Dante in Grand Millennium Dubai, TECOM, Dubai - Restaurant Reviews

Dante

Café specialising in home and office delivery Discuss this article

Meal Deal

Dante

Pasta buffet. Dhs80 Timings: 7pm-11.30pm (Monday)

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Dubai can hardly be characterised as a city of penny-pinching coupon cutters, but when a five-star hotel advertises a meal promotion online throughout April, you’d expect at least one parsimonious punter to have taken advantage by halfway through the second week. Maybe the whole internet offer thing (‘Chef Carmillo will enchant you with his spaghetti, fusilli and lasagne… from Dhs60 including a glass of wine’) was a hilarious ruse – who but the most gullible April fool would be taken in by the idea of a cyborg chef anyway – but staff at the Grand Millennium’s newly opened Italian certainly seemed to know nothing of the wheeze when Time Out came a-knocking, crumpled print-out in hand.

It took two flustered visits to the manager before our server could confirm that, yes, we were allowed to take advantage of the offer. As neighbouring groups of pinstriped peacocks tossed us withering looks, my dining partner sank deeper into his plush seat in shame and despair. I, however, punched the air under our (eclectically furnished) table, victorious; for I had saved myself Dhs13 on a lasagne.

My soupy starter represented less of a steal. What had sounded like an inventive blend of fresh vegetables turned out to be something more akin to Heinz minestrone: watery, and bland, except for some cracking smoky croutons (presumably the enchanting work of Chef Carmillo). A bridge of balsamic-patterned toast did little to add value. My dining partner, meanwhile, enjoyed a touch of Schadenfreude with his already satisfying beef carpaccio, which was hidden under a mountain of rocket and generous shards of parmesan.

A mixed bag, thus far: but judging an Italian restaurant on its primi piatti alone would be unfair, like judging Captain Corelli’s Mandolin on its opening chapters: the dreary, journal-style bits before Penelope Cruz rocks up and the floaty snogging starts. Like Penelope, my house lasagne was small and surprisingly substantial, but – unlike Penelope – it wasn’t significantly tastier than anything available in the Time Out canteen.

Who knows: maybe I’ve just been spoiled rotten by 21st century office catering, but I couldn’t help feeling that eating out, even when you’re just having a lasagne, should feel a bit more special than this. My friend continued to walk on the menu’s wilder side and reaped the rewards. He made the schoolboy error of gushing over his taglioni – a perfectly al dente pasta of thin, delicate strands, best suited to simple but robust sauces like the squid ink and sawn-off baby tomatoes in which it found itself.

Naturally, I responded by stealing half of it. All in the name of thoroughness. Having convinced ourselves that it was (ahem) the ‘Italian way,’ we’d ordered pizza as an accompaniment to our main courses. It was, then, pure, glorious gluttony which saved the day, for the pizza at Dante is, we discovered, spectacular.

We’d opted for the Parmense, a simple affair – firm yet doughy, despite the thinness of its base – topped with pastel folds of salty Parma ham and more of that chunky parmesan. Without a doubt, the best pizza I’ve had in Dubai. Despite the promising pile of square boxes stacked against the window of Chef Carmillo’s kitchen, I was informed that pizzas cannot be delivered – only collected. Which, given the fact that I live in Garhoud and don’t drive, is probably good for Dubai’s carbon footprint.

If my lasagne/Soave combination was labelled ‘pasta basta’, then perhaps the dessert which followed – spag bol crafted from vanilla ice cream and coconut shards – should be rightly be termed ‘pasta ba****d’. It was delicious, in a whimsical sort of way: tasty but no more sophisticated than anything you’d find in a well stocked supermarket. Without some serious coupon action, the food here may ultimately be a little too basic and the décor a little too inconsistent to justify the relatively high prices, but one thing is for sure: pizza is what you’ll find at Dante’s peak.

By Mark Smith