Al Nafoorah in Jumeirah Emirates Towers, Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai - Restaurant Reviews

Al Nafoorah

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When your daily diet typically consists of runny supermarket hummos, watery tabouleh and towel-dry vine leaves, it’s easy to start feling ambivalent about the region’s dominant cuisine. Luckily, the occasional visit to a restaurant like Al Nafoorah reminds the falafel-fatigued just how unique and fantastic Lebanese food can be.

Nafoorah’s take on dining is very straightforward; fresh, simple ingredients prepared with clarity and flair. The Emirates Towers restaurant takes full advantage of the natural flavours of the vegetable staples (chickpeas, aubergine, artichoke etc), and combines these with excellent olive oil, fresh-as-heck meats, and perhaps the best Lebanese bread in Dubai – soft, warm, thin and rectangular slices of freshly-baked markouk.

On our most recent visit, the freebie olives were zesty and whole (rather than bitter and ruptured) and the accompanying almonds were gorgeously sweet. The hummos was light to the point of vapour and the moutabel was sharply-flavoured and crunched up by baubles of pomegranate. Better still, the zaatar salad – blades of thyme with onion, tomato and splashes of olive oil – squeezed its way sublimely into warm pitta with spinach and onion and scrapings of warmly boiled artichoke (we fought over their tender hearts). The kebbe were succulent and moist, the sojuk (lamb sausages) sweet and juicy, and the mains included the best grilled hammour in Dubai and some note-perfect kebabs.

We’ve a few minor gripes – the daft overpricing of the Lebanese wine (the cheapest bottle is well over Dhs200), the fact that you don’t get free vegetables on arrival, the unavailability of most of the raw lamb items, and worst of all, that dessert – formerly a never-ending spectacular of tumbling dry ice and souring steeples of sugar – is no longer free of charge. Prices in Dubai went up, our waiter explained, and Nafoorah had to make some difficult changes.

We’ve had chunkier, bolder Lebanese food (Wafi Gourmet), been banqueted by the oversized platters of set menus (Al Mijana) and dazzled by uproarious belly dancing (Awtar), but seated on the terrace directly under the Emirates Towers eating such excellent food, we were reminded why Nafoorah remains our favourite Arabian restaurant in town.

The bill (for four)
Mezze x10 Dhs203
Bottle of Elements Shiraz Dhs135
Grilled hammour Dhs50
Mixed grill Dhs45
Baklava Dhs30
Fresh fruits Dhs30
Shisha Dhs25
Mineral water x2 Dhs24
Total (including service and tax) Dhs542