Tiara the Café
Revolving restaurant over Marina Mall 33 Reviews
For the most part, I have always considered revolving restaurants to be a neat gimmick – a shiny bone to throw to the rubes. In the back of my mind is a quote from The Simpsons, when the hapless Principal Skinner proposes dinner to his date with the words: ‘You know, food tastes better when you’re revolving.’ Yet the reality is surely the opposite. You have to question the culinary ambition of any restaurant that spends so much money on ensuring that diners spend their time talking about anything but the meal. So, with Tiara’s claims to being a ‘gourmet’ restaurant still ringing in our ears, we were curious to see if it could break the mould.
Your first clue as to the scale of this venture is the time it takes the lift to ascend from floor ‘G’ to ‘V’ (the latter presumably stands for ‘vertigo’). Civilisations have been born, achieved modernity, built revolving restaurants, and then collapsed in the time it takes to arrive. The reason? ‘The Burj Al Marina is 55 floors high,’ explains the cheerful lift attendant. Presumably he is there in order to prevent nervous ascendants from freaking out on Abu Dhabi’s answer to Willy Wonka’s ‘Great Glass Elevator’. Truly, this is the only meal I have ever been in danger of throwing up before eating. And so, 55 stomach-churning ear-popping floors later, we arrive at our destination and, in my case, crawl onto the deck. The restaurant is rather like a space station designed by loggers. A long circular corridor dotted with dark wooden tables and panels creates the illusion of a gentleman’s club designed by MC Escher. The effect is tasteful rather than chic.
It isn’t long before the waiter delivers the bread and dipping sauce (my own personal weakness) to our table. First glimpse of the menu affirms its gourmet credentials: the opening gambit is a high stakes bid of shark, foie gras, oysters... the list goes on. In retrospect, my own order is somewhat cowardly considering. What arrives is a thick, hearty bowl of chicken and wild mushroom risotto, flavoured with truffle. It’s faultless, but I can’t help but gaze enviously at my companion’s stately parade of foie gras and scallops. The pâté wobbles with guilty epicurean promise, the scallops are firm and juicy and it all tastes as good as it looks. A triumph.
Speaking of looks, it is perhaps a good sign as to where this review is headed that I have yet to mention the view. The reasons for this are twofold: firstly, yes, it is very pretty and picturesque and other such bland epithets; but secondly, both myself and my partner are staring intently at the table because she has motion sickness and the constant subtle spinning is slowly giving me a cranium-bursting headache.
But the mains soothe our pain (well, mine at least). The breathy adventure of the starters rather gives way to a more sedate pace as you settle down into the menu. I opt for the pot-roasted pigeon (shipped in from France), and in truth it is an excellent bird, smeared in a rich, fruity gravy and mopped up with smooth, buttery mash. Well worth the export costs. My partner’s chicken fricassee wasn’t quite so exciting, though. Taste-wise, it did the job, but it was about as bog standard a European dish as you could hope to find and lacked the little dashes of culinary flair at which Tiara clearly excels.
At this point I lose my dining companion. Not because of the food (or the company, I’d like to point out), but rather a bad case of motion sickness. Thankfully, my consolation is a replacement of the finest quality: dessert. It is described in the menu as simply a fudgie brownie – no adjectives spared. Forget gourmet, this is a master class in giving the public what it wants: a rich, nutty brownie with bitter cocoa truffle and a snowy dollop of smooth vanilla ice cream to cut through the chocolate fug. Indulgent and simply heavenly.
In the end, perhaps the best test of Tiara is that we ate there and actually found time to mention the food. Our three-course set lunch, at Dhs150 each, was a bargain. After 6pm, the cost nearly doubles for the a la carte menu, but this is a restaurant with a few culinary tricks up its sleeve. For the love of Pete, though, we just wish it would stop spinning. It doesn’t need the gimmick – let the food speak for itself and it’ll soon muscle its way into the higher echelons of Abu Dhabi dining. After all, eating at the top is what Tiara is all about.
The bill (for two)
Foie gras and scallops Dhs110
Chicken and wild mushroom risotto Dhs55
Chicken fricassee and mushrooms Dhs110
Pot roasted pigeon Dhs150
Fudgie brownie Dhs38
Total Dhs463*
*Or Dhs300 for two with the three-course set lunch
Time Out Abu Dhabi, 28 June 2009
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