Pronto

Gourmet coffee shop on Sheikh Zayed Road Discuss this article

An odd little outlet hemmed in by a jeweller’s, a florists and a boutique selling hideous glassware, Pronto’s at the Fairmont tries to be a European-style street-café, but fails to overcome the reality of its location in a chilly Dubaian lobby. The furniture is undoubtedly chic and at first glance the delicatessen-cum-food bar is intriguing. There are some nice-looking mustards and jams on sale, but the meat section is entirely hidden away and the packets of cheese are the same as you’d find in any supermarket. Confidence in the place’s gourmet credentials is further undermined by shelves of baked beans and branflakes.

If you want anything more than coffee and a slab of cake, you’ll have to mix and match from the limited and disparate array of Lebanese, Oriental, French and Italian food on offer. We swerved round takeaway cartons of curry and plain cooked pasta (is anyone really lazy enough to buy this?) and ordered two salads, hummos with pitta bread, filled croissants and some parma ham. This last item was peeled out of the packet and laid unadulterated on a plate. It was nice, but would have been just as good at home at half the price.

The smoked salmon croissant was big and boring and the pineapple and chicken salad tasted fine if a little soapy. The pork salad with peppers, garlic and chilli, had an interesting spicy flavour but was overly chewy. We finished off the meal with a rather dry muffin and a scoop of heartbreakingly expensive pistachio icecream in a plastic pot.

Despite its slightly odd location and currently unimpressive food selection, Pronto’s has the potential to be excellent. The service was very sweet, the waitress taking trouble over her admittedly limited clientele. A Goodies-esque deli with fresh cheese, legs of ham, cold sausages, olives, salads and fruits combined with a café would be wonderful. For the second though, Pronto’s is fine for a quick coffee but not much else.

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