The first thing you notice about Meat Co. is the fantastic views you get from the restaurant’s dining area. The indoor seating here is stylish, with brown leather and dark wood tables throughout, but if the weather is favourable sitting outside is a must, because not only will you be looking down over an idyllic stretch of the Maqta’a Creek, but you can also gaze upon the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque which makes for a superb backdrop against which to have your meal.
We opt for the salt and pepper calamari rings to start and an Australian Aberdeen Angus 400g rump cooked rare with a side of onion rings and a creamy peppercorn sauce to follow.
The calamari rings reach our table less than five minutes after we order, and they are fresh out of the fryer. The shallow fry batter is a perfect texture and is by far the star of the plate. The dish is served with a sweet chilli jam and this is tasty, with all the right flavours of tang you expect from a sweet chilli sauce, but its gusto masks rather than accentuates the flavour of the calamari, and almost all of the salt and pepper notes are lost. A garnish of raw vegetables julienne adds another texture and this works well, completing the dish as a whole. All in all this is a very appetising and well-constructed plate of food.
Our steak then arrives, and the first thing we notice is the size of it. The Australian Aberdeen Angus rump comes as either 300g or 400g – we opted for the larger when, on reflection, the smaller would have been plenty. But the steak itself is superb, so gladly we take the monster on. It’s worth saying that if you order your steak rare, make sure that you really do mean rare, because ours comes very pink indeed (which is how we like it, but may be slightly underdone for other diner’s tastes).
The creamy peppercorn sauce is one of the best we’ve tasted for a long time, and compliments the meat extremely well. The onion rings are fried strings, rather than their chunky relatives we were expecting, but taste nice enough to overcome this surprise.
By now we’re stuffed, and dessert feels like a mountain too far. But we’re recommended the malva pudding, a South African apricot sponge cake served with custard and ice cream, that tempts us out of temporary eating retirement. One mouthful tells us this is a mistake, because not only do we not have the room or inclination for another course, but it’s clear Meat Co’s sweets aren’t to the standard of its steak.
The cake is heavy, and doesn’t taste of apricot. The custard is good, but there isn’t enough of it to counterbalance to heartiness of the sponge. All in all it’s a somewhat uncomfortable end to what had been
a thoroughly enjoyable meal.
The bill (for one)
Salt and pepper calamari Dhs50
Rump steak 400g Dhs220
Onion rings Dhs18
Peppercorn sauce Dhs16
Malva pudding Dhs40
Total (excluding service) Dhs344
