Ask a taxi driver where anything is in the city and they will – more often than not – whisk you away to your destination without any qualms. Ask a taxi driver to take you to Al Dhafra restaurant on Al Meena, and it becomes a whole different story.
Having been directed to the restaurant by one of the staff on loudspeaker to the taxi driver, we finally arrive at the location – which is near the fish market on Al Meena. We are greeted at the entrance by a smiley member of staff who then gives us the option of dining inside
or outside.
The inside features an impressive display of freshly caught fish and a buffet, but with the weather at its best and the novelty of sitting by the water’s edge too tempting to turn down, we choose a table looking out at the decoratively lit boats.
As with any Emirati restaurant, there is a range of grilled meat, hot and cold appetisers, and salads. The menu isn’t the most extensive you’ll find, but there is an option to select fresh fish from the display inside. Being adventurous foodies and with the waiter struggling to describe the dishes to us, we opt for a couple of interesting sounding selections from the ‘local kitchen’ section on the menu – dango and the special mahalla. We also choose the hummus – which comes with flatbread – and the mixed grill on a stand.
Since we asked for all the food to arrive at the same time, the special mahalla was perhaps not the right thing to order. What the waiter should have told us is the special mahalla is in fact a type of pancake with a yoghurt-like cream and a light spread of honey inside, so probably best as a desert – or just not at all. We are more impressed with the dango – a simple bowl of warm chickpeas.
The hummus is light and creamy, with a scattering of chickpeas and oil drizzled on top, but the flatbread arrives cold and wrapped in a plastic bag, although it had just been bought as an afterthought in a supermarket.
It is, as we expected, the mixed grill that is the crowd pleaser. The meat arrives presented on a large stand and we can immediately recognise shish tawook (chicken), kabab orfali (minced lamb balls with green chillies and onion), lamb chops and lamb kofta. A lamb-heavy platter, but nonetheless, the meat is cooked to perfection. The grill on a stand is perhaps a little too much for two diners, so we’d recommend ordering the ‘grill on a plate’ option from the menu. Our only complaint here is we would have rather served our own meat from the stand, instead of having the clumsy waiter spilling the meat down our fresh, white t-shirt.
The view of the boats lit up by the water is romantic, the mixed grill is satisfactory, but the staff are confusing and their English is a little off the mark, making ordering and finding the restaurant something of a challenge. We can’t help but feel this is one for the tourists getting off the boats at Meena Port, as there are better quality Emirati restaurants to be found in the city.
The bill (for two):
Hummus Dhs15
Dango Dhs15
Special mahalla Dhs12
Mixed grill on stand Dhs150
Total (excl. service) Dhs192
