We were in Ras Al Khaimah earlier this month, and stayed at Acacia Hotel. However, by dinner time, we decided to venture out towards town, enjoy the scenic corniche area and then head on to our dinner invite at Noodles Corner, located in Mangrove Hotel (yet another Bin Majid Hotels and Resorts property).

Noodles Corner, as the name suggests, is tucked away in a quiet corner of the hotel. Elaborately decorated in the auspicious red and gold Chinese symbols of luck, this quaint, dimly lit restaurant with scenic views of the Ras Al Khaimah corniche, is a budget-friendly hidden gem.

Last week I was back at my all-time favorite Indian fusion café on CityWalk (phase 2); that would be Farzi Café ofcourse! We had a hearty lunch covering many of our favorites, and a few brand new quirky gems.

‘Farzi’ translates to ‘illusion’, and that is exactly what you get here… each and every item served on the table comes with an unexpected surprise of its own.

Farzi Cafe CityWalk Dubai Lunch Menu Review UAE Food Blogger Lifestyle Blog The Tezzy Files Indian Cuisine (6)
A dainty Mango Amuse Bouche to whet the appetite.

 

Eid weekend and a table at Farzi? Next to impossible! Clever me, I had us booked in well in advance. With its earthy woods and chic café artwork, Farzi Café is a beautiful nook to spend time with friends and family, and especially so with all that sunshine flooding in. All this natural lighting does wonders for my Instagram feeds as well!

Last weekend, my wee family and I headed off to Ras AL Khaimah for a staycation at Acacia Hotel. A drive across the brilliantly red dunes with scenic views of the sea heading towards Um Al Quwain is always a retreat in itself for city dwellers like ourselves.

Acaccia Hotel Ras Al Khaimah Review Bin Majid Hotels and Resorts UAE staycation holiday weekend dubi blogger uae blog restaurant al nakhla garden brew swimming pool (13)

 

Acacia Hotel, operated under Bin Majid Hotels & Resorts, is a 4 star property located in the heart of the industrial area of Ras Al Khaimah. The property was built in 2010, and has an airy, welcoming vibe about it. The check-in process here was smooth, and as we got there at 2.30 pm (and the buffet lunch closes at 3.30 pm!) we dumped our belongings in our Junior Suite and headed off to Al Nakhla.

I’ve lived in the UAE for over a decade now, and in my time here I have made quite a few Filipino friends. Despite the large population of ‘Kabayan’ in our city, there seems to be a dearth of restaurants that serve up a good, authentic Filipino meal. The last time I dined Filipino was at Little Manila, and I still rave about their Boodle Fight!

We recently got invited to Skye & Walker for their ‘Fiesta Filipino’ dinner, and happily accepted. Skye & Walker is located on the ground floor of Marriot Executive Hotel Apartments, near Clock Tower Deira.

Skye and Walker Deira Fiesta Filipino review Dubai Food Blog UAE Blogger (7)

Without a doubt, Mexican has to be one of my all-time favorite world cuisines (coming a close second after Thai ofcourse!). I discovered Muchachas many months ago as Holiday Inn Express is literally at the back-door of my workplace.

The bright turquoise interiors, complete with cacti, Mexican sombreros and cantina-style minimalist furnishings is all at once eclectic, exotic and welcoming, and my colleagues are a little weary of the number of times I praise them for their tacos. 

Declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, Bukhara is a historical city of Uzbekistan. For centuries, Bukhara has been a center for trade, arts, culture and religion, and fell on the Silk Road that connected it to the Indian subcontinent. This pathway brought the Moghuls to India, and was home to the great Mongolian emperor Genghis Khan. With this came a great deal of social and culinary influences such as clay oven baking, the art of skewered kebabs and rustic brass cookware.

Reliving the authenticity of this historical bond, Bukhara restaurant at Kempinski Ajman recreates the charm of a bygone era with a spacious interior elaborately decorated with unique, vintage curios, brass vessels and carved wood. Even the staff here are dressed to match the ambiance with elaborately embroidered suits and golden sandals.

Citywalk Phase 2 has an eclectic vibe about it. Perhaps it’s the highly Instagrammed graffiti that adorn its surrounding walls, or the cobbled, open spaces, all at once European yet undisputedly Dubai that makes it so endearing. Despite the summer heat, the evenings are bustling with activity here. A group of children play hopscotch near the cascading fountain, young friends chat over coffee and haloed puffs of shisha. Yet above it all is the decadent scent of freshly baked bread and melting cheese.

Follow your nostrils, and you will find yourself in Babaji, Citywalk’s newest restaurant opening. A London import, and restauranteur Alan Yau’s very first international debut, Babaji is a wide and spacious, and has been brimming with diners from the time it opened this May. Word about their famous pide is out! Pide, the traditional Turkish cheese bread with assorted toppings, puts food-court pizza to shame.

It’s been so hot and muggy, that all I’m dreaming of is ice-cold desserts. But who needs hot weather to reinforce a love for ice-cream? This is especially so when it comes to Scoopi Cafe. Located on bustling Beach Road (Jumeirah), the small and sleek black signboard is a ‘blink and you miss it’.

But what makes this wee café stand out is its record-breaking expensive scoop, the highly coveted Black Diamond. At AED 2,999 per golden handcrafted cup, this ice-cream concoction has gone down as the World’s Most Expensive Ice-Cream. This pricey scoop is very clever marketing if you ask me, and has made this wee café a stop-over for wallet-heavy locals and tourists alike.

“Everything you see I owe to spaghetti.” – Sophia Loren.

If one of the world’s most beautiful women credits her beauty to spaghetti, why haven’t we come up with a pasta diet yet? And so was my excuse last Saturday, as I indulged in not one but a total of 9 decadent pasta creations by artisanal Head Chef Antonio Lacovelli at Trattoria Toscana.

Trattoria Toscana Souk Madinat Jumeirah Dubai UAE Review Food Blog Blogger The Tezzy Files (3)

We had a wonderful stay at Danat Al Ain Resort, and one of the culinary highlights of our weekend away was dining at Tanjore. Although we have an endless set of options when it comes to Indian restaurants in the UAE, what sets Tanjore apart is its very history.

P1170479

 

The restaurant has been on the premises for nearly 3 decades, even before InterContinental became Danat Al Ain. It is, infact, Al Ain’s very first Indian fine-dining establishment and has an interesting little story behind it.