Award-winning restaurant La Petite Maison offers its Dubai-based diners fresh Mediterranean food as the chef uses recipes and cooking style of the Côte d’Azur, southern France and parts of Italy.
The restaurant is located in the heart of Dubai’s finest Sheikh Zayed Road on the Gate Village of Dubai International Financial Center. The chef encourages diners to share a delightful Niçoise cuisine (from Nice, in the south of France) for the restaurant is a family-style concept.
The outdoor dining area, surrounded by a white wooden fence, simply oozes the charm of southern France, with its round tables covered with white tablecloths and simple wooden chairs under big white umbrellas. This area seats up to 25 diners at once. When you get inside you cannot miss the cozy atmosphere from the white and green paneled walls decorated with contemporary art pieces, romantic dim lights to the white and silver chairs and sofas. The tables are covered in white tablecloths and seat up to 120 diners at once.
The salad preparation bar it is like a salad kitchen, right next to the open kitchen where you actually see your dinner being prepared through the glass window.
I was seated outside because I didn’t want to miss out on the fresh spring air. The centerpiece on each table consisted of two beautiful tomatoes, one lemon and a bottle of olive oil. My waiter kept coming back with a breadbasket and encouraged me to slice the tomato and dip it in olive oil and lemon. I loved it. My companion and I started with Burrata with tomatoes and basil. This is a different kind of mozzarella, flown in fresh from south Italy to La Petite Maison’s kitchen. I loved everything about it from the creamy and fluffy texture and the great mix of flavors from the olive oil drizzled on top to the sweetness of the cherry tomatoes and basil.
We also tried the salad of green lentils, a great choice for the summer time. It is fresh and full of great flavors. It is a mix of lentil, cherry tomato, celery, onion, apples, black pepper and olive oil with a hint of lemon.
The Poulpe Finement Tranché is a thinly sliced octopus soaked in lemon oil. I know it is not everybody’s favorite seafood, but I loved it. The octopus meat is a little chewy but the dish was very interesting. My waiter informed me that they marinate it in Earl Grey tea overnight to take the fishy taste out and kill bacteria, then slice it and serve it fresh.
As a main dish we had the Bar Grillé, which is a grilled sea bass. I highly recommend that dish for it was beautifully grilled on the sides but each bite melts in your mouth from the softness of the fish. We had this with a side of steamed broccoli sprinkled with chili and garlic.
We also had the grilled veal chop marinated in honey sauce. The four pieces on a bed of caramelized onion in honey and roasted cherry tomatoes I guarantee you will love. I can taste the grill on the veal and it is cooked to perfection. We had it with a side of bakes gratinéed potatoes. This creamy dish comes in a small pot of layered slices of potatoes soaked in cream.
The dessert menu offers beautiful French sweet treats. Their French toast is different from anything I tried before. It is crispy on the outside and beautifully moist and warm on the inside.
You can see the vanilla seeds and smell their strong aroma in La Petite Maison’s famous cheesecake, proof of their quality and uniqueness. The cheesecake is very light and fluffy and its thin crust gave me more space to taste the clean flavors and beautiful blend with the berry jam on the side.
One surprise my waiter offered is the yogurt with raspberry. This dish offers an exciting contrast between taste and texture from the coldness of the ice cream to the warmness of the raspberry juice that is layered in a transparent glass. On the side you will find small pieces of doughnut stuffed with cream.
Opening hours: Lunch: from 12 noon to 3 p.m. and for dinner from 7 p.m. to 11.30 p.m.
Expect to pay: Lunch: AED 250 (SR 255) and dinner AED 350 (SR 357).
French connection: La Petite Maison
French connection: La Petite Maison
