There are many misconceptions about fine dining, the major one being extremely absurd theatrics with minuscule proportions all in the guise of “art”. And I’ll be honest, I’ve experienced my fair share of restaurants that pride themselves on exquisite gastronomical experiences that focus more on the performance of good-looking food rather than the taste of good-looking food.
But viral posts on social media are not a fair assessment of the art of gastronomy. So when Jamavar, a Michelin-starred, fine-dining Indian restaurant, sent me an invite to visit, I showed up with hope and a healthy dose of scepticism.
Located at Address Residences Opera District in Downtown Dubai, we were seated at a dining hall filled with candlelight and opulent chandeliers. My date for the night was also my date for my root canal procedure, so I was happy to finally invite her to something that was not as stressful. I picked their Spice & Spirits tasting menu while she chose their a la carte.
The Spice & Spirits menu is meant to be a curated cocktail pairing menu that lets you taste the range of flavours India has to offer. My first course began with a Buzzy Tonic, a refreshing drink that set the mood for my experience. It was paired with the Chandni Chowk Ki Aloo Tikki. Aloo Tikki can be best described as a fried spiced potato or a potato cutlet. Chandni Chowk, in this instance, refers to the Chandni Chowk market in Old Delhi, North India. So the dish was prepared chaat (street food) style—with honey yoghurt, tamarind and mint chutney, and topped with sliced onions. Surprisingly, the onions were not pungent at all, or maybe my drink cancelled out their flavour. The aloo tikki was on the heavier side (it is potatoes after all), but the chutneys balanced it out. The dish came with a hint of spice that can hardly be noticed because of the yoghurt and chutneys, but once you do, it hits you with a kick.
My date’s drink was the Fig & Amaretti Breeze, a mocktail that was also sweet and refreshing. Her dish was Chicken 65, as per our server’s recommendation. Served with curd rice, the chicken was crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside, and overall, not too spicy. However, if you are intolerant to spice of any kind, the curd rice helps to soothe the tongue.
My second course began with a Khubani Paloma. Khubanis are apricots that hail from Northern India. Just like a traditional paloma, the drink was garnished with a slice of grapefruit and was zesty and sour. It perfectly complemented my dish, which was the Tandoori Prawns. I was served two jumbo prawns that were, unfortunately, a contradiction of sorts. The first was buttery soft, whereas the second was tough, both to cut and eat. Served with a coriander and peanut chutney, again, this was a dish with minimal spice. The spice was mainly felt in the peanut chutney, so if you like your food fiery hot, you would have to load up each prawn with this.
My Khubani Paloma also paired really well with my date’s second dish, of which I snuck in a few bites. She got the Lamb Seekh Kebab again, as per our server’s recommendation. You can’t really go wrong with a kebab, and this one was seasoned to perfection. So soft that it would melt in your mouth, it tasted even better with the mint chutney, a classic combo for a reason. The spice on this dish increased as you ate—the more you ate, the spicier it got. But whatever spice I felt was quickly cooled off with my drink.
And with that, we moved on to our main course, a curation of classic Indian dishes. Old Delhi Butter Chicken, Dal Maharani, Bhindi Singhara, pulao rice and a mixed bread basket greeted our table, whereas my drink for this course was a sweet, coconutty, and citrusy Coorg Daiquiri. From sour to sweet, at first I wasn’t sure about the transition, but the drink soon became my favourite.
The butter chicken, a staple Indian order for so many people, local and international alike, was soft, not too spicy, and very, very creamy. The Dal Maharani was personally not my preference, but was a good balance to the creamy butter chicken. However, my personal standout was the Bhindi Singhara, which is backed by my love for bhindi, or okra as most people call it. Cooked to perfection, this dish had a hint of spice and no sliminess at all, again, pairing well with the butter chicken. As Indian cuisine allows you to mix and match, creating your own perfect bite of food, mine was the Bhindi Singhara, mixed with the butter chicken and pulao rice. A sip of my Coorg Daiquiri tied it all together, and with that, we moved on to our final course: dessert.
Ever since I looked at the Spice & Spirits menu, I had been looking forward to the dessert course. Not only did it have my favourite drink, but the dish was intriguing as well. Safe to say, expectations were high, and I think like Icarus, they flew too close to the sun. The Nocturne Espresso Martini had an Indian twist to the classic Espresso Martini. Made with jaggery syrup and saffron mist, I expected something sweeter and smoother. What I got was a drink that was on the bitter side, which intensified in taste when paired with my dessert. Dessert was a Chocolate Bounty, made with Valrhona milk chocolate and coconut and had a chocolate crumble topped with cardamom ice cream. The dish was soft and decadent with a hint of crunch thanks to the chocolate crumble. Although delightful to eat, it unfortunately cancelled out the sweetness in my Espresso Martini, leading to a peculiar combination that is sure to be a hit or miss. To me, it was sadly a miss.
But a blip didn’t sour my experience at Jamavar. Overall, the sceptic in me was quelled, fine dining can and has balanced food with art. The story of Jamavar’s Spice & Spirits proves it.
