miss b loves .........The Ivy, Dubai

The Ivy, Dubai opened its doors on 9th June 2011 at The Boulevard of the luxurious and iconic Jumeirah Emirates Towers. It has a brasserie-style menu with a selection of traditional Ivy dishes but takes account of local produce and regional inspiration...It sounded just perfect ......

                           
The question is whether this version of The Ivy will live up to the Soho London original. They've managed to recreate the look of the London restaurant with oak panelling and green leather banquettes and the food is certainly excellent with very well-trained, attentive and friendly staff who seem to enjoy interacting with the customers. However,for those obsessed with celebrity culture, for the time being, there may well be far fewer celebs to spot! (on our visit chef Gary Rhodes was enjoying his evening a few tables away)  

It was hard to believe that this was a newly opened restaurant as the busy, lively ambiance was that of an established one. So, the all important food .........The menu offers a wide range of dishes -there really is something for everyone but with the temperature outside hitting the 40s the iced tomato soup was an obvious choice. It was  perfect  with  baby mozzarella balls, cherry tomatoes and fresh basil leaves floating on top.

For main course, we ordered salmon fishcake and shepherd's pie (I had already decided on the legendary shepherd's pie before the table was even reserved as I like to think I'm a connoisseur and  my own version-Mum's recipe-generally gets its fair share of compliments) Now the Ivy’s shepherd’s pie is made from both beef and lamb (of course normally shepherd's pie contains lamb and cottage pie is beef) but this dish exceeded all expectations. I loved the beef and lamb combination! It was well worth the 125 dirham price tag and I may now just have to tweak my own recipe! 

Salmon fishcake with spinach
and sorrel sauce

Choosing desserts was difficult as all our favourites were there but we finally opted for lemon assiette (lemon meringue pie, lemon curd ice cream and lemon jelly) and, following the recommendation of a very patient waiter, iced Scandinavian berries with hot chocolate sauce. Just amazing!!!!!

miss b recommends:

• starter: iced tomato soup or broad bean style houmous with crudités
• main course: shepherd's pie or salmon fishcake
• side dish: parmesan deep fried courgettes
• dessert: lemon assiette or Scandinavian iced berries



Lemon assiette