With the prolific rate at which new eateries open up daily in this desert city,its a tough vying to get recognized and have a name in the market of taste and quality. Jaan takes a pride in being a progressive indian restaurant,housed at 31st floor of Sofitel Dubai Downtown.
The 6,200-square-feet tapas bar sits on the 31st floor pent house of Sofitel Hotel. On one side, you can see the entire Dubai coastline and on the other, the stunning Burj Khalifa and its water fountain.The restaurant is divided into the gorgeous bar/ lounge, the smoking area and the non-smoking area at the back, where people can enjoy food with spectacular view. A graffiti wall at one side of the lounge will surely grab your attention, I got to know its inspired from the Berlin wall in Germany and they specially got the rights to reprint it here.
We were welcomed warmly by the staff and after sitting down on the reserved table we kicked our evening with the drinks. Swadeshi – Dragon Fruit, Wild Berry Mix and Bitter Lemon made for a wild mocktail. The Mother Flower was a concoction of cucumber, green apple and lemon grass.
From selected menu we got to try
- Cherry Wood Chicken
- Big Head Prawns
- Arabic Malai Reshmi Murgh Biryani
- Raan-e- Shahi
- Chole Hummus- Amratsari Kulcha
- Normandie Dairy Dal
Cherry Wood Chicken flavorful smoked chicken strips marinated well with inhouse spices, button peppers(round indian chilli) and cashew nuts. It will surely tantalized spice lover taste buds.
Big Head Prawns amazingly well grilled prawns in Indian butter garlic style wrapped in bacon strip. I couldn’t get to know that garlic is one of the main ingredient in this dish just by taste till I read it in the menu.
Arabic Malai Reshmi Murgh Biryani, aromatic rice with tender pieces of malai reshmi chicken. It was filled with earthy aroma and spices,no wonder am gonna go back just to have this again.
Raan-e- Shahi succlent pieces of meat served on a clay pot, each bite was enriched and melted in the mouth, amazing and a real treat for a carnivorous like me.
Chole Hummus- Amratsari Kulcha, it was an quirky combo of desi style chole and arabic staple hummus, served with adequately stuffed kulcha with potato stuffing. I really like both and would prefer to eat each of them on it own rather than pairing them up.
Normandie Dairy Dal, rich and creamy black daal which I believe you don’t wanna miss.
Now come the most exciting and sweet part” Dessert”. We satiate our sweet buds with French Toast Shahi Tukda and Nirvana. Chef’s take on traditional shahi tukra with a twist of international french toast was nothing but a delightful fare. It was like soft shahi tukra drenched in maple and cinnamon syrup with crispy exterior like french toast. Highly recommended.Other dessert Nirvana was saffron panna cotta with thandai mousse and topped with raspberry pour. Decorated with chocolate in tree shape.
Overall, it was a good experience in terms of food taste, ambiance and view but still I felt paucity of some extraordinary food fare although presentation was spot on. There was a missing factor of something ‘NEW’. I would suggest you to try it out and let me know is it just me who felt that way over there. I would definitely go back and try out other dishes in search of exceptional factor.
Engineer With Flair 