Nobu @ Atlantis, The Palm, Dubai

Back in late 2008 I was lucky enough to stay at the newly opened Atlantis Hotel on The Palm @ Jumeriah in Dubai.  They were offering residents of Dubai a 'soft opening' special and we took full advantage of the offer, seeing that I probably wouldn't be able to afford a 'staycation' once the hard opening was over. 

Unfortunately our weekend there was not memorable (well actually it was very memorable but not favourable!) I am not a person who would usually complain about things in hotels, unless it is absolutely necessary.  Hell I'm a backpacker so used some some dives!  However being a 5 Star hotel one would expect impeccable quality, unfortunately this did not happen (far from it).  The stay ended in alot of disappointment and concern and after having no option but to complain to the General Manager, who conducted the whole situation with professional discretion, we were given a free night to use at a later date and a very sincere apology.  I won't go into details.  It was along time ago, newly opened and bound to run into a few teething problems but these events took the cake!

So we gave them 6 months or so to iron out the issues before we booked our free night.  I am happy to report that this stay was so much more delightful.

As a splurge my friend and I had made a reservation at the world renowned Nobu. Nobu Matsuhisa has had a colourful and illustrious career and has taken the world by storm (if not a little stormy in the earlier days).

Dubai was naturally one place to open a Nobu restaurant.

We decided to have a cocktail in one of the tiny hotel bars in the Atlantis before heading to dinner.  I decided on a Turkish delight, which is one of the best cocktails I have ever had.  It tasted exactly like a fresh Turkish Delight and took me back to the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.  Unfortunately they would not divulge the recipe! :)

Don't you just love the look of this and that glass was exquisite to sip from!

Turkish Delight

 

Onto Nobu, we were faced with deciding what to have.  The degustation menu looked amazing, however my friend does not eat raw seafood and dishes were not interchangeable.  Our waiter suggested that we allow the chefs to surprise us with a menu for approximately the same price as the degustation menu.

Okay. Sorted!

Wine - we are both red drinkers so we went with a bottle of Margaret River Shiraz, which being Dubai was at least 5 times the price LOL!  I will never learn!

looking towards the restaurant and kitchen

 

 

l

lobster salad with spicy lemon dressing

 

 tempura prawns in creamy sauce

Dover sole in lemon sauce

 

beef tonka

 

cabbage stuffed poussin

black cod miso

 vanilla and green tea ice cream, passionfruit sorbet and chocolate pudding

 cheese cake

 

* note: some of these items not long appear on the menu

 

This is firmly in one of the top 5 most amazing meals I have ever had the pleasure of tasting.  Yes there ended up being far to much food, but we just managed to get through it as we took our time between each dish.  Every morsel of each dish was perfect.  I won't even go into each dish.  If you ever get the opportunity to dine at Nobu...DO IT!

Sharing main dishes and desserts to the value of the degustation menu was a mammoth task and had we known that there would be that much food we would have ask them to stop.

 

We waddled back to our room.

 

Needless to say, this was an absolute highlight of our stay.