Culinary corner

Networking, dealmaking or just plain schmoozing – whatever the end goal of your business meeting, here’s where to head to in Dubai with your associates

Networking, dealmaking or just plain schmoozing – whatever the end goal, here’s where to head in Dubai with your associates

The Restaurant at Address Downtown The Anglo-French The Restaurant has excellent views of the Burj Khalifa. But with multiple themed interiors, there’s enough elegance inside to hold your full attention. While the Private Dining Room is a nook that offers secluded dining, we settled in a nearby space that had white-tablecloth service complete with beautiful smoky-hued La Tavola cutlery.

All guests at this licensed establishment are offered a complimentary stop at the cheese, cold cuts and salad bar while they wait for their first dish.

Our starter was another salad off the menu, The La Salade Primeur, which has a vertiginous preparation of farm-to-table fresh produce and pecorino cheese added for good measure.

For the mains, our informed and attentive waitstaff suggested Beef Wellington. The done-to-perfection beef wasn’t wrapped in a traditional puff pastry. Instead, it is made into a wafer and placed like a hat atop the meat in one one of the smartest twists we’ve seen on the classic dish. Meanwhile, the Rossini-style Red Label Chicken comes filled with foie gras and is laid on a thick, soothing gravy.

Desserts are where there’s minor theatre when the hot chocolate sauce is poured over the profiteroles, but if you want to wave the flag for the country on the other side of the English Channel, end with the creamy Eton Mess.

The Restaurant, which has raised the bar several notches already, isn’t puffing its chest in self-congratulatory pride. It’s just going about the business of creating inventive food and inviting you to be a part of it. Don’t mind if we do.

The Restaurant, Address Downtown, Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Boulevard, Downtown Dubai, Dubai. Open 24 hours. Tel: (04) 8883 444.