A night at the Ritz
Posted on 20 June 2009 with no comments from readers
Living in the Gulf during the hot summer months does have some compensations as the cost of high-end distractions comes down for the season. Take dinner at the Ritz.
Normally a particularly ruinous experience the Ritz-Carlton Dubai’s La Baie restaurant is currently running a special set menu on Thursday nights as a themed Turner Classic Movies night out. Even the paparazzi turned up to photograph diners to complete the star treatment.
Glamour and glitz
Quite who the roving television camera represented was not entirely clear. But it added a little glitz to dining at the Ritz.
The La Baie restaurant is so understated that it exudes class and refinement with considerable space between diners and a special ambience. It has always been ideal for the perfect romantic diner or signing off another billion dollar deal, and it does not make a bad cinema either.
Guests last Thursday enjoyed a TCM presentation of Casablanca the 1942 war time classic actually made London’s Pinewood studios far from the desert, and staring Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart as well as a pianist called Sam.
The agreeable set menu comprised; spicy smoked duck crepes, chermoula spiced ahi tuna skewers, followed by Moroccan tea ice cream garnished with yoghurt popcorns, mint coulis and summer berry compote. The beverage list is also comprehensive.
Service proved swift and attentive, although the movie did not start on time and this might have explained the food being luke-warm. Latecomers are always a nuisance.
Nouvelle cuisine
La Baie is a French restaurant of the nouvelle cuisine school and that means small portions with the focus on flavor. This is not a place for a person with a hearty appetite but then again this is not an experience you could produce in your own kitchen.
It is also fair to say that there are cheaper dining options in Dubai at this time of year with the number of higher-paid residents thinning in the summer and visitor numbers also lower at this time of year.
But if you feel in need of an uplift and fancy a treat then a night at the Ritz is perhaps worth considering. Like the film Casablanca real style never goes out of fashion.
