FAMISHED EXPLORER

I like to try out new sushi places. Yo sushi is a very well known outlet, although it was my first tie trying it out.  They have the conveyor belt sushi offers too, but we just opted for the regular dine-in.  We started with the smoked salmon and cream cheese roll. It had some cucumber in it too, and I liked the combination of salmon with the cream cheese. After this we had the dynamite roll. If you like a bit of spicy flavours then this one is great. It's got salmon, chill oil, and avocado that's rolled in crispy onion, and topped with sriracha and mayo. A burst of flavours there.  For a quick bite, we ordered the popcorn shrimp. This is tempura shrimp drizzled with sweet shiro miso and chilli sauce. I would have liked this to be a bit on the spicy side instead of sweet.  For the accompaniments, we called for a prawn Yakisoba. I was expecting an average sized portion of the noodles, but this was quite small. The taste was not bad. We thought ...

This is a newly started cafe that is Vegan, soy free, sugar free, and gluten free. I've recently taken a liking towards vegan food and was looking forward to checking it out when they invited me.  I liked the interiors; they have an earthy feeling with some plants dotted around the place. This certainly gives a very healthy feel to it. The restaurant also has a partially open kitchen. They have really interesting items on the menu and we started with the beetroot sliders . It is a whole grain bun with a nice beetroot patty inside along with tomato, lettuce and purple cabbage. For someone who isn't much of a beetroot fan, I really liked this burger. It is also guilt free.  Then we had the quinoa biryani . This was more like a pulav, and had mostly just broccoli in it among the vegetables. The spices too were on the lower side, and I would have liked it to have some more flavour. Although, it's not bad considering that they make it without any oil. It is served wit...

The name Dabang itself is really catchy and filmy, and their food also is really Dabang! It is an outlet located in the food court of Marina mall, and I didn't have much expectations from this, but I gave it a shot when they invited me to try out their newly launched menu and it certainly surpassed my expectations.  They've recently got chef Sohan Bhandari who was heading a very well known chain of an Indian restaurant in the city. They've also revamped their menu to include some really interesting items. We started with the samosa chana chaat . It was made pretty well; not too soggy, but just the right amount of ingredients, and it tasted great. Then they got us some onion bhajiya and said these are the chef's special. I wondered as to how different could onion bhajiyas get. Oh boy I was wrong. These were perhaps the best onion bhajiyas I've had. They were really crispy and were sprinkled with the chef's special masala on it. I had never though...

Walking along the marina, we spotted this restaurant and decided to go in for a light bite.  This restaurant and La Gaufrette share their seating space. The seating for Bazerkan is enclosed while that of La Gaufrette is open, which is where we sat. They gave us the menu for Bazerkan.  We started with a fattoush . The quantity was a lot for two people. It was made pretty well.  Then we ordered the foul medammes. There was a bit more lemon than usual and it tasted a bit zesty for our liking. Though the hot bread that was there along with it mellowed it down a bit. Last but not the least, we had the moussaka batinjan. It is made from eggplant and mixed vegetables. I really liked this one, though it took a few bites to like the flavour. My friends didn't quie enjoy this.  Not a bad place overall.  The vibe doesn't feel very lively for some reason. 

I'm always looking for some cuisines which we don't get too often, and one such cuisine in Dubai is Greek. Also, it is really hard to find an authentic place, since many of them are tweaked to suit local audiences. I was invited to try out this place which was started in late 2016.  This restaurant is run by a Greek couple - Kyriakos and Julia - who themselves are at the restaurant regularly, and we had the opportunity to meet them. The chef too, is a relative of theirs and we could see the passion that this family has to serve people delicious Greek food.  We started with some of their cold starters which looked a bit similar to Arabic ones, but are quite different. One of these was the Tirokafteri which is a blend of feta cheese, yoghurt, and chili peppers. This was among my favourite here. There was also the Grecian hummus . It had a bit of honey, and wasn't all that much to my liking.  The next one was the eggplant salad , which was fresh and simi...