Restaurants Umm Al Quwain: Umm Al Quwain Beach Resort

This is the restaurant where I met my beloved pet chili Fred.  When I first set eyes on Fred he was just another chili on a big plate of vegetables (you know plate that you get in all Lebanese restaurants as soon as you sit down).  The Lebanese Restaurant at the Umm Al Quain Beach Resort is the mother of all Lebanese restaurants in the UAE.  It is by Dream Land Aqua Park where all the kids want to go on the week-end and close to Barracuda where all of the adults want to go on the week-end.  I have friends that told me that the restaurant reminded them of restaurants in the mountains of Beirut. I don't know what the name of this restaurant is so I will call it the "restaurant".

My friend Fred

In addition to Fred I also met: Jaclyn - a beautiful belly dancer who does the most amazing side-stepping in heels I've ever seen (not that I've seen many side-steppings performed before) and The Singer - I liked the Singer, the young folk liked the Singer, the old folk liked the Singer, even the little baby folk liked the Singer. I defy anyone to not like the Singer.

The restaurant consists of a large banquet hall with a stage in the middle (where Jaclyn, the Singer and band perform).  The set up reminded me of a wedding hall.  In fact the whole experience reminded me of being at a wedding.  Sure it's like being at a wedding where you only know the people at your table.  But you'll never have to show up in a yellow satin strapless dress with ballon skirt ending above the knee, unless you really want to. Definitely,  Friday afternoon party central.  

Trust me, everybody is having a blast!

The restaurant has a set menu with all the mezze you can eat and all the Arak and beer you can drink.

 

I very generously let the others eat my portion of raw kebbe 

This is the second time we've been to the restaurant and the we noticed that we were served far more mezze and far less grills than the first time.  I also seem to remember that we got a big sponge cake with sparklers on it the first time.  As far as quality goes the restaurant is as good as Al Mallah, but until Al Mallah serves Arak and beer and lets you dance on the tables while Jaclyn performs her amazing belly dance routine (what a wonderful day that will be) the restaurant does the best Lebanese brunch in the UAE.

Restaurants Dubai: Sammach

Sammach does something that many other restaurants in Dubai can't seem to do: use  fresh local ingredients to make perfectly cooked dishes.  The food I had was not fancy (grilled prawns, grilled fish in African sauce, little fish rolled in flour and deep-fried whole and squid in a  sauce my friend calls ''soak it all up with my bread sauce").  None of these dishes required an extremely high level of skill to put together.  But the kitchen obviously understands seafood and puts in the effort to get it right.  This is more than can be said about more expensive seafood restaurants in Dubai such as Pierchic and Picses.

Sammach is located in the Beach Center mall on Jumeirah road.  The night we went there it wasn't very busy.  I hope that they are usually busier.  Word of warning: do not lick the wet wipes given after dinner!

Restaurants Isfahan: Shahrzad Restaurant

A colorful and busy restaurant, the Shahrzad is over the beautiful Si-o-Seh bridge. I had the chicken with walnut sauce and burberry rice, it was sweet and sour and very good. The portions were very generous and one portion could easily have fed three people. As appetizers we ordered salad and olives. The salad was the same lettuce, tomato and cucumber in cling wrap accompanied by salad cream that we were given in every restaurant in Iran. There must be a factory somewhere which manufactures them. The olives on the other hand were very unique. On seeing them, our friend said they looked "recycled". And indeed they did look like they had passed through someone's digestive tract before arriving at our table. I was too squeamish to try any but the others did and said they tasted as if they had been covered in hoisin sauce.

Isfahan Restaurants: Khan Golstar Restaurant

All of the restaurants our five year old guide book said were located in the Armenian district of Jolfa seem to have disappeared.  So we stopped strangers on the streets of Jolfa and asked them to recommend a restaurant in the area.  All of them told us two things: one, the Khan Golstar was the best restaurant in Isfahan; and two, that it was also the most expensive restaurant in Isfahan. 

It certainly didn't look like the best and most expensive restaurant in Isfahan.  What ever it was you are paying all that money for it wasn't for the decor.  Maybe you are paying for the budding novelist who wrote the menu.  This was floweriest menu I've ever seen with such descriptions as: The Exceptional Salad Bar, The Barg: Thin, Flat and Tasty, The Extraordinary Steak and our favorite the 50cm Romantic Kebab!  The other thing you pay for is the size of the portions - they were huge.  One order could have fed the four of us.  I had the chicken with fried rice cakes and burberry rice (and butter).  While it was delicious sometimes you can have too much of a good thing.  

Isfahan Restaurants: Traditional Sofreh Khaneh

a.k.a Traditional Banquet Hall, a.k.a Restaurant this way upstairs is a popular restaurant just off Imam Square.  It opens for lunch at 12:30 and there was a line up to get in when we arrived at 12:27.  The restaurant is spacious with lots of room inside and outside (on a terrace) so getting a table was no problem.  The restaurant is decorated with frescoes, mirrored ceilings and stained glass windows. Instead of tables people are seated on raised platforms.  

The menu selection is limited but all of the dishes we tried were very good.  I especially liked the Obergon Stew - puree of aubergine with cream and spices.  We also liked the Dizi, a.k.a. Deeze, a.k.a Dizee although we never discovered the proper way of eating this dish.  Dizi is a chickpea and meat stew that comes in a flaming hotpot and is accompanied by one metal bowl, one spoon, one metal pestle and one piece of bread.  Our observation of Iranians that ordered this dish yielded no results.  The waiter with his back turned towards us, arms flailing performed the magical task of turning the ingredients into a finished meal for them.  When we asked the waiter to do the same for us he looked upset and started calling for his boss.  Other diners were starting to stare so we excused the waiter.  We used all of the implements in all of the different ways we could think of.  The result was delicious if probably not very authentic.