It's been almost a year since home-grown Dubai restaurant 3 Fils took the coveted number one spot in the inaugural Mena’s 50 Best Restaurants list, and the team are still feeling the effects.
“More international guests are coming," Ahmed Saleh, chief executive of The Lab Holding, which runs 3 Fils, tells The National. "There has been around a 15 to 20 per cent increase in traffic.
“You really feel the difference. Being part of a list, and of course being number one, makes you part of people's checklist of restaurants they want to try,” he says.
The Japanese-inspired restaurant, located at Jumeirah Fishing Harbour, was voted No 1 by an anonymous panel, beating some of the world's most prestigious restaurants with outposts in the region.
And ahead of the second Mena's 50 Best list being announced on Monday, Saleh says he is ready to pass the baton. “There are people in this region who have been working really hard, and they deserve to be recognised regionally and globally,” he says. “I'm excited about a new era that the list will usher in for the region.”
The arrival of the World's 50 Best and the Michelin Guide in the region has undoubtedly helped to shine a spotlight on the UAE's food scene, says chef and author Anissa Helou, who earlier this month won the Foodics Icon Award by Mena's 50 Best Restaurants.
“It has given an opportunity to chefs who did not have global exposure," she says. "That makes a huge difference, to the chef, to the cuisine and to the region in general.”
Helou has written extensively about Middle Eastern cuisine, with the hopes of shedding light on what she describes as “underexposed” areas in the food world.
While awards are undoubtedly good for the region, celebrity chef Ali Ghzawi, who won Top Chef Middle East in 2019, says he hopes the 2023 Mena list includes more venues offering Middle Eastern cuisine.
“A lot of the concepts from last year’s list were not Middle Eastern,” he tells The National. “That made me question: is this how it’s supposed to be?
“If you are coming to the Middle East, you need to have the best Middle Eastern food. I don't want to see another sushi brand, wok place or steakhouse making it to the list.”
War 2
Director: Ayan Mukerji
Stars: Hrithik Roshan, NTR, Kiara Advani, Ashutosh Rana
Rating: 2/5
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The Matrix Resurrections
Director: Lana Wachowski
Stars: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jessica Henwick
Rating:****
Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha
Starring: Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Shantanu Maheshwari, Jimmy Shergill, Saiee Manjrekar
Director: Neeraj Pandey
Rating: 2.5/5
Scores
New Zealand 266 for 9 in 50 overs
Pakistan 219 all out in 47.2 overs
New Zealand win by 47 runs
500 People from Gaza enter France
115 Special programme for artists
25 Evacuation of injured and sick
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
RESULTS
5pm: Rated Conditions (PA) Dh85,000 (Turf) 1,600m
Winner: AF Mouthirah, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer)
5.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner: AF Alajaj, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
6pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner: Hawafez, Connor Beasley, Abubakar Daud
6.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 2,200m
Winner: Tair, Fabrice Veron, Eric Lemartinel
7pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 2,200m
Winner: Wakeel W’Rsan, Richard Mullen, Jaci Wickham
7.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh100,000 (T) 2,400m
Winner: Son Of Normandy, Fernando Jara, Ahmad bin Harmash
EPL's youngest
- Ethan Nwaneri (Arsenal)
15 years, 181 days old
- Max Dowman (Arsenal)
15 years, 235 days old
- Jeremy Monga (Leicester)
15 years, 271 days old
- Harvey Elliott (Fulham)
16 years, 30 days old
- Matthew Briggs (Fulham)
16 years, 68 days old
