The Foundry is one of the capital’s most well-established and much-loved steakhouses, but every time we visit we still never fail to be impressed by the cool and very striking chairs, framed with Game-of-Thrones style backs.
So it’s a good job that the Thursday brunch is delivered by table service, and we don’t have to move from our comfortable thrones all night long. Service is super-quick throughout the night from the friendly and chatty staff.
Starters are unlimited and while the portions are small, that just means you can try a bit of everything.
We start off with the soup of the day, which is a delicate serving of lobster bisque finished with a mini dumpling floating in the middle. It has a strong lobster taste, so if you’re not totally into the shellfish then it’s perhaps worth a miss. However, if you love it (like we do), you’ll be tempted to keep asking for bowl after bowl.
But instead we move on to the salmon cake, which comes with a blob of avocado mousse and spoon of tomato chutney. It’s packed with beautiful pink fish and the creamy flavours of the avocado and tang of the chutney work together perfectly. One portion of the tasty starter just isn’t enough, so we have another…
Seafood lovers will also adore the oysters, served with a selection of different vinegars, lemon and Tabasco sauce. We have fun choosing what to top them with, and it’s nice to start proceedings with something that feels a bit special.
But, for us, the best starter has to be the roasted beetroot salad. This colourful plate features yellow and purple beetroot, feta cheese, walnuts, orange and balsamic. It’s a fantastic combination of flavours ond textures, and we can’t get over how sweet the beetroot is. It’s an easy decision to reorder this too.
We’re impressed by the range of quality dishes on offer, which means that even if you’re not massively into steak, there are still many things to get excited about.
By the time you finally get to the main courses you’ll no doubt be having an incredibly good time.
The tasting selection features three different cuts of meats, which can be reordered as many times as you like. It’s undeniably a great deal, and each cut offers something very different.
They’re not small cuts, either, and all three are excellent. The Australian stanbroke ribeye just about tops it as our favourite, as it’s packed with flavour and cooked to a perfect medium rare. Meanwhile, the Argentinian sirloin is nicely marbled without being too fatty, and the South African karan tenderloin lives up to its stella reputation as a super piece of meat.
The sides are great, too. They are a creamy mushroom and asparagus risotto, and pan of roasted potatoes (including an eye-catching purple variety) and carrots.
The meats come with pepper and bearnaise sauces, but we find we don’t really need them. It’s all delicious and wonderfully comforting.
Despite all of the rich and heavy food during the main course, we recommend you find room to have a go at the dessert platter. You’ll find all the best sweet treats, such as chocolate brownies, sticky toffee pudding, raspberry mousse and butterscotch ice cream. We can’t resist trying them all and roll out very happy. A great start to the weekend.
Dhs265 (soft drinks), Dhs385 (house beverages). Thu 7pm-11pm. Southern Sun Abu Dhabi, Mina Street, Al Zahiyah (02 818 4888).
WHAT IS IT…
Unlimited starters and cuts of meat
WHY GO…
To find out how many steaks you can physically eat
