I spy with my little eye... Qbara the opulent.

Everybody had been talking about Qbara for the past months so one calm week-end (before everybody came back from their 3 months holiday), the gentleman and I decided to go check it out. Booking was surprisingly easy and smooth so we wondered how packed the restaurant would be on a Friday night.

It was actually busy but in a nice buzzing way. Qbara is the kind of place that will never be empty but where you can always get a table, which is perfect. The space huge but doesn't feel empty, you colour scheme is middle eastern with rich gold and purple shades but without feeling crowded (which is a miracle).

I appreciated the effort on the wine list: they definitively kept it Mediterranean with wines from Lebanon, Syria, and even Greece. I was very happy to discover something new, never had had Greek wine before!

Foodwise, the concept is to give middle eastern cuisine a gastronomical twist. It's actually surprising that no one thought about it before. I appreciated the wide menu, and the effort to make simple family dishes something more elaborate, it was tasty and surprising, even if I didn't understand everything: why in the world would you put lobster in a fried kebbe? Lobster is way too subtle a taste in my opinion to be paired with fried food, in other words: I couldn't taste anything. 

As much as I enjoyed the dinner, the deserts were the highlight of the evening with a mix of textures and spices. I knew the Middle East loved it's pastries but that confirmed it all. It was probably the first time I managed to finish deserts after a mezze!

All in all, I'm very happy I finally made it to the "best restaurant in Dubai at the moment" since I had been hearing this all summer long. I love the effort to put forward local cuisine, and I love the fact that they can do better: means plenty of surprises to come!

For more info about Qbara, visit their website: www.qbara.ae