{"id":3430,"date":"2016-12-20T00:39:09","date_gmt":"2016-12-20T00:39:09","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2016-12-20T00:39:09","modified_gmt":"2016-12-20T00:39:09","slug":"best-downtown-restaurant-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovin.co\/dubai\/en\/lifestyle\/reviews\/best-downtown-restaurant-yet\/","title":{"rendered":"This Is The Best Restaurant In Dubai That You Probably Haven’t Heard Of (Yet)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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There’s an overkill of the phrase ‘hidden gem’ going on in Dubai…<\/h3>\n

So I’m not going to sit here and use it…BUT,\u00a0I’m happy to report that we’ve found\u00a0a\u00a0lesser known\u00a0(doesn’t have quite the same ring does it?) spot in Dubai that you’re going to want to know\u00a0about.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Located in the Sofitel Downtown, Wakame is a stylish\u00a0Asian inspired restaurant with\u00a0the cocktail-menu-to-end-all-cocktail menus, a relaxed fuss-free attitude\u00a0and\u00a0some seriously impressive food. Here’s everything we loved about it (and one thing we didn’t)<\/p>\n

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You feel like you’re sitting in an edgy Asian restaurant in the middle of New York city<\/h3>\n

Why? Because this spot has got cool and contemporary down to a T. From the modern ‘greige’\u00a0(grey and beige obvs)\u00a0artworks, the numerous over-sized black\u00a0bird\u00a0cage lamp\u00a0shades on the ceiling, the striking\u00a0circular and horizontal design\u00a0throughout and\u00a0the\u00a0slick adjoining bar (we’ll get to that later)…<\/p>\n

Business lunchers in for a quick bite would love the\u00a0high\u00a0top bar stools, perfect to get a better look\u00a0at the\u00a0chefs in action, the\u00a0big\u00a0square dining booths are\u00a0ideal\u00a0to host a ‘Dubai family’ get together\u00a0and\u00a0smaller\u00a0tables\u00a0in the centre of the restaurant would suit\u00a0smaller parties.<\/p>\n

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How do you feed your Dubai family? With a sharing menu of course<\/h3>\n

The menu is a sharing concept, perfect for big groups and parties.\u00a0We started with a\u00a0sauteed exotic mushroom dish with crispy taro root and black truffle miso and then\u00a0some super\u00a0crispy rock tempura with spicy mayonnaise…always a crowd-pleaser.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We also had\u00a0a seriously good spinach and cream cheese dim sum –\u00a0each starter was individually impressive:\u00a0order a couple, grab your chop sticks and dig in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Specialised imported\u00a0produce\u00a0made this dish a cut above average<\/h3>\n

The chef used yuzu truffle and\u00a0a special eggplant imported from Japan to make one seriously fantastic salad. I’m not a massive fan of burrata cheese (yep…I’m aware that’s\u00a0pretty much a crime if you live here\u00a0in Dubai) but this dish was\u00a0egg-cellent (sorry). The eggplant was crispy on the outside and super soft on the inside, apparently you can’t achieve this texture with regular old Dubai eggplants, so these ones had to\u00a0imported all the way from Japan. Worth it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Flaming the\u00a0sushi wasn’t the best call<\/h3>\n

Have you seen those amazing chocolate puddings that\u00a0break open and just ooze\u00a0chocolate sauce that are all over\u00a0Instagram? So all restaurants should serve Instagram worthy dishes,\u00a0because an Insta-worthy dish\u00a0basically means free publicity right?<\/p>\n

Which might\u00a0(but\u00a0probably not) be\u00a0what they had in mind with the next dish.\u00a0Our\u00a0chef arrived to flame a\u00a0beautiful\u00a0veggie maki roll\u00a0and\u00a0naturally we snapped the entire display. But while it definitely looked cool (our Snapchat account\u00a0thanks you) warmed cheese on top of the maki didn’t work for us. Next time we’ll have it torch free.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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For mains we had an incredible oven roasted Chilean seabass with jalapeno and ginger marinade unite\u00a0<\/h3>\n
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Grilled chicken assorted mushrooms and truffle teriyaki<\/h3>\n
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And\u00a0Miso caramel cheese cake for dessert<\/h3>\n
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The adjoining bar is slick, and could hold its own as a stand alone bar without a connection to Wakame<\/h3>\n

There’s no such thing as a brief glance at the drinks menu here…it’s huge and exotic with\u00a0ingredients like Wakame Peanut Butter Bourbon,\u00a0fresh Fujian lychees and saffron & lemon foam all grabbing attention, but the\u00a0the staff are more than accommodating\u00a0and happy to\u00a0help you navigate this foreign spread.<\/p>\n

We visited on a dry night so made do with some mocktails, and while the addition of fresh colourful fruits was a bonus,\u00a0we couldn’t help but feel disappointed that we were missing out on the real thing.<\/p>\n

\"Hanabito\"<\/figure>\n
\"Pontianak\"<\/figure>\n

So what sets Wakame apart?<\/h3>\n

There are PLENTY of fine-dining options in Dubai\u00a0with\u00a0the likes of Catch, Zuma and Okku\u00a0all within a stone’s throw away. But\u00a0Wakame isn’t\u00a0trying\u00a0to be five star.\u00a0It’s a relaxed environment, but the contemporary design adds an\u00a0edge and the fantastic food makes it a must visit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When should you visit?<\/h3>\n

Do like the New Yorkers do\u00a0and go for a business lunch – 3 courses for\u00a0AED\u00a0125.<\/p>\n

Or go for dinner; when small sharing plates start at\u00a0AED 70 and mains start from AED 85<\/p>\n

Cocktails start at AED 65<\/p>\n

Call\u00a004 224 6663 to make a reservation<\/p>\n

<\/body><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There’s an overkill of the phrase ‘hidden gem’ going on in Dubai… So I’m not going to sit here and use it…BUT,\u00a0I’m happy to report that we’ve found\u00a0a\u00a0lesser known\u00a0(doesn’t have quite the same ring does it?) spot in Dubai that you’re going to want to know\u00a0about.\u00a0 Located in the Sofitel Downtown, Wakame is a stylish\u00a0Asian … ","protected":false},"author":452,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"acf":{"legacy_image":"https:\/\/cloud.lovindubai.com\/images\/uploads\/2016\/09\/_relatedEntryImage2x\/Screenshot-2016-09-25-at-10.41.17-PM.png?mtime=20160925224138","legacy_full_image":"https:\/\/cloud.lovindubai.com\/images\/uploads\/2016\/09\/_featuredImage\/Screenshot-2016-09-25-at-10.41.17-PM.png?mtime=20160925224138 880w","legacy_meta_tags":"This Is The Best Restaurant In Dubai That You Probably Haven't Heard Of (Yet) - Lovin Dubai<\/title><meta name=\"description\" content=\"There&#039;s an overkill of the phrase &#039;hidden gem&#039; going on in Dubai..\">\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lovindubai.com\/reviews\/best-downtown-restaurant-yet\">\n<!-- <link rel=\"amphtml\" href=\"https:\/\/lovindubai.com\/reviews\/best-downtown-restaurant-yet\/amp\">\n --><meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This Is The Best Restaurant In Dubai That You Probably Haven't Heard Of (Yet)\">\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\">\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/lovindubai.com\/reviews\/best-downtown-restaurant-yet\">\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\">\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cloud.lovindubai.com\/images\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Screenshot-2016-09-25-at-10.41.17-PM.png?mtime=20160925224138\">\n<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"916\">\n<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"444\">\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"photo\">\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"lovindubai\">\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"This Is The Best Restaurant In Dubai That You Probably Haven't Heard Of (Yet)\">\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"caseyfitz4\">\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\" There's an overkill of the phrase 'hidden gem' going on in Dubai..\n\">\n<meta name=\"twitter:url\" content=\"https:\/\/lovindubai.com\/reviews\/best-downtown-restaurant-yet\">\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cloud.lovindubai.com\/images\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Screenshot-2016-09-25-at-10.41.17-PM.png?mtime=20160925224138\">\n"},"image_feature":null,"author_name":"Casey Fitzgerald","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovin.co\/dubai\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3430"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovin.co\/dubai\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovin.co\/dubai\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovin.co\/dubai\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/452"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovin.co\/dubai\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lovin.co\/dubai\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3430\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovin.co\/dubai\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovin.co\/dubai\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovin.co\/dubai\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}