money The surprising city that's rivalling Paris for Michelin star magic
Culinary history was made in the Middle East in June when Michelin launched its first-ever guide in Dubai. Michelin’s international director Gwendal Poullennec revealed that the guide’s anonymous inspectors have been secretly reviewing Dubai restaurants for years and, finally, the destination has been deemed delicious enough to have its own little red guide book.
While there wasn’t a restaurant judged to be “worth a special journey”, the criteria for the maximum three-star rating, two places received two stars for “excellent cooking worth a detour” and nine restaurants were awarded a star for being “very good”.
Emotions ran high as Poullennec announced the winning restaurants and invited the head chefs to join him on stage at Dubai Opera. I watched as some cried with joy and others battled to hide their frustration. There was more than a soupçon of disappointment that some of Dubai’s homegrown one-star winners didn’t score more highly. Dubai’s dedicated foodies had anticipated two stars apiece for Trèsind Studio, led by Indian chef Himanshu Saini; Hoseki, helmed by sushi master Masahiro Sugiyama, and aquarium-facing Ossiano at Atlantis, run by French chef Gregoire Berger.
Proving that Dubai is ripe for investment in culinary outposts, both of the top-scoring restaurants, Stay by Yannick Alléno and Il Ristorante – Niko Romito, are fronted by chefs already running Michelin-starred restaurants overseas. Niko Romito’s Reale flagship restaurant in Italy’s Castel di Sangro holds three Michelin stars. Over in Paris, Yanick Alléno has his own Michelin constellation; three stars for Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen, two stars for L’Abysse and one star for Pavyllon.
Paris is, of course, a mature market for gourmet travellers. Michelin was born in France in 1889, the brainchild of two tyre-selling brothers, André and Édouard Michelin, who wanted to increase sales by guiding motorists on road trips to restaurants so they would wear down their tyres more quickly.
Today, Paris is home to 119 Michelin-starred establishments compared with Dubai’s 11. While Dubai failed to scoop a three-star rating anywhere, Paris has 10 restaurants that hold the lauded trio. By comparison, Italy only has 11 three-starred restaurants across the entire country. Meanwhile, Tokyo has maintained the accolade of being the city with the most Michelin stars for more than a decade with 212 Michelin-starred restaurants, 12 of them three-star champs.
Regardless of location, any Michelin star rating is game-changing for a restaurant and the chef running the pass. Lives were changed overnight for Stay’s chef Renaud Dutel and Il Ristorante’s Giacomo Amicucci, who have become the culinary kings of Dubai. They each carry the weighty burden of maintaining two stars, while the one-star winners are on a mission to earn a second star in 2023. As a result of the intense effort being made in Dubai’s kitchens, there’s never been a better time to dine in the emirate. Here’s exactly where to eat this season...
Two Michelin star winners
STAY by Yannick Alléno, One&Only The Palm
Despite the recent death of his 24-year-old son, Antoine, a budding chef, Yannick Alléno managed to join his Dubai attaché Renaud Dutel at the Michelin awards. Alléno’s young chef de cuisine choked back tears as he accepted Stay’s two Michelin stars.
As culinary director of One&Only The Palm, Alléno is a guiding hand for Dutel who has truly mastered the art of French cooking. His skill is evident in dishes such as the courgette flower stuffed with sea bass mousseline, so light it almost levitates. The sea bass is whipped into a mousse with cream and egg white, and steamed inside the courgette’s petals then set on a bed of lobster bisque. (My husband told me to be careful not to wipe the pattern off the plate as I mopped up the sauce.)
Versions of dishes from Yannick’s three-Michelin-starred Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen can also be sampled here. The signature langoustine and caviar tartlet with a warm lemon butter sauce is spiked with a hint of ginger.
Degustation menus from £145; oneandonlyresorts.com
Il Ristorante-Niko Romito, Bulgari Resort Dubai
A magnet for billionaires, Bulgari Resort Dubai is home to not one but two Michelin-starred restaurants. (See below for more on its one-star offering, Hoseki.) Normally, I’d skip aperitivo, saving my daily calorie allowance for pasta, but at the Il Ristorante-Niko Romito bar, director Dario Schiavoni is making a name for himself – and not just because of his fabulous Poirot-style moustache.
Schiavoni’s signature martini is a fine example of his craft. Served in a coupe glass with a foot-long stem, the bowl is decorated with sticky gem-like daubs of “beetroot perfume” before a crystal-clear mix of gin and sake is added. It’s the Fabergé egg of cocktails with floral notes that smack of Arabian rose water.
Dinner is precision Italian fine dining, elevating the humble tomato at every turn. Besides the amuse-bouche of vibrant red gazpacho dressed in polka dots of amber olive oil, highlights include the buxomly al dente linguine with sweet and silky red shrimp and lobster laced with punchy bisque, and the burrata cream-filled tortellini, which could be Italy’s answer to xiao long bao.
Menus are devised by Niko Romito of Reale fame. Effervescent protégé Giacomo Amicucci executes their production on a day-to-day basis. When Amicucci took to the stage to accept his restaurant’s stars, his team watched the live feed of the Michelin reveal back at the hotel. Chairs, limbs, tears and yelps of joy went flying when Amicucci took to the stage.
Degustation menus from £167; bulgarihotels.com
One Michelin star winners
11 Woodfire, Jumeirah
This unlicensed restaurant serves kombucha (a gently fizzy fermented drink) in wine glasses. Rewarding mocktails include the French 75 made with vanilla rooibos, bergamot and bitter lemon. Sip one while you await starters or have one in place of dessert. Intoxicating smoky aromas beckon diners into the handsome interiors with polished concrete walls. At the centre, grill master Akmal Anuar uses a variety of woods to fire his creations. The juicy wagyu burger topped with molten gouda is the bestseller. Start with still-warm freshly baked bread slathered in smoked butter, then linger on sweet red shrimp in a zesty pineapple gazpacho, before tucking into mains. Beyond the burger, there’s whole woodfired fish, crispy-skin duck leg sprinkled with sea salt and moist pink wagyu striploin charred to perfection. Desserts include burnt cheesecake and a torched crème brûlée.
Sharing plates from £16 to £190, desserts from £10 to £11; 11woodfire.com
Al Muntaha, Burj Al Arab
Chef Saverio Sbaragli previously worked at Paris’s three-starred Arpège under Alain Passard. His pedigree shows in complex dishes such as St Jacques scallops served with roasted root vegetables and a beetroot consommé with hints of horseradish. Merrily skipping between French and Italian fare, creamy risotto with burrata and Piccadilly (plum) tomato is the entry-price main at a brow-raising £63. One of Dubai’s most expensive restaurants, diners partly pay for the view from the top floor of the iconic Burj Al Arab hotel. Go for lunch by day so you can actually see something.
Degustation menu from £248; jumeirah.com
Armani/Ristorante, Armani Hotel Dubai
If you can’t get a table at two-star Il Ristorante-Niko Romito, head to one-star Armani/Ristorante, which specialises in the same meticulous Italian perfectionism on a plate. You’ll find Hokkaido scallops showing off in bowls of cauliflower emulsion seasoned with caviar. You’ll swoon at the ravioli filled with lamb ragout and cheese fondue. For dessert, La Sfera (the Sphere) is a feat of culinary engineering comprising a delicate sugar-glass bauble filled with layers of cake, cream and mousse (the flavours change with the season). They’re so difficult to make, almost half of all attempts fail. Talking of engineering feats, Armani/Ristorante is located within the world’s tallest building. Don’t forget to crane your neck before you enter to admire the height of Burj Khalifa.
Degustation menu, £212; armanihoteldubai.com
Hakkasan, Atlantis, The Palm
When the first Hakkasan opened in London in 2001, it earned itself a Michelin star for its new-age Chinese cuisine. Now the Dubai outpost has followed suit, applying the same winning formula. Fat dumplings are generously stuffed and presented in bamboo steamers, billowing clouds adding dry-ice-like drama to the big reveal of what’s inside. Platters include kaffir lime lobster har gau; abalone chicken and caviar shui mai, and sea urchin and spring onion dumplings. Other reimagined Cantonese classics include the bestselling sticky and aromatic Jasmine tea-smoked Wagyu beef ribs.
Set menus from £111; atlantis.com
Hōseki, Bulgari Resort Dubai
“How did this place not get two stars?” was the question on everyone’s tutting lips as sixth-generation sushi master Masahiro Sugiyama graciously made his way to the Michelin stage to accept his restaurant’s single star. There’s usually a six-week waiting list to get one of the nine seats around Sugiyama’s sleek sushi counter. Ingredients are imported daily from Tokyo’s finest fish markets and tasting menus are served omakase-style, meaning the chef selects your dishes.
Sugiyama will introduce you to the delights of horse mackerel, hairy crab and cubes of foie gras-like monkfish liver. He will astound you with his nimble knife skills, and he will impress you with his omotenashi, Japanese hospitality centred on humility. Between him and the kimono-clad hostesses, almost ghostly presences topping up drinks without ever interrupting, it’s hard to believe you’re not in Japan.
Omakase menus from £223;bulgarihotels.com
Ossiano, Atlantis, The Palm
A master of presentation, visionary chef Gregoire Berger’s fine French fare would beat the competition in a culinary beauty pageant. His restaurant is also a stunner. Walled in by Atlantis, the Palm hotel’s gigantic aquarium, diners sit enthralled by the 65,000 resident marine animals. If you can take your eyes off the fish or the food, you may spot a nervous suitor going down on one knee, as it’s a popular spot for proposals. For me, the romance is on the plate. Berger’s latest degustation is a romp through his childhood memories of Brittany. Dishes you will talk about for months to come include the Brittany brown crab served with a sweet Breton curry, created using Kari Gosse, a secret spice mix that was originally used for medicinal purposes, but then adopted as a key ingredient by Breton chefs since the 19th century.
Degustation menu, £244; atlantis.com
Tasca by José Avillez Mandarin Oriental Jumeira Dubai
José Avillez, arguably Portugal’s most famous chef, is a welcome addition to Dubai’s dining scene. Avillez brings with him some of his most cherished dishes from his bank of Lisbon restaurants, which includes two-Michelin-starred Belcanto. Overlooking olive trees and a turquoise rooftop pool on the sixth floor of Dubai’s five-star Mandarin Oriental, Avillez’s ambient tavern (“tasca” in Portuguese) serves creamy, crispy-coated avocado tempura, sweet scarlet Algarve prawn ceviche with chilli served on a tangy half of lime, and comforting pots of piri-piri stew, robust with lobster, clams, prawns and seabass.
Starters from £8, mains from £30; mandarinoriental.com
Torno Subito, The Palm
The Torno Subito concept was devised by Massimo Bottura, the culinary guru behind three-Michelin-starred Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy, which has topped the polls of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants more than once. Torno Subito steps away from fine dining, taking guests to an Italian Riviera-style trattoria for traditional dishes – think tagliatelle al ragu and spaghetti vongole – but resident chef Bernardo Paladini, who studied under Massimo for seven years, is capable of far greater things, which he’s shown in one-off menus and four-hand dinners. One to watch.
Best of Torno Subito tasting menu, £10; tornosubitodubai.com
Trèsind Studio, Nakheel Tower, Palm Jumeirah
With so few Michelin-starred Indian restaurants globally, perhaps Trèsind Studio’s one-star win carries the greatest significance to the region’s aspiring chefs, with Dubai’s largest demographic hailing from India. Chef Himanshu Saini, a long-standing inspiration within the industry, is on a mission to share the story of his beloved India through its diverse tapestry of cuisines. This season’s degustation includes Sadhya, which recalls a feast of the same name served at celebrations in Kerala. Every course, from the poppadom to rice and curry through to dessert, is served on the same plantain leaf, and Saini’s interpretation does the same by blending flavours together on a leaf-shaped plate.
Degustation menu, £133; tresindstudio.com
Covid rules
Visitors aged over 12 must show proof of full vaccination or a negative PCR test issued within 48 hours of travel, or proof of recovery. For more information, see fco.gov.uk
