The californian restaurant is one of the many restaurant owned by the Dusit Thani Hotel, on Sheikh Zayed Road Nestled in the uppermost portion on 24th floor boasting views of the surrounding area from an interesting new vantage point.
The Californian plays host to tantalizing dishes from across the globe with its themed nights which change from day to day, satisfying any taste and mood. Following are the themed nights
Sundays: Tandoori
Mondays: Mexican
Tuesdays: New Orleans BBQ
Wednesdays: South East Asian
Thursdays: Deep Blue Seafood
Fridays: Around the World
When I got an invitation I intentionally choose to try their friday theme night “Around the world” so that I would get enough choices to explore this restaurant well. Assuming by the name around the world would be able to witness array of variety in the menu,which seemed paucity.
Its a simple restaurant with reasonably good seating arrangement and dim lights make it a place where you would like to have special dinners or celebrate events close to your heart.
My thumb rule to explore buffets is from salad counter. I could see variety with some unique combination which truly represents the theme of the night. There was selection of arabic cold mezzeh,stuffed calamari with herbs,roll mops, fried fish with sweet chilli and cob salad, smoked salmon and mushroom quiche etc. Mushroom quiche, fried fish with sweet chili and cold mezzeh are some of the dishes any one would relish from this healthy and calorie conscious counter.
Fresh carbohydrates in the form of breads and cheese are there to accompany you food.
Raw food station was there,wherein you have a choice to select any piece of meat,chicken or fish and get it grilled according to your liking.So, apart from the main course this station is also an attempt to add flavors of the world to the buffet.
In main course
- Jasmine rice
- Fish Biryani
- Lamb curry
- Pan fried fish fillet with ratatouille
- Beef resolute
- Buttered veggies
- Jacket potatoes
- BBQ chicken
- Pasta arabiata
Fish biryani aromatic rice with full of earthy flavors will surely delight your palates. Pan fried fish with ratatouille was new for me I had never tried it before so I found it different and delectable in taste. Being a non vegetarian, seeing BBQ chicken is always an exciting sight. Well marinated, grilled with perfection as the softness could be felt in every bite. Jacket potatoes should not be missed and don’t forget to drizzle some sauce on it to have a notch up experience of baked potatoes.Pasta arabiata or sugo all’arrabbiata in Italian, is a spicy sauce for pasta made from garlic, tomatoes, and red chili peppers cooked in olive oil.Surely a treat for pasta lovers.
Every buffet has the most interesting counter and it is no other than dessert counter,where you get mesmerizing presentation of sweet and variety. The californian offers amazing array of dessert spread. My favorites are creme caramel, chocolate profiterole,opera cake,creme brulee and assorted baklava. Baklava was fresh and crispy they way it should be.You won’t leave this counter without being impressed.
Overall, it was a good discovery however I won’t say it stands in the best buffet category. I felt the choices of dish should have been more variant as it was around the world theme. Taste wise I won’t complain much since some of the dishes really impressed me but the only thing stood out the most was dessert counter for me. I would like to try other theme nights in search of the best one.
Engineer With Flair 