Nuri on Yas Bay Waterfront serves Korean barbecue in keeping with the UAE's fascination for K-food. Photo: Nuri Grill & Bar
Nuri on Yas Bay Waterfront serves Korean barbecue in keeping with the UAE's fascination for K-food. Photo: Nuri Grill & Bar
Nuri on Yas Bay Waterfront serves Korean barbecue in keeping with the UAE's fascination for K-food. Photo: Nuri Grill & Bar
Nuri on Yas Bay Waterfront serves Korean barbecue in keeping with the UAE's fascination for K-food. Photo: Nuri Grill & Bar

Diner’s delight: How Abu Dhabi is making a mark on the global food map


Panna Munyal
  • English
  • Arabic

“Nothing short of remarkable.” That’s how chef Andrew Lee describes Abu Dhabi’s dining scene in 2024.

He should know. Lee has been helming Hakkasan in Emirates Palace since the Cantonese restaurant's inception in the UAE capital. In the 14 years since he took up the reins of what is, arguably, one of the city's most popular restaurants, Hakkasan Abu Dhabi has won and retained a prestigious Michelin star; created a dish that was served at Hakkasan outposts all over the world for Chinese New Year; and – in something of a culinary coup – flown down Tala Bashmi, the region’s most successful female chef.

The collaboration with Bashmi was but one of the many multi-chef or so-called “four-hands meals” increasingly available to foodies living in and visiting Abu Dhabi.

Chef Andrew Lee and Bahraini chef Tala Bashmi served a meal that incorporated Chinese and Middle Eastern flavours at Hakkasan Abu Dhabi. Photo: Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental
Chef Andrew Lee and Bahraini chef Tala Bashmi served a meal that incorporated Chinese and Middle Eastern flavours at Hakkasan Abu Dhabi. Photo: Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental

In April, chef Kelvin Cheung of Jun’s fame collaborated with Dai Pai Dong’s chef Dong at Rosewood Abu Dhabi. In September, French chef Nicolas Isnard will serve a limited-time meal alongside chef Ludovic Turac at his first restaurant in the UAE, Bord Eau at Shangri-La Qaryat Al Beri.

High-profile chefs aside, at least three of Dubai’s most popular restaurants are set to open their doors to Abu Dhabi diners in the coming weeks and months. These include: 3 Fils, Mena’s Best Restaurant of 2022, at The Abu Dhabi Edition in Al Bateen; New York import SushiSamba at Etihad Towers, both of which are slated for Q4; and Pincode by celebrity Indian chef Kunal Kapur, which will open at The Galleria Al Maryah Island in September.

As Kapur notes: “I’m amazed by how Abu Dhabi mixes old traditions with modern life, and now it’s getting interested in different styles of cooking, including new ways of making traditional dishes.”

Hanar, by the Kurdish brothers behind ramen restaurant Daikan, meanwhile, is already in its soft-launch phase at Yas Bay and offers traditional dishes of Mesopotamia.

“The past few years have seen a stream of world-class sporting, musical and artistic events come to Abu Dhabi. The city is booming with tourists, residents, visitors and new businesses and – from our point of view – there has never been a better time to invest and open a venue here,” say Hanar co-founders Bilal and Salih Elmascan.

Hanar, by the owners of Daikan, serves dishes inspired by Mesopotamia. Photo: Hanar
Hanar, by the owners of Daikan, serves dishes inspired by Mesopotamia. Photo: Hanar

New restaurants aside, the Cultural Foundation in the capital has already welcomed a culinary school by the world’s most celebrated French chef Alain Ducasse, and will also have an outpost of Le Cordon Bleu at The Grove on Saadiyat Island by early next year.

These are but a handful of many examples showing how Abu Dhabi has, finally, come into its own when catering to local and international foodies.

What’s in it for the diner?

As more chefs and restaurants seek to make a name for themselves on the capital’s culinary circuit, the one demographic that stands to benefit the most is the diner.

When Michelin-starred Italian restaurant Talea by Antonio Guida at Emirates Palace invited chef Daniele Cason from Tokyo’s Pizza Bar on 38th for a four-hands meal, for example, the menu was replete with dishes a diner would not otherwise have an opportunity to sample. Bashmi’s collaboration with Hakkasan at the same hotel, meanwhile, offered diners a blend of Chinese and Middle Eastern flavour profiles.

Michael Koth, general manager of Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental, says: “Abu Dhabi is creating a thriving and diverse culinary scene, from using locally sourced ingredients in new restaurants to offering small but sophisticated haute cuisine. Furthermore, we are witnessing new recipes that blend various cultures in a single dish, leaving many people spellbound.”

Indeed, as The National’s reviews of Nuri and Toto noted, the former’s flair for Korean barbecue and the latter’s retro-style fine-dining Italian dishes were nothing short of culinary magic.

Sauteed prawns with black venere rice and stracciatella. Photo: Toto Abu Dhabi
Sauteed prawns with black venere rice and stracciatella. Photo: Toto Abu Dhabi

Fans of Mediterranean fare can sample treats such as fried feta filo and wild bass carpaccio at Mika in Yas Marina; and seafood bouillabaisse at Flamingo Room, helmed by Dubai-based South African restaurateur Natasha Sideris.

Indigenous flavours, too, are coming into their own. MouzMari is an Argentinian steakhouse with an Emirati twist, which translates to dishes such as ceviche using Abu Dhabi’s renowned muhammar fish and Wagyu tenderloin complemented by an innovative side of steamed corn swimming in a cheese sauce.

And when Erth won its Michelin star, the Emirati-inspired restaurant curated a new menu, comprising such locally inspired delicacies as beetroot salad with Emirati chami cheese and braised lamb machboos with fragrant spiced rice.

Another knock-on effect of Abu Dhabi’s bid to raise the food stakes is the formation of culinary communities around the capital. From Yas Bay and Yas Marina, to Mamsha Al Saadiyat and Al Qana, several areas are now veritable food hubs.

Older restaurants reinvigorated

The push to up the capital’s food game also benefits restaurants that have been around for a long time.

The Michelin Guide Abu Dhabi might have only four starred restaurants on its list, but it also shone a spotlight on more than 40 others via its Bib Gourmand and Michelin-select categories, from budget Malaysian venue Kopitiam by Chandy’s, to Lebanese-Armenian restaurant Almayass, which first opened in Beirut in 1996.

As a result, some eateries that have been around for years now are back on the discerning diner’s radar, from Fishmarket at InterContinental Abu Dhabi and Finz at Beach Rotana to Meylasin Al Muneera and Hoi An at the Shangri-La.

Being Michelin-selected not only helps to spark a renewed interest among residents, but also attracts gastro-tourists.

Elsewhere, hidden gems are being unearthed by initiatives such as Urban Treasures by the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi. This year's list included venues that are decades old, such as Alfarah Restaurant that was established in 1998, and Alareesh Restaurant that was founded in 1990.

As Abu Dhabi resident and self-proclaimed foodie Hani Masri notes: “I am more attuned to foodie news coming out of the capital now than I ever was before. Earlier, special occasions meant making a trip to the latest or hottest restaurant in Dubai, but now we have the menus of the world on our own doorstep.”

Perhaps chef Bashmi is on to something when she says: “While Dubai held the culinary crown for a while, Abu Dhabi is on its way to catching up.”

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Four tips to secure IoT networks

Mohammed Abukhater, vice president at FireEye in the Middle East, said:

- Keep device software up-to-date. Most come with basic operating system, so users should ensure that they always have the latest version

- Besides a strong password, use two-step authentication. There should be a second log-in step like adding a code sent to your mobile number

- Usually smart devices come with many unnecessary features. Users should lock those features that are not required or used frequently

- Always create a different guest network for visitors

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
THE CLOWN OF GAZA

Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah 

Starring: Alaa Meqdad

Rating: 4/5

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Global state-owned investor ranking by size

1.

United States

2.

China

3.

UAE

4.

Japan

5

Norway

6.

Canada

7.

Singapore

8.

Australia

9.

Saudi Arabia

10.

South Korea

Sustainable Development Goals

1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere

2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation

10. Reduce inequality  within and among countries

11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its effects

14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels

17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development

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Starring: Sarah Geronimo, James Reid, Xian Lim, Nova Villa

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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.

The biog

Family: wife, four children, 11 grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren

Reads: Newspapers, historical, religious books and biographies

Education: High school in Thatta, a city now in Pakistan

Regrets: Not completing college in Karachi when universities were shut down following protests by freedom fighters for the British to quit India 

 

Happiness: Work on creative ideas, you will also need ideals to make people happy

The candidates

Dr Ayham Ammora, scientist and business executive

Ali Azeem, business leader

Tony Booth, professor of education

Lord Browne, former BP chief executive

Dr Mohamed El-Erian, economist

Professor Wyn Evans, astrophysicist

Dr Mark Mann, scientist

Gina MIller, anti-Brexit campaigner

Lord Smith, former Cabinet minister

Sandi Toksvig, broadcaster

 

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F1 The Movie

Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Rating: 4/5

The cost of Covid testing around the world

Egypt

Dh514 for citizens; Dh865 for tourists

Information can be found through VFS Global.

Jordan

Dh212

Centres include the Speciality Hospital, which now offers drive-through testing.

Cambodia

Dh478

Travel tests are managed by the Ministry of Health and National Institute of Public Health.

Zanzibar

AED 295

Zanzibar Public Health Emergency Operations Centre, located within the Lumumba Secondary School compound.

Abu Dhabi

Dh85

Abu Dhabi’s Seha has test centres throughout the UAE.

UK

From Dh400

Heathrow Airport now offers drive through and clinic-based testing, starting from Dh400 and up to Dh500 for the PCR test.

Updated: August 06, 2024, 3:36 PM`