Urbano
Charming rustic Italian food at the Souk Al Bahar 26 Reviews
A large poster bearing a ruddy-faced Italian family graces the entrance of Urbano. The image gives you an immediate sense of the mood the Souk Al Bahar’s newly opened Italian restaurant is trying to evoke: old world charm and the kind of outstanding-yet-homely fare you’d likely find in Tuscany. To add to this effect, the picture has that brown, sepia-toned quality that suggests passed-down recipes, tomato-splattered counters, and perhaps a hot-tempered but effortlessly skilled nana in the kitchen. In Dubai, such a vision can only be a fantasy, as Italian nanas are in short supply. Still, that quaint poster couldn’t help but elicit a spark of excitement as I sat down in at an outdoor table which would have felt appropriately escapist were it not for a view overlooking a construction pit. Nevertheless, my waitress was the very essence of laidback, schmoozy Italian charm (even if she was Indonesian).
The menu was even written in Italian, another detail that filled one with hope. Alas, the winter season and Dubai’s lack of quality ingredients marred the authenticity of my caprese salad, which consisted of pale, under-ripe tomatoes and a spartan leaf or two of basil, even if, the buffalo mozzarella was good – creamy and well salted – thought not, sadly, of awe-inspiring quality. My dinner date’s order of vegetable lasagne, meanwhile, lacked the vibrancy the cuisine is known for; rather, it was made up of limp sheets of pasta, and a somewhat sad show of mushrooms finished off with a morbidly dull béchamel sauce.
My order of branzino cooked in parchment paper was satisfying, to be sure, but was a paint-by-numbers kind of dish: throw some fish into a packet with some pesto and cook for 20 minutes, and you’re bound to come out with something edible. What was frustrating was the chef left the parchment packet intact, making it my responsibility to liberate the steaming fish and all its broth, a procedure that proved unnecessarily messy. Desserts were good, if standard. The fondente – a warm and oozy chocolate bundt cake – was the kind of pudding you could find in a dozen other restaurants, Italian or not. The bunet – an amaretto flan – was smooth and silken end to a meal that did its job.
It’s not really that Urbano’s food is bad. It’s not, it’s pleasant, but it’s a bit dull. This is unfortunate, because while food from the booted country may be rustic and simple, it is anything but boring. If they really want to live up to the image of being an authentic Italian trattoria, however, Urbano needs to up its game, and come up with some food that, quite simply, inspires.
The bill (for two)
1x Large Aqua Fina water Dhs12
1x Small gorgonzola salad Dhs30
1x Caprese salad Dhs45
1x Branzino Dhs105
1x Lasagna Dhs43
1x Fondente Dhs30
1x Bunet Dhs30
Service Dhs29.50
Total Dhs324.50
Time Out Dubai, 5 January 2009
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