Tinu Menachery: Italian cuisine

Showing posts with label Italian cuisine. Show all posts

Luce Ristorante Italiano & Club is well-known for its lively atmosphere, but you’ll be just as impressed with the tantalizing Italian cuisine.

It's a beautiful pub styled restaurant that get's very bust during weekends. The menu served includes bites and easy to eat food and not an elaborate menu as you would rather see in many restaurants. The menu is customized so as to allow it's patrons the luxury of moving around and having their food without any spillovers.

The ambiance is a mix of contemporary and Jazz pub vibes, since the restaurant will be renovated soon, I can;t wait to see how it turns out to be.

As soon as you walk in you cannot ignore the green pillars that adorn the restaurant along with the laid-back wooden paneling, and brick walls in some area. The open kitchen gives a very chilled out vibe to the entire setting with a bar at the end and a stage for live band at the other.

A billiards table stands waiting for the evening to fall and for it's patrons to soak in the ambiance along with some fun, music and food.

Contact:

Luce
Location: Danat Al Ain Resort, Level 3, Al Sarooj, Al Ain

Timings – 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 a.m.

Cost: AED 200 for two

Reserve your table at: 03 7046000

I was invited to Danat Al Ain and all views and images are © Urbanmodish, unless stated otherwise.

Have you been following Danat Al Ain yet in social media? Like their page on Facebook and give them a follow on Instagram, Google+ and Twitter too. Even better get all the details on their website too!

Hello Foodies,

I had an opportunity to visit Little Italy in Sharjah, and I have contemplating since then as to whether or not I should write a review of that place. If you are wondering why – read on.

I have been reading such amazing reviews of Little Italy, that I had the restaurant on my list of vegetarian restaurants to eat at during Lent.

Little Italy is easily locatable in Safeer mall. We reached at 8:30 p.m., and walked in to a dimly lit empty restaurant. They have tried to get an Italianesque ambiance with the tiny window sills decorated with flowers and the artificial vineyard etc.

The major turn off when we walked in were sticky floors, personally it isn’t something that I’m comfortable with. I pushed that aside and headed over to our table, expecting a good dinner.

We started off with minestrone soup, which was more of thin clear soup with few vegetables in it as opposed to authentic Italian minestrone soup which is thick and includes loads of vegetables often with the addition of rice or pasta. The soup was a major let down for me.

We were served water in glasses that was unclean and had visible fingerprints on it.

Soup was accompanied with garlic bread, It was topped with oodles of cheese and tasted amazing, but it didn’t have any garlic flavor.

The only saving grace was the Pasta Barbaresca. It was served with luscious creamy sauce topped with broccoli, tomato, parmesan cheese and chilli flakes. It was super flavorsome and palatable. I dived in for a second serving almost immediately.

Pasta was followed by Pizza Meloni with exotic vegetables. It looked amazing and when we were served I could see the amount of cheese in the pizza which made my mouth water. However, the first bite was disheartening and I didn’t enjoy the Pizza as much as I did the pasta. Moreso, the server dropped cheese in my glass and didn’t bother to replace it.

For dessert, we opted for Tiramisu and Panacotta. Tiramisu was just perfect – imagine your fork sliding through a cloud of mascarpone and whipped cream, softened by liquer spiked espresson and then settling on cocoa sprinkled on the plate – absolute heaven. Tiramisu was dessert heaven, and was much needed post the main course that failed to excite my palate.

Panacotta was served with thin slices of apple and was just the perfect end to my dinner.

Little Italy is more of an Indianised Italian cuisine. Probably we let the manager decide our dinner and hence had a bad experience. However, It would definitely take me a lot more than convincing to go back to Little Italy.

We were invited to Little Italy and all views and images are © Urbanmodish, unless stated otherwise.

While enjoying a recent family staycation at the fantastic Danat Jebel Dhanna resort, we had the distinct pleasure of dining at Zaitoun, the hotels award winning Italian restaurant.

Zaitoun is situated on the ground floor of the resort. Zaitoun features plush furnishing and dark wood, as opposed to the resorts distinct ocean theme. It’s a place you would go for a romantic dinner date. Zaitoun spells sophistication and class.

I was confused as to why an Italian restaurant had an Arabic inspired décor, from traditional lamps to cushions. It was only later that I realized that the name Zaitoun is the Arabic word for olive, which is a staple Italian ingredient.

Like the rest of the resort, Zaitoun has floor to ceiling windows that provide a beautiful view of the Arabian Gulf. They also have a beautiful private dining space, featuring a mural of an Italian beach scene complete with a large dining table for 6-8 guests and large mirrors.

As soon as we walked in soaking in the beauty of the restaurant we were ushered to our seats and were handed a set menu. Neither I nor my husband went beyond pasta’s, pizzas and tiramisu in Italian cuisine and hence we both were very excited to try Italian cuisine in one of the finest Italian restaurants.

Disclaimer: We went to Zaitoun post the poolside barbeque, which didn’t leave much space for us to enjoy Zaitoun as much as we would have loved to.

I loved the intertwined bottles of balsamic and olive oil kept at the table, along with fresh flowers embracing a lit red candle making the ambiance even more romantic.

Our meal began with ‘Carpaccio di Manzo’. Red peppercorn aioli with handpicked vegetables and shaved parmesan was served with bread along with thin slices of Black Angus beef. The presentation of the dish and all to follow were impressive.

‘Minestra de verdure’ was the classic Italian minestrone with basil pesto and black olive crostini. The soup was a bit too tangy for my palate, but Mr. loved it a lot.

Our main courses was a choice between ‘Filleto de Manzo’ or ‘Aragosta’. I went for the former and Mr. went for the latter. ‘Filleto de Manzo’ was a beautiful dish with Black Angus beef cooked to medium rare (my preference) with root vegetables, crispy onion rings and black pepper jus. The beef was juicy and succulent and the jus was just perfect. Combined with the root vegetables and jus, the beef just the best main course I could have ordered for. It can be rightfully said that it was one of the best beef steaks I have had in UAE.

‘Aragosta’ was a creamy feast with lobster and prawns gratinated in cheese sauce.

I have time and again mentioned my love for desserts, and Tiramisu has always been on the top list. I saved enough space for the dessert. Zaitoun doesn’t fail to recreate this Italian classic, with generous lashings of cream, biscotti and coffee infused mascarpone. We would have asked for a second serving, but since we were on the verge of exploding, we decided to give it a miss.