First of all, apologies for being scarce with our posts recently. The holiday season meant lots of traveling and lazing around. Second of all, we hope all our readers had / are having / will have a blast this extended holiday season!
December is here, already, again!! At Arabian Umami that translates to “Birthday season has begun”. We take birthdays almost as seriously as our food, and thus we make sure we dine at some of the best this wonderful city has to offer to celebrate!
Our most recent find was an incredible chinese place in Sofitel at the Palm. Hong Loong, which roughly translates to “Red Dragon”, is a great find for those who are tired of the usual chinese joints. The chinese fine dining is a little underserved in Dubai, though there are still more options than most cities would have, we still think a few more would only make the culinary adventures more fun for the foodies in Dubai.
So as we enter the gorgeous hotel, I find it to be a lot smaller and compact than expected. It is appreciated though, since I prefer smaller boutique hotels much more to the large commercial Atlantis style theme parks. There is an elevator on the side which seems to be built for the sole purpose of taking guests directly to the restaurant.
A huge buddha statue greets us as we walk out of the elevator followed by a soft spoken hostess who takes our name and offers us lemongrass scented hand towels to wipe our hands with before we dig in. It’s always such a delight when all the senses are engaged when going to a restaurant, the welcoming, fresh scent of the lemongrass elevated our senses and started us off happy even before the first bite of food.
Service & Ambience:
We were guided into the medium sized restaurant which was dimly lit and had the chinese lanterns hanging from the ceiling, the place felt alive and happy and though it was not packed, it was buzzing and have a relaxed vibe. The theme was red and black, no surprises there.
The staff at Hong Loong was exceptional, and I mean, exceptional. We don’t get easily impressed by service and we might even err a little bit on the snobbish side when it comes to expecting flawless service, but we were thoroughly impressed here. The staff made us feel comfortable at once, and the hostess explained the offers of the day on the drinks, gave us an overall explanation of the kind of cuisine that was offered, which was traditional and szechuan style and how we could customize our order. She also got us started off by asking if we would like water or tea served during our meal. There was green tea, jasmine tea and white tea. We opted for the jasmine tea.
We were then smoothly handed over to the waitstaff, who carefully opened and placed our napkins for us and handed us our menus. We were left to decide and were given the perfect amount of time before our tea arrived placed with an amuse bouche on the side to get us started. The tea was balmy and a perfect temperature to sip on. The bites of food to kickstart our menu was the perfect portion which included a handful of cashews tossed in a sweet & spicy oil topped with sesame, sweet and sour pickles, and a puff filled with mushrooms with a certain hint of truffle and topped with an apricot sauce.
The Menu:
The menu was well laid out, no pictures which is always a bummer, but it was clearly labelled and wasn’t crowded with too many options but had enough to give us something to think about.
We were ready for ordering the starters and the waitress who took our order was not only extremely knowledgeable about the menu , she also took the time to explain what kind of portions the dish had and even recommending that we not order too much fried stuff starting off to reserve some appetite for the main. There were about 7 of us so we could order enough to share and yet get a decent variety on our table.
What We Ordered:
Drinks:
House Lemon Ice Tea
The Lemon Ice Tea was a perfect sweet and sour balance and was very well done indeed, it was one of the drinks with an offer and we are glad we ordered a few for the table.
Umami Score: 8.5/10
Pineapple & Cucumber Mocktail
This mocktail was straight out of heaven, it is unusual to find a good mocktail that isn’t laden with sugar and doesn’t feel like eating a million calories while being so on point with the flavors. It seems like the cucumbers and pineapple were muddled well and had a long resting time with some mint in the base.. (we think water?)
Umami Score: 9.2/10
Mixed Berry Mocktail
This was another hit and I think that you wouldn’t go wrong ordering any one of those drinks to accompany your dinner. This had a more sweet, tangy, inherently berry taste. Again, with a citrusy note and the sugar was kept on the healthier side of things.
Umami Score: 8.5/10
Appetizers:
Steamed BBQ Chicken Buns
Ok, so this choice took a while… since we have almost always been disappointed with the steamed buns this city has to offer, somehow no one seems to get the correct fluffiness, or sweetness, or filling. The steamed bun search is officially over. We have found the reason to come back to this place again and again. The perfect fluff, the perfect filling, the perfect sweet and savory balance. Absolute delight!! I’m actually salivating as I type this, I’m definitely going back for some more of these.
Umami Score: 9.5/10 (Yes, no joke!)
Flaky Stuffed Taro Puff
I promise I am not exaggerating, but every dish seemed better than the last.. and in this case, the crab filled taro puff outdid the steamed buns.. maybe, or at least were almost as good. The filling was wonderful texture, soft and pasty with a few chunks of crab and may even have a hint of mushroom going on, almost like a ceviche tucked inside. The exterior was a nice golden crunchy funk, always a good thing! We loved it!
Umami Score: 9.5/10
Crispy Stuffed Prawn Balls
So we were expecting a lot from this one, but after the two hits, these prawn stuffed balls paled in comparison, served with a lemon and passion fruit mayo, the sauce added a lot of character and spunk to these otherwise well-done, but ordinary dish. The balls were rolled in crispy fried potatoes which is something we found interesting.
Umami Score: 8/10
Sweet Corn and Chicken Soup
This was served, almost a little to hot, but it was the usual chicken corn soup. We won’t rate this one because really, we find very few places go wrong with this staple.
Main Course:
Wok Fried Black Pepper Beef Fillet
This was the favorite amongst the group, cooked to medium doneness, each piece of meat was cut across the grain and seared then cooked to the perfect pink center and tossed in black pepper sauce with onions scallions and tender eggplants.
Umami Score: 9/10
Stewed Chicken & Chinese Chestnut
This was a little bit of a disappointment, the chicken was a little bland and though the hot pot concept was great, we didn’t find the promised eggplants, but there were plenty of the chinese chestnuts, this would have probably gone better with plain steamed rice but overall this dish was a let down, especially when compared to the luxurious hot pots at Zheng He.
Umami Score: 6.5/10
Sautée King Prawn in Superior Marmite Sauce
A well done tiger prawn dish with a very rich and sticky sauce, the prawns were served with steamed sliced lotus roots which is a rare sight in Dubai eateries. A unique combination that worked.
Umami Score: 7.5/10
Sweet & Sour Chicken, Crispy Fig
Absolute hit, we cooked juicy pieces of chicken with a crunchy exterior coated with a yummy and deep sweet and sour sauce with high notes of fig. This one was the favorite amongst the chicken lovers.
Umami Score: 9/10
Wok Fried Noodles with Chicken & Shrimp
These noodles came wrapped like a present, and though we have seen the same presentation at Zheng He, these were a little more flavorful. There was abundant amounts of chicken and shrimp and so plenty to share on the table. Well done noodles, though we would have liked a little more added veggies to offer some crunch.
Umami Score: 8/10
Wok Fried Vegetable Fried Rice
Fragrant rice, but it was a little different here, the rice was glutinous, almost thai style, instead of the usual longer grain that is used for chinese fried rice. This also didn’t seem to have the same technique of using day old rice, it seemed like it was cooked on the day, but this is not a complaint. We loved the rice, it went well with everything but had character on it’s own.
Umami Score: 8/10
Parting Words:
Overall, the food and the experience was great, however we do think the similarity to Zheng He is unquestionable. They do take the crown over Zheng He when it comes to service, the food quality is almost identical. To a certain extent even the style of cooking is similar which makes us wonder how these eateries might be related? Watch out for the review on Zheng He coming up soon to compare these two!
We would definitely recommend you try this place, maybe reserve it for a special occasion considering the slightly higher price tag. We are definitely going to come again for the noodles and the steamed buns and to try more items from the menu and get spoiled silly by the great service!
PS: We used 2 of our entertainer vouchers and saved an awesome AED 300 and would strongly suggest you do the same. We spent about AED 125 per person, after discounts, for a pretty awesome experience & meal. Consider it a stellar deal on the value for money front!
Umami Score: 8.75/10
Arabian Umami 