People will always demand to know the secrets behind an impressive magic trick, but, in my experience, the truth only ever provides disappointment. They are so much happier not knowing! The magic is all in the illusion!

Tresind serves up a bag of tricks, and certainly will leave you smiling!

Set on the 2^nd floor of Nassima Royal Hotel, it pitches itself as ‘Modernist Indian Fine dining’. A marriage of modern molecular technique and traditional Indian street food flavours.

These days people, ‘Foodies’, chefs, can be incredibly skeptical of the concept of ‘Molecular’, it can be greeted with the dirty looks ‘fusion’ used to meet.

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But I must admit the premise of modern Indian molecular food had me grinning with excitement and confusion from the very start!

The dining room at Tresind is very ‘Fine Dining’ spacious, luxurious, and as is to be expected in Dubai, opulent to say the least.

With my fellow open minded ‘eating’ partner and I, seated and greeted, we offered ourselves at the mercy of the Chef Himanshu’s menu.

Playfully opening  the meal, an Amuse, of deconstructed Pani Puri, a common street snack in many Indian regions. Here the Puri (which is usually a hollow bread), is made at the table using a method which is called Spherification. Like the concept of bubble tea, a sphere is made from a flavoured juice that is spooned into a bath solution to solidify just enough that when you bite the sphere it bursts in your mouth.

 An Amuse is meant to amuse your palate…(which this certainly does)and give you a taste of what is coming….I was definitely excited for what was coming. 

Chef Himanshu who I should say now is a humble, ambitious and creative young talent, offered up an array of dishes.  

One of the many highlights of my experience the Chicken tikka carpaccio, with litchi, tarragon, applewood smoke, is an elegant dish in both its aesthetics and taste. Lightly marinated and then tandoor cooked chicken, sliced wafer thin, the litchis giving a fresh sweetness and an incredible Tamarind & charred Masala spice dressing tying it all together. Presented with a nod to a dish made famous by Jordi Roca at Cella De Roca in Spain, each mouthful you taste sends a billow of applewood smoke from the plate into the air.

By complete contrast and not I don’t mean in quality, the Goan Chicken Cafreal, is a phenomenal mouthful of flavour, it smacks you around the mouth. 

Our table silenced as we both just embraced our senses getting punched with flavors. The savoury salty fried chicken covered in coriander, garlic, spiced chilli puree, sour pickled ginger & sweet spicy candied chilli. It is a perfect bite of all things nice!!

Sea bass Recheado, Korean ssäm sauce, hot pan vegetables is both wonderfully cooked and constructed, piece by intricate piece at the table. 

I love Korean hot sauce, and Ssam sauce, the brain child of one David Chang of Momofuku fame is quite a masterpiece. It gets your mouth buzzing with Umami, the Fifth sense of taste, super savoury with each bite that you are just wanting for more

The fun and humour in the dishes continued with a take on Peking Duck pancakes, with Chef Himanshu and his team cleverly creating Chili hoisin duck/chicken khurchan. 

This dish is Fusion….but the difference is… this is fusion with a brain, a purpose, a thought. Intelligently using Romali Roti, in India known as Handkerchief bread as the pancakes, a cucumber relish, and peking style chicken, shredded and mixed with a hoisin, masala spice, oyster sauce. A really really great touch is the little crispy nuggets of that deliscious peking roast chicken skin that is chopped & mixed in amongst the tender meat, makes it all the more magical. 

Hunters Lamb leg Raan, to be honest the picture speaks for itself…looks good, tastes even better, if you like lamb,and I love lamb,it’s a winner. 

To finish our wonderful meal we sampled a sweet delight of Shredded baklava, orange blossom honey, pistachio soft serve. A divinely light version of the traditional Baklava, the pastry shredded and fried in Butter and tossed in Orange blossom honey, it is beautiful, crisp, and fragrant. As it is served on the table, a sugar rock infused with spices is shaved over the top, tieing in the fragrance& sweetness of the baklava in a novel and smart execution . 

Tresind is a fantastic journey through the minds eye of a chef trying to marry two worlds. The world of indian street food, those flavours, & spices, and the new age style of cuisine, intelligent, creatively plated, exciting! Playfully toying with the ordinary or mundane to make it transcend at Tresind to being much much more, an aspiration which many could do well to follow.