FAMISHED EXPLORER

Who doesn't like dumplings in a pasta dough right? This place is located in DIFC, and has a really Italian feel to it; even some of the staff is from Italy. The place is calm, spacious, rustic, and bright (natural light). It has an European feel to it and is just the way I would love for an Italian place to be. The names of the dishes too are in Italian. They recently invited me to try them out.  We started with Arancino , which was a huge deep fried rice ball with meat and mozzarella. It was crunchy from the outside and soft from the inside. It tasted really good, especially with the Arrabbiata sauce that it was served with.  A post shared by Famished Explorer [ UDIT ] (@uditss) on Mar 18, 2018 at 5:34am PDT For drinks we had the  Jasmine Ale . It is refreshing and I would totally recommend this one.  The other drink was the Grande Basil Mojito . This wasn't exactly to my liking.  We moved on to some pasta and ordered the Tagli...

This is a European cafe in the Fashion Avenue of Dubai Mall. It is located besides the upmarket brands, and hence gives a classy feel. The best part about it are the views. You get an amazing view of the Dubai Fountain form here. They also have outside seating from where you can see it. They had introduced some new items on the menu and invited me to try it out.  The menu is really extensive, and especially it is on the iPad with the photos you feel tempted to order just about everything. I liked the interior too; it has a white and maroon theme.  We started with some drinks - the Passion Watermelon and the Pink Lemonade . Both of them were really nice and refreshing; I really liked the fruity taste that they had.  For starters, we had the Millionaire's heat . I can define this dish as dynamite lobster. It was similar to shrimp, but even better. It had the right amount of spice level to it, and a bit of crunchiness too. Another starter was the stuffed m...

Riso has just opened in November 2017, and I got a chance to try out this Pure Vegetarian Italian restaurant. The interiors are colorful with bright blue, orange etc. for the furniture, and they've made it decorative with various kinds of flower pots. We started with a mushroom cappuccino . Yes, you read that right. This is basically a mushroom soup, served in a mug with some froth on top. The froth tastes really milky just like it would in a cappuccino, and the soup below the froth tasted really authentic. I definitely recommend this.  A post shared by Famished Explorer [ UDIT ] (@uditss) on Dec 6, 2017 at 11:50pm PST The other soup was " zuppa de pomodoro "; this is tomato soup with crunchy croutons. This also tasted really good.  Then came this mushroom starter (I sadly forgot the name). It is served with bread, and tasted nice initially, but after a few bites, it was just about okay. For appetizers there were the Jalapeno sticks . Really che...

This place is located in one of the by-lanes in Jumeirah and would be hard to find without a map.  I went there on a weekday and just managed to get a parking spot in the nick of time. This place is a bit dimly lit, and the tables are really close to each other. Also, it gets a bit noisy. It isn't the ideal place if you just want to sit back and relax.  I managed to get a table, but this one seemed like it was in the middle of the pathway. Everyone seemed to be walking right beside it. That's when we asked them to shift us to another one at the side. The place had got pretty crowed by then and customers had to wait for sometime before they were seated.  They have a huge coffee selection, including filter coffees like the chemex, v60, aeropress, kalita etc. They also have the dirty chai latte which caught my attention. This one is a tea with Indian spices, and to that they add milk and a shot of coffee. It was served in a french press and the quantity was huge....

Among the handful pure vegetarian Italian restaurants is Quattro . They serve Italian as well as Mexican cuisine with a bit of a fusion twist.  As soon as you enter you notice the rustic and earthy interiors of this place. The staff showed us to a comfortable table.     Before they serve the food, they got us a wide selection of dips — salsa, habanero, mango, pesto, and a few more — each of which were explained by our server Vishwajit.  They've got a wide variety in their menu and you're spoilt for choice, especially since they've got the concept of molecular gastronomy and each item has something unique to offer.  After much pondering we decided to take their recommendations as to what are their best appetizers.  They suggested the ' Taquitos ', which is gluten-free tortilla cones filled with beans, jalapeños, salsa, and topped with avocado ice-cream. I hadn't heard of an ice-cream being a part of any appetizer before this so it was somethi...