Ravi - One of the best Indian restaurants in Dubai

Previous review and location: Jules Eating Guide to Ravi
Located: Satwa area, Dubai
GPS: If you have a Garmin Nuvi, just key in Ravi Dubai ... Its that famous!

Anthony Bourdain (No Reservation on Travel Channel) likes this place ... so do we :-)

The Chicken Briyani and Butter Naan here is excellent!


Mutton Jalfrezy, interesting with eggs ... and tasty too.
Favourite dish is the Aloo Kheema (Potatoes and peas curry), perfect!


To our dear family, friends and all readers of my little blog ...
HAPPPPPPPPY NEW YEAR!

Universal Studios - One day in Dubailand!

Wikipedia ... Universal Studios Dubailand is a proposed Universal theme park located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is to be located within Dubailand, an entertainment mega-complex.
The project is a joint venture costing over 8 billion dirhams ($2.2 billion US) with Dubai-based Tatweer, a partner in Dubai Holdings, Inc. The theme park was announced on April 30, 2007 and broke ground July 27, 2008.
The park is expected to attract 5 million visitors annually when it is completed. Originally slated to open in 2010, the global financial crisis of 2008-2009 has prompted the developers to delay the opening until at least the first quarter of 2012.
Location: Google Map

I remember driving to the Dubai Outlet Mall one day, and rubbed my eyes in disbelife when I saw the famous Universal Studios arch in the desert ... Perhaps one day the build will continue!

Anthony Bourdain likes Ravi of Dubai - We do too!

Located: Al Dhiyafa Road / Satwa Road, Dubai
Tel: +971 4 331 5353
Map: Google Map
Recommended by: Anthony Bourdain on No Reservation
"Ravi is a Pakistani canteen famous for it’s mutton chops, mutton soup, mutton masala and mutton curry"


Start with a salad and some yoghurt dip ...


Delicious roti (Funny, it was about 3pm, and the kitchen was "closed" thus no naan's available!), and my chai. I love indian tea with milk!

Plain briyani ... so good!

bbG and sis TY's favourite ... Palak Paneer (Spinach and cheese).

Mutton dish ... It was OK! The tandoori chicken was quite magnificent!

Our favourite french fries - New York Fries, UAE

Located: Dubai Outlet Mall
Map: Google Map

10-15 dirhams for french fries is not exactly cheap, but what you get here is toppings (Beef, salsa, peppers, onions, spring onions etc) as well as cheesey-dips, AND best of all ... rough cut chips that actually look like (and taste like!) potatoes. Great fries!!

Noodle Bowl - Home of XO sauce, Abu Dhabi

Located: Zayed Sports City, Abu Dhabi
Tel: +971 2 4034648
Map: They are on FourSquare!
Previous reviews: Noodle Bowl

We love the XO fried rice here, ask for an extra dish of delicious XO sauce :-)
I also tried Noodle Bowl's crispy beef rice, served with a tomato based sauce. That was rather good too! Yes, the beef LOOKS dry, but its actually reasonably tender.


The verdict? Good value, very friendly service, attentive staff, and child-friendly ... this Malaysian/Singaporean/Chinese cuisine place is a winner!

Steaks at the Meat Co, Souk Qaryat al Beri Abu Dhabi

Add: Shop 5 , Souk Qaryat Al Beri , Abu Dhabi
Tel: +971 2 558 1713
Located: Adjacent to the Shangri-La and Traders Hotel
Opening hours: 12pm - 12am, Daily
Previous reviews: Meat Co in Abu Dhabi
Service update, June 2011: The staff here used to be polite, efficient and personable, but in our most recent May 2011 visit, we felt that the standards had declined. So much so that we would NOT be returning to this restaurant, a full review to follow this week.


Missoni now dabbles in designing ... water!? Hah!

Medium steak, should have remembered to order the 300g Aussie rump steak in Medium-well. They tend to undercook at Meat Co, guess they are that confident of their beef! On the right is my Rib Burger, really good as always!


Great service (See updated comments above), child-friendly, and a nice view of the boats and Grand Mosque. We like the Meat Co!

Koh Tong - Winter solstice dinner at Abu Dhabi

We had a special Koh Tong dinner at home recently ... The masterpiece of the night was of course the Lap Mei Fan. Some of the lap cheong and other waxed stuff was ta-paued all the way from Yung Kee in Hong Kong :-) Others travelled with us from Malaysia!

One last look ... before we devoured it all!!

Koh Tong dinner at home this year, we were joined by JT ... Hope you enjoyed the meal!

bbG also prepared some Hungarian-style oven chicken ... and Assam Fish ala Tg Malim. Bliss!

Fuddruckers gourmet burgers - Marina Mall, Abu Dhabi

Located: Marina Mall, Abu Dhabi
Tel: +971 2 681 8160

Fuddruckers ... World's greatest hamburgers. Big claim, bigger burger!

First, we had to select a burger ... there are a number to choose from (Three cheese, Bacon cheddar, Swiss melt, Hot rocks, Southwest, The Works, Chilli Cheese et al), but I was sure that we had to have the largest one. ONE POUND of burger patty! For the lighter eaters, you could also have 1/4, 1/2 or 3/4 pound ... We were sharing lar ;-)

When the burger arrived, I then had to choose between all sorts of veges and salads, as well as sauces and garnishing. Bliss!

Here's what a POUND of burger looks like!! Yes, they even slice it into two for you ... if you ask them :-)


The portion of sauteed mushrooms needn't have been ordered, our tummies were already overwhelmed by the size of the burger and the double helping of salad I picked up!!

Dubai Marina and Infinity Tower - Christmas weekend

View from 24 floors up, of the Dubai Marina ...



Wikipedia ... Dubai Marina (Arabic: مرسى دبي‎, also called Dubai Marina Arabic: دبي مرينا‎) is a district in the heart of what has become known as 'new Dubai', in Dubai.
Dubai Marina is a canal city, carved along a 3 kmstretch of Persian Gulf shoreline. When the entire development is complete it will accommodate more than 120,000 people in residential towers and villas
It is located at 25°4′52.86″N 55°8′38.67″E / 25.08135°N 55.144075°E / 25.08135; 55.144075 on Interchange 5 between Jebel Ali Port and the area which hosts Dubai Internet City, Dubai Media City and the American University in Dubai.
The first phase of this project has been completed. Dubai Marina was inspired by and designed to model the highly successful Concord Pacific Place development along False Creek in Vancouver, BC, Canada.


This is Infinity Tower, a 700 million AED (About 580 million ringgit) 3-year build project by Arabtec. Its described as a 80-storey high residential tower with a dynamic, twisting shape and waterfront views. It is the first structure of its kind and will be the dominant feature on Dubai Marina’s landscape. It will also be the world’s tallest tower to feature a 90-degree twist, with its helix shape revealing a structure that helps shield its interior from the desert sun.


And by night ...

Chowking Orient Restaurant - Dubai Outlet Mall foodcourt

Add: Dubai Outlet Mall
Tel: +971 4 427 8737

Not a big fan of the shops at Dubai Outlet Mall (Its also bloody far away, on the road heading towards Dubai airport, on the Dubai-Al Ain Road) ... but there's a half decent food court there. We chose Chowking!


After placing your order, be prepared to wait 15 minutes for food, as its prepared hot and fresh each time. It was worth the wait, it was rather good!

On the left, Indonesian style fried rice with char-siew, oops .. barbecued chicken with honey glazed sauce, and on the right bbG chose the Thai Red-curry with rice. Both were rather good, much better then Golden Fork!

Honda Accord 2.4 - Record fuel economy!

Want to know how far you can stretch the fuel economy in a 2.4 litre Honda Accord (Automatic, with air-con on through-out the drive with 2 passengers in the car) ... Yes, over 800 km per full tank of gas!


This works out at ... 12.7 km/L = 35.6 MPG
This equates to 110 dirhams (Or RM$ 93) for 810 kilometres :-)

Disclaimer:-
1) Mind you, petrol is RM$1.45 per litre here :-)
2) This road trip of over 800km included 2 round-trips to and fro Dubai, thus long-distance highway cruising.
3) When fighting start-stop traffic in the city, a tank of gas only lasts about 650 kilometres.

Fatboybakes FBB Christmas Cake - The tasting!

I could think of many worse ways to spend RM$75 ... Purchased this FBB special aka Christmas Cake from the man himself, in Bangsar, a month ago ... and we finally had the chance to savour it on Boxing Day!

It was the perfect balance of not being overly sweetness, raisins, texture (Firm yet not compact), and having just enough (hic .. hic!) alcohol in it! Bravo!!

Here is Fatboybakes aka FBB's divine and truly yummy baking website ... Ho ho ho!