There’s a lot to savour at L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon — and I’m not only talking about the restaurant’s wide-ranging, flavour-packed iftar menu.
The DIFC outpost is part of a franchise that pays tribute to the late French chef Joel Robuchon, whose restaurants racked up an impressive 32 Michelin stars in total. With the Michelin Guide finally coming to Dubai — and with anonymous Michelin inspectors supposedly reviewing restaurants incognito — most venues are pulling up their socks.
But at L’Atelier, the impeccable service feels instinctive. A paper napkin surreptitiously disintegrating under a cool drink is whisked away by eagle-eyed staff. A food stand upended by the breeze is righted in a flash. The charismatic restaurant manager, Alexandre Tissot, stops to chat with diners at every table, even as executive chef Roberto Torre cooks up a storm in the open kitchen. And every member of staff is able to answer our many questions about the ingredients list and cooking techniques behind each decadent dish.
What to expect and where to sit
Nestled on the podium level of Gate Village 11, L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon is a stone’s throw from DIFC’s galleries, the auction houses Christie’s and Sotheby’s, and fellow fine-dining restaurants Shanghai Me and Cipriani. The location exudes a vibe that is at once sophisticated and artistic.
Within, the restaurant is done up in lashings of reds and browns. The open kitchen is fronted by an omakase-style counter with high chairs, while a bar dominated one length of the room. My dining partner and I take a seat on the outdoor patio, which is bordered by tinfoil-sprayed shrubbery and houses a second bar.
The menu
Diners can break their fast with a bowl of chilled mazafati dates, followed by an asparagus veloute. The lukewarm and creamy amuse-bouche is by no means bite-sized, but it’s light as air and hits just the right spot, serving to set you up for the appetiser course.
This includes a choice among four dishes that will appeal to nearly every palate and preference, including two salads: Caesar with grilled chicken, quail egg and Parmesan; and Nicoise with confit tuna.
We choose to share the crispy artichoke with creamy Parmesan and mascarpone risotto, and the chicken gyoza. The notoriously hard-to-cook artichoke is fried such that it’s crunchy on the outside yet does not feel excessively oily, while the gyoza is dunked in a sauce that blends leeks, black and white sesame, mint and, surprisingly, hibiscus. My dining partner notes that despite the last ingredient, the sauce is not cloyingly sweet, but rather has just the right amount of acidity.
For mains, I get the lamb shoulder that comes with lamb jus on the side. However, having been slow-cooked for 12 hours, the meat is so tender and juicy, I don’t dip into it once, despite my love for all things saucy.
My partner gets the salmon in sorrel sauce, to continue with the creamy flavour profile found in the amuse-bouche and artichoke starter, and the flaky fillet and classic French sauce do not disappoint in that regard.
Other options include baby chicken and spaghetti with pesto and veggies.
Standout dish
The 12-hour slow-cooked lamb is the star of the show. It’s served at an additional charge of Dh100 (more on this below), but the meaty, melt-in-the-mouth texture makes it well worth the cost.
A special shoutout must be given to the parsley butter-stuffed focaccia in the bread basket, which can be ordered as many times upon request.
Out of sheer curiosity, I’d swap the salmon for the baby chicken the next time, just to get a taste of a tandoori sauce served by an Italian chef in a French restaurant. Indeed, this is representative of the iftar menu at large; it’s not only French fare, but rather touches many different flavour profiles.
A chat with the chef
Chef Torre says the menu has been designed based on the team’s observation of what Emirati diners tend to order, notably fresh salads and hearty lamb.
Dessert has been created especially for the iftar menu, and is a fluffy pistachio souffle with hazelnut caramel sauce. However, Tissot says, the light-as-air, mildly sweet concoction has proved so popular, the pastry chefs will be charged with putting it on the permanent menu.
Value for money and contact details
The set menu is a steal at Dh250. While ordering the best-selling lamb will set you back an additional Dh100 (upping the total cost of the iftar menu to Dh350), to put that into context, that same portion size of the dish is priced at Dh250 on the a la carte menu, while the others range from Dh90 to Dh160 a pop.
L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon serves its iftar menu from sundown until 9pm. Reservations can be made by calling 04 297 7729.
This review was conducted at the invitation of the restaurant
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Company%20profile
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RIDE%20ON
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ONCE UPON A TIME IN GAZA
Starring: Nader Abd Alhay, Majd Eid, Ramzi Maqdisi
Directors: Tarzan and Arab Nasser
Rating: 4.5/5
More on animal trafficking
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cylinder petrol
Power: 154bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Transmission: 7-speed automatic with 8-speed sports option
Price: From Dh79,600
On sale: Now
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
CREW
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ERajesh%20A%20Krishnan%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ETabu%2C%20Kareena%20Kapoor%20Khan%2C%20Kriti%20Sanon%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Racecard
5.25pm: Etihad Museum – Maiden (TB) Dh82,500 (Turf) 1,200m
6pm: Al Shindaga Museum – Handicap (TB) Dh87,500 (Dirt) 1,200m
6.35pm: Poet Al Oqaili – Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (T) 1,400m
7.10pm: Majlis Ghurfat Al Sheif – Handicap (TB) Dh87,500 (D) 1,600m
7.45pm: Hatta – Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (T) 1,400m
8.20pm: Al Fahidi – Rated Conditions (TB) Dh87,500 (D) 2,200m
8.55pm: Zabeel Trophy – Rated Conditions (TB) Dh120,000 (T) 1,600m
9.30pm: Coins Museum – Rated Conditions (TB) Dh95,000 (D) 1,600m
10.05pm: Al Quoz Creative – Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (T) 1,000m
Six large-scale objects on show
- Concrete wall and windows from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in Poplar
- The 17th Century Agra Colonnade, from the bathhouse of the fort of Agra in India
- A stagecloth for The Ballet Russes that is 10m high – the largest Picasso in the world
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
- A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
- Torrijos Palace dome
List of alleged parties
May 15 2020: PM and Carrie attend 'work meeting' with at
least 17 staff members
May 20 2020: PM and Carrie attend 'bring your own booze'
party
Nov 27 2020: PM gives speech at leaving do for his staff
Dec 10 2020: Staff party held by then-education secretary
Gavin Williamson
Dec 13 2020: PM and Carrie throw a flat party
Dec 14 2020: London mayor candidate Shaun Bailey holds staff party at Conservative
Party headquarters
Dec 15 2020: PM takes part in a staff quiz
Dec 18 2020: Downing Street Christmas party
T20 World Cup Qualifier, Muscat
UAE FIXTURES
Friday February 18: v Ireland
Saturday February 19: v Germany
Monday February 21: v Philippines
Tuesday February 22: semi-finals
Thursday February 24: final
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
The specs
Engine: 1.6-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 217hp at 5,750rpm
Torque: 300Nm at 1,900rpm
Transmission: eight-speed auto
Price: from Dh130,000
On sale: now
Results
2.30pm: Expo 2020 Dubai – Conditions (PA) Dh80,000 (Dirt) 1,600m; Winner: Barakka, Ray Dawson (jockey), Ahmad bin Harmash (trainer)
3.05pm: Now Or Never – Maiden (TB) Dh82,500 (Turf) 1,600m; Winner: One Idea, Andrea Atzeni, Doug Watson
3.40pm: This Is Our Time – Handicap (TB) Dh82,500 (D) 1,600m; Winner: Perfect Balance, Tadhg O’Shea, Bhupat Seemar
4.15pm: Visit Expo 2020 – Handicap (TB) Dh87,500 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Kaheall, Richard Mullen, Salem bin Ghadayer
4.50pm: The World In One Place – Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (T) 1.900m; Winner: Castlebar, Adrie de Vries, Helal Al Alawi
5.25pm: Vision – Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (D) 1,200m; Winner: Shanty Star, Richard Mullen, Rashed Bouresly
6pm: Al Wasl Plaza – Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (T) 1,200m; Winner: Jadwal, Dane O’Neill, Doug Watson
Unresolved crisis
Russia and Ukraine have been locked in a bitter conflict since 2014, when Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly president was ousted, Moscow annexed Crimea and then backed a separatist insurgency in the east.
Fighting between the Russia-backed rebels and Ukrainian forces has killed more than 14,000 people. In 2015, France and Germany helped broker a peace deal, known as the Minsk agreements, that ended large-scale hostilities but failed to bring a political settlement of the conflict.
The Kremlin has repeatedly accused Kiev of sabotaging the deal, and Ukrainian officials in recent weeks said that implementing it in full would hurt Ukraine.
Look north
BBC business reporters, like a new raft of government officials, are being removed from the national and international hub of London and surely the quality of their work must suffer.
SANCTIONED
- Kirill Shamalov, Russia's youngest billionaire and previously married to Putin's daughter Katarina
- Petr Fradkov, head of recently sanctioned Promsvyazbank and son of former head of Russian Foreign Intelligence, the FSB.
- Denis Bortnikov, Deputy President of Russia's largest bank VTB. He is the son of Alexander Bortnikov, head of the FSB which was responsible for the poisoning of political activist Alexey Navalny in August 2020 with banned chemical agent novichok.
- Yury Slyusar, director of United Aircraft Corporation, a major aircraft manufacturer for the Russian military.
- Elena Aleksandrovna Georgieva, chair of the board of Novikombank, a state-owned defence conglomerate.
'The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey'
Rating: 3/5
Directors: Ramin Bahrani, Debbie Allen, Hanelle Culpepper, Guillermo Navarro
Writers: Walter Mosley
Stars: Samuel L Jackson, Dominique Fishback, Walton Goggins
The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre supercharged V8
Power: 712hp at 6,100rpm
Torque: 881Nm at 4,800rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 19.6 l/100km
Price: Dh380,000
On sale: now
INVESTMENT PLEDGES
Cartlow: $13.4m
Rabbitmart: $14m
Smileneo: $5.8m
Soum: $4m
imVentures: $100m
Plug and Play: $25m
THE NEW BATCH'S FOCUS SECTORS
AiFlux – renewables, oil and gas
DevisionX – manufacturing
Event Gates – security and manufacturing
Farmdar – agriculture
Farmin – smart cities
Greener Crop – agriculture
Ipera.ai – space digitisation
Lune Technologies – fibre-optics
Monak – delivery
NutzenTech – environment
Nybl – machine learning
Occicor – shelf management
Olymon Solutions – smart automation
Pivony – user-generated data
PowerDev – energy big data
Sav – finance
Searover – renewables
Swftbox – delivery
Trade Capital Partners – FinTech
Valorafutbol – sports and entertainment
Workfam – employee engagement
Mina Cup winners
Under 12 – Minerva Academy
Under 14 – Unam Pumas
Under 16 – Fursan Hispania
Under 18 – Madenat
