Assia In Wok
Posh food court food gives different dining options in The Dubai Mall 90 Reviews
Assia in Wok seems to have some difficulty with communication. First they’ve inexplicably spelled the continent their food is from incorrectly, leaving everyone slightly embarrassed about the appropriate pronunciation of the restaurant’s name. Secondly they have a habit of making grandiose claims.
In their menu, Assia in Wok alternately claims to be embracing a ‘low-fat, vegetable-rich healthy diet’ and to offer ‘exotic’ and ‘fascinating’ fare, all of which appears to be unjustified, unless baby corn and shitake mushrooms drowned in sugary sauce are considered exotic and healthy (this is essentially the vegetables with soy and cashews dish). Take, for instance, the teriyaki chicken, which comes swimming in a sugary sauce not remotely resembling teriyaki, and is, horror of unhealthy horrors, fried into a chewy bundle.
The restaurant’s interior is appealing – the lime green iPod-like space boasts rotund white chairs, red round lanterns, curvy forks and a view of ice skaters weaving around The Dubai Mall’s rink. Dish presentation is similarly cheerful and vaguely trendy, with white and curvy plates adorned with food that is almost unsettlingly colourful. Hot mains are sweetly served up on mini Bunsen burners; unfortunately the few that aren’t come in unappetisingly cold.
While it’s a nice idea to combine Asian foods from different countries, it is normally necessary to at least create distinguishing flavours between the cuisines. Taste is unfortunately the place where Assia in Wok falls short – the red prawn and coconut curry, containing lumps of potato and eggplant and semi-fresh prawns, has a sauce that tastes suspiciously like the one used for the Balinese sate starter, which in itself is rather tasteless and served with unpleasant, round lumps of chicken. The other starters, such as the Hindu samosas, look like they contain canned vegetables, but at least maintain some spicy tang. None of this is quite as worrisome as the desserts, which appear to be pie slices made of marshmallow sealed off with flavouring – in our case, tiramisu.
It’s truly hard to see Assia in Wok as anything beyond food court fried food freshened up by florescent decor and a restaurant-sized space. ‘An eastern culinary adventure’ Assia in Wok is indeed, but tragically, not in the right way at all.
The bill (for two)
1x Balinese Sate Dhs28
1x Hindu samosa Dhs22
1x Teriyaki chicken Dhs45
1x Vegetables with soy and cashew Dhs40
1x Red Prawn and Coconut Curry Dhs48
1x Water Dhs10
1x Tiramasu Dhs31
Total Dhs224
Time Out Dubai, 16 February 2009
-
- E-mail:
-
- Print:
Time Out reviews restaurants anonymously and pays for meals. Of course, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or independence of user reviews.
Dhs 1-50
Dhs 50-200
Dhs 200-350
Dhs 350-500
Dhs 500+
Loads of the best Dubai news, listings and reviews for just Dhs 199. 
