waiter and the captain coming around to inquire but this ultimately caused some confusion as we were given the second order of parottas again by mistake.

But the place is good and food delicious too. Would definitely go back there again. 

Papa Murphy's Pizza AL Nahda, Dubai

If your looking for hand-made, right in front of you fresh pizza then Papa Murphys is your place!
Driving by in front of this branch its not easy to miss out this branch and I have been wanting to try it out for a long time.

The seating space is a bit tight but but luckily there weren't much people around.The specialty of the place is that we can choose our toppings and they create the pizza for you to take over home and pop into the oven, cook for 15-20 mins and voila your pizza is ready. They even have a mini store inside where you can purchase branded aprons, oven mitts etc.

But of course we choose to dine in since we are just plain lazy!We selected the Gourmet signature vegetarian in large size. Waited for around 15 mins and the pizza was ready.OMG the pizza! I could write a poem about it, if I were a poet :( It was delicious! Not the thick greasy cheese that is used by Pizza hut. But nice silky light yellow cheese which doesn't weigh down your tummy even if you devour 5 slices! And the artichokes just add a different dimension to the flavor all together. A large pizza was good for 3 of us..

We did not order any side dishes like salad or garlic bread. But we were offered hot and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies for FREE! That really made our day! The cookies again a love story on its own, they were soft and tender on the inside by crispy on the outside. Fresh out of the oven and pipping hot.

The only negative point as such is that they do not offer any plates or cups to drink. Plates I can understand not needed (maybe), but cups are needed especially if your buying just 1 drink and plan on sharing it around!Love the place absolutely love it. Will definitely come back!

Gordhan Thal- Meena Bazar- Dubai

We were shopping around in Meena bazar and headed off to a nearby restaurant for dinner when this restaurant caught my attention. I thought it was new, but the staff informed me it has been around for a year(really?).

We entered the place and it had a good number of people dining in already not to mention many waiters running around serving the customers diligently.

We sat down on one of the tables and the Thali plates were already set on the table. We were offered no menu or no formal introduction to the concept of the place instead the waiters just swooped down on us and began serving each dish! This was kinda awkward because we never knew what to expect and if this is their concept they should make it a point to explain it to customers, not everyone knows about their restaurant before entering!!! I wish they would improve on this aspect.

But anyway lets get down to the food! This is a Gujurati restaurant and the food is plenty! We were asked if we preferred the Jain food. Waiters are buzzing around with different starters, dishes, pooris and chapathis to serve. We were served samosa filled with green peas and a white color item that looked like a dhokla but didnt taste that way, (I found out the name is Shahi Dhokla) Next came Dal Bati, this was my first time I tried Dal Bati and I liked it but the flavor of the ghee they poured on top was really strong, next time I should remember not to ask for ghee.

After that were the vegetables, Aloo tamatar(which was delicious), Paneer masala, Tendola Masala, Peanut dal and various others curries whose name I'm not sure of :( Served with pipping hot pooris and chapathis with ghee(again!). We can request for no ghee of course.

In the center of the table there is a revolving pickle and chutney holder filled with mint chutney, tamarind chutney, green chillies, pickles and cucumber salad. A tall glass of lassi and sweet kesari completes the meal.

Although I really appreciate the food and the variety of flavors we experienced I did find the food a bit bland :( I guess its the South Indian genes which makes me crave for spicy Indian food. The food here is a bit on the sweet side and not spicy at all. And at 30DHS per thali its not cheap either but I guess I would visit again maybe during a lunch time.