After a successful entertaining season — including a secret Prince concert in February — Pacha Dubai has re-emerged with a new two-hour theatre and dinner show.
Deception marks the club’s new collaboration with Dubai arts and music collective The Fridge, and loosely follows four characters, portrayed by UAE-based dancers and singers, as they explore time and space through ballet, jazz, hip-hop, disco and body-bending gymnastics, all set to an evening of fine dining.
As we entered the lobby, young staff, clad in black shirts and matching bow ties, solemnly seated us at one of the tables dotted around the spotlit circular stage. Low-key electronica set the mood, while blue and purple light washed over the space. About 40 people made up the audience — a number that usually swells to twice as many on Fridays, the staff tell me — but the intimacy only added to the atmosphere.
The show began with rising synths heralding the arrival of a fedora-wearing hipster who introduced himself as the host, followed by a couple who executed a graceful ballet-style routine to an electro soundtrack. Meanwhile, we made our selection from Pacha Dubai’s Euro-Asian-inspired à la carte offerings. It’s a transition menu of sorts that will eventually give way to an elaborate set menu in September (that is being put together by new executive chef Renaud Olivier).
We started with some of the new appetisers — succulent Wagyu beef skewers (Dh165), accompanied by a peanut sauce, aromatic with ginger and pepper, and so rich and thick it could have passed for gravy; and meaty jumbo prawns marinated in Szechuan pepper sauce (Dh175).
Dubai-based singer Pimms Brooke was the second act. I was disappointed with the choice of song, Inner City’s 1988 house tune Good Life (a repetitive track that made little use of Brooke’s powerful vocals) — and instead focused on the main course, which turned out to be the star of the show: tender duck breast, served with a sweet morel sauce and green-pea purée (Dh205); and succulent Wagyu tenderloin (Dh295).
Brooke later returned to make up for the earlier misfire with a faultless rendition of Nina Simone’s I Put A Spell on You — but that night, the stage belonged to Irina Kazakova.
Appearing in a bodysuit straight out of an X-Men movie, the Russian gymnast leapt onto the main stage and performed all sorts of back-breaking contortions to a trip-hop soundtrack.
The eye-popping act distracted me from my steak, and by the time I sliced into it, it was stone cold, although the zesty citrus and oyster sauce did well to conceal the increasingly dry meat.
As we tucked into dessert — coconut sago with a dollop of mango cream and garnished with a crunchy, tart, caramelised pineapple (Dh55), all piled into an oversized cocktail glass — the finale was announced: the agile couple from the opening act breakdancing to Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk, and, to everyone’s delight, the host also joined in with some fierce moves on the dance floor.
• Deception is at Pacha Dubai from Tuesday to Friday. The show is free with dinner. Call 04 567 0000 or visit www.pacha.ae
sasaeed@thenational.ae