Teatro - Restaurant Award Highly Commended in Towers Rotana, Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai - Restaurant Reviews

Teatro - Restaurant Award Highly Commended

Teatro achieves the near impossible among licensed restaurants in Dubai: somehow, it manages to shed the ambience of its host hotel 9 Reviews

View slideshow

Picture 1 of 2

Teatro achieves the near impossible among licensed restaurants in Dubai: somehow, it manages to shed the ambience of its host hotel. Stepping out of the Towers Rotana lift feels like creaking open a door from a busy urban street somewhere in Europe or the US. Inside, the décor is mainly modern, with a large glassed-in wine store and curtains of glass goldfish, but with some leanings towards the dated, homespun café – the walls are adorned with displays of framed black-and-white photographs of old movie stars.

The menu follows suit. Chefs at various open cooking stations knock up plates of sushi, pasta, pizza, spicy noodles and roasts; it all seems very ‘now’ until your eye reaches the set taster menus, named after has-been musicals. of yore. Unable to decide whether to eat in a western or an eastern style, we settled for a couple of four-course showtune menus that skipped through the cuisines of Japan, Italy, Thailand, Vietnam and China.

A few creamy California rolls started the ball rolling nicely, and my companion had soon wolfed down his platter of carpaccio, pausing between mouthfuls only to mutter the odd, vaguely positive adjective. All this was accompanied incongruously by a complimentary bowl of dahl and basket of sweet, spicy naan. On to our pizza course, and here the woodfired oven truly came into its own – piles of fresh rocket, cheeses, basil and baby tomatoes sat happily atop a rich tomato sauce that hadn’t so much as glanced at a tin opener.

In comparison, dishes of tough, stir-fried hammour and ‘Miss Saigon’ noodles with duck – all spice and no substance – were a disappointment. When it came to taster plates of four deserts, it was again simplicity that won through, with an unfussy rich, fragile, dark chocolate cup and vanilla ice cream getting our vote. To our left, two ladies-who-shop arrived, ate a pizza and left in the time it took us to wade through one of our courses – they were obviously regulars.

A confession: usually a virtuous, objective food critic, I actually arrived at Teatro prepared to slate it. Friends had delivered mixed reports and my previous meal there had been mediocre. It certainly isn’t the place to indulge in a real foodie experience, but choose your country carefully, and you’ll leave sated – and satisfied to have spent an evening away from the monotony of hoteldom.

By Rob Orchard