Here’s the problem: if you try to be a Jack of all trades, chances are high you won’t be able to master all of them.
Teatro at Park Rotana offers an extraordinary variety of cuisines, ranging from ‘Western’ and grill specialities to a wealth of Asian options covering Japanese, Chinese and Thai – not to mention the few Indian dishes that sneak in alongside pizzas. Confusing, right? How is it possible that one kitchen can send out quality plates of such vastly different foods that require so many techniques and disciplines? Well, unsurprisingly, they can’t. Don’t get us wrong, there are a number of dishes on the menu that are excellent, however the chances of hitting one on your first visit (and so ensuring a return) are slim.
On our visit we tried to spread ourselves across the menu as much as possible, but really with so many conflicting cuisines it’s difficult to mix and match in one meal. We started with a sashimi platter, dim sum and Peking duck spring rolls. The spring rolls were good – deep fried, generously stuffed with duck and served with a fruity hoi sin sauce. The dim sum selection was fine, though all of the dumplings tasted much the same despite the variety of fillings. The quality of fish on the sashimi platter was disappointingly low and the inclusion of crab stick as one of the six varieties was, frankly, ridiculous.
For the main course we ordered the crispy chilli beef with a side of Chinese vegetables and the miso sea bass. The beef, which came with rice, was very disappointing. So far from crispy, each sliver of the cornflour coated beef was soggy and left the mouth feeling claggy and in need of de-greasing with not a hint of heat from the advertised chillis. The Chinese vegetables did a good job of clearing the palate and were fresh, crunchy and delicious with cashew nuts thrown in for interest.
The miso sea bass was very good. Well cooked, the fish had a buttery texture and a very subtle savoury flavour from the miso. It was served on top of excellent stir fried vegetables and a fantastic potato rosti.
For dessert we ordered the peanut parfait which was served on a thin chocolate brownie layer with a caramel layer on top and finally an overly sweet ganache that was more like a chocolate syrup. The peanut flavour was a little too subtle but all in all it was alright.
Service at Teatro is a whole other matter. Despite our starters coming out quickly we had to wait an inordinate amount of time for our mains. We were interrupted far too frequently by the bored wait staff
all making the same enquiries and yet we had to ask for more water when our glasses were empty because the bottle was kept in a cooler far out of reach of the table.
The bill (for two)
Matsu sashimi platter Dhs93
Traditional dim sum selection Dhs45
Peking duck spring rolls Dhs50
Crispy chilli beef Dhs88
Miso sea bass Dhs185
Chinese vegetables Dhs40
Peanut parfait Dhs40
Total (excluding service) Dhs541
