Following a grand reveal underscored by a Beyonce concert in January, Atlantis The Royal officially opens to the public on Friday. Memorable stays and celebrity-spotting aside, the Palm Jumeirah property also offers guests and visitors a chance to eat at 17 restaurants, bars, cafes and lounges, 12 of which open this month.
American, Asian, British, Greek, Japanese, Persian, Peruvian, Spanish: the sheer range of cuisines available under this one chandelier-studded roof prove that the new Atlantis could well be considered a microcosm of Dubai itself. The culinary scene in the emirate is famously versatile and varied, with new restaurants popping up by the dozen every month. Given this exciting yet exacting foodscape, the international chefs hoping to taste success by way of their first restaurants in the UAE need to fulfil a tall order.
The National chats to three chefs about their offerings and expectations at Atlantis The Royal.
Estiatorio Milos, by Costas Spiliadis
In Greece, an estiatorio represents a restaurant that is a few notches above a taverna, in terms of dishes, decor and price point. In Dubai, Estiatorio Milos is an authentic, fine-dining Greek restaurant offering “an interactive and clean-eating experience”, says its septuagenarian chef Costas Spiliadis.
Widely regarded as an ambassador of Greek cuisine, Spiliadis explains his first restaurant in the UAE does not really have a menu. “Instead, in Milos, we have a display of all the goods we were able to bring to the restaurant on a given day, from fresh fish to seasonal figs, and we invite diners to be part of the process, to come with us to the market and tell us what they would like to eat. So your role is to shape your own menu based on the products you see, and to be the master of the experience, while our role is to facilitate this process. This interactive type of relationship we have with our customers is very important to us.”
Once you pick the seafood and other ingredients fresh from the live counters, leave the preparation of your meal to the team’s culinary prowess. Some ingredients, flavour combinations and dishes to expect are salt-baked fish, Greek ceviche and Athenian-style lobster pasta.
Healthy eating is another point of importance for chef Spiliadis, who says his mum drank a soup spoon full of raw olive oil each morning (while the children got teaspoons of the stuff), attributing this to her “healthy, long life and hair that remained black to the end”.
“Olive oil, sourced from my own olive groves, and sea salt are my two favourite ingredients,” says the chef. And he’s not talking about any old, iodine-fortified salt, either. “The salt I use comes from seawater that has evaporated naturally on a Greek island called Kythera, where I have a home and spend a lot of time. It is supplied by my friends, the wives of the fishermen of the island, and contains all the elements of the sea minus the water. It is part of the flavour we offer.”
La Mar by Gaston Acurio
A cheery banner in the Dubai outpost of Gaston Acurio’s restaurant is emblazoned with a 2005 quip from the chef: “One day, Peruvian cebiche will be loved all over the world.” Acurio, who is behind the global chains Astrid y Gaston, Tanta, Panchita and La Mar, has spent his whole life promoting his native cuisine.
As such, his one promise to the Dubai diner is this: at La Mar, you will be transported over the course of your meal to Peru. “The idea of opening La Mar here is to bring Peru to Dubai, to serve the ceviche that the chef will serve back in Lima.
“The hotel, by extension is sending an important message of celebrating the culinary diversity of the world. Authenticity is key to that,” says Acurio. “My cuisine is full of friendly flavours, comfort food and colourful presentation, so it’s not a difficult job to make people fall in love with Peruvian food.”
The ceviche The National sampled at La Mar’s Atlantis The Royal outpost is indeed bursting with freshness and flavour, especially the Bluefin tuna with smoked aji amarillo and tangy tiger’s milk. Other dishes include: octopus in an olive and chimichurri emulsion; Peruvian yellow potatoes; and criollo rice.
The menu is composed of three parts, he explains: one contains 15 or so signature La Mar dishes (from ceviche to tiraditos, anticucho and saltados), while the second is more glocal, combining locally sourced ingredients with spices and herbs brought in from Peru. The third component allows the head chef to flex his culinary muscles, by creating new dishes that could be added to the restaurant’s menu, “by which I mean no molecular gastronomy or theatrics, but rather technique-focused cooking and dishes that embody the spirit of La Mar yet allow the chef to put his signature on the dining scene in Dubai," says Acurio.
Jaleo by Jose Andres
From food trucks and fast food to Bib Gourmands and Michelin stars, Spanish chef Jose Andres offers all manner of dining experiences as part of a restaurant empire spread across the US, from barmini and The Bazaar to China Chilcano and Pepe.
Of these, he chose to bring Jaleo to Dubai for various reasons: the brand turns 30 in April, it offers a “fun fine-dining experience, which feels right for this city”, and it serves Arab-influenced or Moorish dishes.
“Jaleo means merrymaking. So this is a fine-dining restaurant in the sense of the high-quality ingredients and produce we use, but you only have to see the entrance and know the fun-dining intention,” says Andres.
The chef is referring to the custom-created miniature foosball table placed at the restaurant’s door and a merry-go-round seat in the waiting area that actually revolves, much to the delight of unsuspecting patrons.
Delve deeper into the decor, though, and Andres’s pride in his native Spain becomes apparent. The bar is topped with beaded curtains made from chips of wood that, the chef says, “were used for privacy in nearly every home in rural Spain, where there is no air-conditioning, so people open the front and back doors for a natural corridor of air. I commissioned them from the last family left that makes them by hand, rather than the mass-produced plastic now common.”
The terrace, meanwhile, features 10 olive trees and myriad water features, part of the chef’s intention to make diners feel they are eating a meal in Granada.
The menu, too, reflects this quest to be authentically Spanish, with dishes including classic tapas such as patatas bravas and chicken croquetas, as well as the more exotic cured baby suckling lamb ham; and paella with chicken, rabbit and green beans.
