Wednesday, November 26, 2008

The One Restaurant






Two nights ago, SY and I decided to eat out and I brought her to The One. The One is a furniture and household appliance selling establishment and its concept is everything which Ikea is not. Meaning to say that it's generally the opposite of the more popular Ikea. Where Ikea stressed on basics and simplicity, The One sells on abstract and elegance.

Ooo ... and their X'mas decor are all up already. Walking through its aisle flanked by colourful fairy lights, gorgeously decorated X'mas trees and with classis X'mas tunes melodiously playing in the background ... it felt simply wonderful to soak up the Yuletide atmosphere. HO HO HO ...

The One has only one restaurant inside and guess what is it named ... THE ONE RESTAURANT!!! Haha. Decked with thick crocodile leathered chairs, matching dark mahogany wooden tables and elaborate Victorian chandeliers, it envelope the customers with a sense of utter lushness and regal opulence. "Now where's my buttered scones and tea, ol' chap?" Hehe.

Browsing through the menu revealed that the pricing is really reasonable for what it's offering. Serving staple authentic English food as well as fusioned local cuisines, from Illy's coffee to healthy smoothies, no wonder this hidden gem is popular amongst the gwai los and local Arabs. It's usually packed during lunch and dinner hours too.

They're promoting their X'mas menu now and it comes with an option of a 2-course meal (60 AED) or a 3-course meal (70 AED). Consisting of 3 selections of starters, 3 selections of mains and 3 selections of dessert, you pick an item from each section and it comes standard with a serving of after meal coffee as well as X'mas truffles.

We both went for the 3-course meal and SY opted for the Parsnip Soup drizzled with truffle oil, wild mushrooms risotto and peaches and strawberry sorbet.

I went for the goat's cheese tart, the traditional turkey with cranberry sauce and stuffing and ended with the X'mas pudding.

It was really yummilicious and somehow the photos failed to do the food justice. The soup was thick and flavoursome. Dipped with the complimentary garlic bread ... delish delish delish!!! My goat's cheese tart is worth a mention with it's bold taste coupling well with fresh tomatoes served on a crispy flaky crust which reminded me of some very good roti canai I once had back in Malaysia.

The turkey was well smoked indeed served on top of a bed of boiled carrots, peppers, potatoes and brussel sprouts ... another 'must have' this one. SY's risotto came in a very generous portion but that's the only plus point here. It tasted very mediocre and it didn't take long before we had more than enough of it.

The sorbet was refreshingly delectable and served well to offset the dominant taste from the risotto while my X'mas pudding failed my expectations with the absence of rum / brandy. Other than that, it was all goooood. :)

Final conclusion being that dining at THE ONE RESTAURANT received a double thumbs up from SY and I. Excellent ambience along with scrumtious food and fine service ... I'll be sure to go back there again and again and again ... :)

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