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I ate at the flagship restaurant of the $1 billion hotel considered 'the most luxurious in the world' and quickly realized the $500 price tag wasn't for the caviar and oysters
I ate at the flagship restaurant of the $1 billion hotel considered 'the most luxurious in the world' and quickly realized the $500 price tag wasn't for the caviar and oysters
Harrison JacobsDec 28, 2018, 20:00 IST
Harrison Jacobs/Business Insider
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One of the most decorated luxury hotels in the world, the Burj Al Arab in Dubai has frequently been called "the world's first seven-star hotel" and "the most luxurious hotel in the world" by travel writers and critics.
I recently visited the hotel on a trip to Dubai to try out the Burj Al Arab's flagship restaurant, Al Mahara, a seafood restaurant helmed by Michelin-starred British chef Nathan Outlaw.
Like the gold-and-marble covered hotel it is housed in, Al Mahara can be an over-the-top experience with extravagances like caviar and truffles finding their way into numerous dishes and checks that can easily top $400 or more for two people.
While the restaurant is no doubt delicious with fresh ingredients and a few inspired dishes, truthfully, I've had much better meals, with tasting menus, for less. At times, it feels like you are paying for the gold-covered locale.
If you've ever wondered what it's like to eat where the big shots do, Al Mahara might seem like a good place to start.
Located in the Burj Al Arab in Dubai, a hotel frequently called "the most luxurious in the world" by travel writers and critics, Al Mahara is the hotel's flagship restaurant.
Since 2016, Al Mahara has been helmed by Michelin-starred British Chef Nathan Outlaw. In addition to his restaurant at the Burj, Outlaw has four other highly regarded restaurants in the United Kingdom and has appeared on cooking shows.
His main restaurant, Restaurant Nathan Outlaw, has two Michelin stars and is considered one of the best restaurants in the world.
On a recent trip to Dubai, I had plans to stay at the Burj Al Arab. Having never eaten at a Nathan Outlaw joint, I knew that I'd have to make a trip to Al Mahara.
While Outlaw is known for a pared-back approach, Al Mahara appears to have a slightly more maximalist take on seafood. Head chef Pete Biggs, an Outlaw veteran, rises to the golden aura of the Burj.
Shaped like the sail of an Arabian dhow ship and built for $1 billion, the Burj Al Arab in Dubai has frequently been called "the world's first seven-star hotel" and "the most luxurious hotel in the world" by travel writers and critics.
In November, I visited the hotel for a night and decided to try out all that the luxurious place had to offer. And there's nothing rich people like to spend money more than food. This is what the atrium of the Burj looks like. Yes, it's all real gold.
I had a dinner reservation at the Burj's flagship restaurant, Al Mahara. To get to the restaurant, you take this turquoise-and-gold elevator that looks like an Hermès enameled bangle. Every room in the hotel looks like a finely crafted piece of jewelry.
If it wasn't clear from the giant gold seashell that serves as the host stand, Al Mahara is all about seafood.
Like everything else in the Burj, the Al Mahara wine racks do, in fact, glitter with gold. It's in spots like this where my brain is caught between "Can only gold be a design aesthetic?" and "Ooh, sparkly wall!"
But Al Mahara, like the Burj, does nothing halfway. Witness this golden seashell entrance hallway to the dining room. There are a few places I've been to in my life that seem ripped from a Bond villain's lair. This is one of them.
Even the bathroom was wrapped in ribbons of gold.
The dining room of Al Mahara wraps around a floor-to-ceiling 260,000-gallon aquarium filled with fish (not the ones you'll be eating). The staff have taken to naming the fish, like a goofy-looking Napoleon fish known as George.
To start my meal at Al Mahara, I ordered a Manhattan — my usual drink of choice — but asked them to make it with the Japanese whisky Nikka From The Barrel. It was precisely made: equal parts bitter and sweet, with the peppery, smoky, of-the-sea flavor I associate with Nikka.
Before I even had the chance to order, the water brought over an amuse-bouche —that's a small, complimentary hors d'œuvre — of butternut squash soup. The mellow soup was brought alive by smoked pumpkin seeds and slivers of briny codfish.
The kitchen at Al Mahara was taken over by British Michelin-starred chef Nathan Outlaw in 2016, who is known for a "pared-down approach" to local, sustainable seafood. Here's a look at the menu. The prices are in dirhams, which trade at about 3.7 -to-USD $1.
Outlaw's menu is quite a change of pace from the original menu, according to The Telegraph's Lara Brunt. The original menu tended towards complex French food. But we're still in the Burj, so you don't get regular butter with your bread — you get smoked salmon butter.
While Brunt described Outlaw's "pared-down" approach as intact at Al Mahara, the dishes I encountered, while delicious, were often as over-the-top as a golden elevator. For example, the crispy oysters (260 AED, or $70) were not only deep-fried, but then surrounded with a creamy oyster and cucumber sauce and topped with ... caviar.
The lobster cocktail (295 AED or $80) was packed with fresh, tender lobster meat brushed with an herby crème fraîche sauce and accompanied by a few leaves of Baby Gem lettuce that were topped with ... black truffle. Dishes like that seem designed to underscore (as if you'd forgotten) that you are eating in "the most luxurious hotel in the world."
The main courses find the pared-back footing. The salt-baked whole sea bass (980 AED, or $266) is both simple and theatrical, arriving encased in salt and filleted table-side.
The fish is as fresh and tender as you'd expect from a dish the price of a smartphone. The fish is a lot of food. My partner and I did not come close to finishing all of it.
The other entree I ordered was a chili king crab in the shell (420 AED, or $114). The dish was like a simplified version of a famous Singaporean specialty, featuring crab swimming in a sweet orange-red sauce. Outlaw's crab was brushed delicately with a more subtle sweet-spicy sauce. A garnish of sliced chili peppers added a kick.
The star of the meal wasn't even one of the dishes, but the sauce that came on the side. The vividly orange Porthilly Crab sauce, a classic concoction used at all of Outlaw's restaurants, tastes like a buttery seafood bisque. If it weren't for the confines of social niceties, I would have poured the sauce into a cup and drunk it like a milkshake.
For dessert — I was stuffed I can't believe I even ordered it — I had the passion fruit baked Alaska with mango sorbet (95 AED, or $26). After the tastebud overkill of the fried oysters and truffle-topped lobster, the mellow sweet-and-tart dessert was a gentle come-down.
Was it worth it? The restaurant is no doubt delicious, with fresh ingredients and a few inspired dishes, but asking whether a meal that costed upwards of $500 for two people is worth it is probably the wrong question. Truthfully, I've had much better meals, with tasting menus, for less, but you are paying for the gold-covered spectacle of the locale. The food is more of a side dish.
