Four years in Dubai and this is the first time I went to Catch Dubai. Suffice to say, my friend and I were very excited because who in Dubai hasn’t heard of Catch Dubai and seen their infamous chocolate-shelled, molten ice-cream filled dessert imploding and doing viral rounds on social media?
Our views of Cath Dubai, may partly be a case of the Paris syndrome, and partly a case of the server selecting the worst possible selection of items on the menu, ones we least wanted to have. Lesson learnt: don’t always leave it to the “chef” (who in this case was most certainly just the server) to design the perfect tasting menu for you, order what you’re in the mood for, especially your cravings are as specific as ours were that night.
After a poorly composed selection of items that we did not enjoy, we proceeded to order a few things that did actually appeal to us, and suffice to say, they were absolutely sublime and actually lived up to the high expectations we took with us to Catch Dubai.
While the ambience, vibes and music were all awesome, let’s cut to the chase and talk about what we ate.
Kingfish tacos. Tasted like warm canned tuna.
Dynamite prawns: it’s hard to go wrong with these, but given the choice, I wouldn’t have ordered these and would have picked something more unique and less P.F Changs.
Another case of the server choosing to bring us something we really wouldn’t have ordered for ourselves that night. Sweet gochujang sauce in Korean Crispy Chicken Baos just wasn’t what we were in the mood for, so we didn’t super enjoy this, even though the bar was soft, the chicken crispy, and slaw crunchy.
Next up, a giant plate of creamy mushroom pasta, which I swear to you I could elevate much more had I made this at home. Also, it tasted green. Why was there broccoli in here? That’s such an overpowering vegetable and that’s all we could taste! This should have been on the kids menu and was a classic cost-cutting choice on the server’s part. I can’t imagine what pat on the back he could have been hoping for.
The final straw was this plate of very chewy short ribs. The meat was actually tough! By now I was pretty annoyed, asked to be shown the menu and selected a couple of items that appealed us and suffice to say, they did not disappoint.
First up from the order of things we WANTED to eat: burrata. Beautifully seasoned, good quality tomatoes, pesto and balsamic. The skin was a little thicker that I like on my burrata but this was definitely enjoyable and enjoyed. We wiped the plate near clean.
As you must already have noticed, none of the pictures till now packed any wow factor, so I pointed at the table next to ours and asked to be brought a couple strips of the wagyu being seared table-top. Note to Marketing Team: if you’re going to invite someone over with hopes of online coverage, how about putting your best dishes forward to begin with, and not unappealing bowls of sloppy pasta and chewy beef?
I am so glad we ordered this, because the redemption started with the burrata and was secured by these wagyu strips. Very simple, but the stunning quality spoke volumes, and this melt-in-your-mouth beauty was absolutely sublime.
Finally, we ordered the showstopper that sealed the deal and restored my faith in the possible honesty of at least some of the people raving about Catch Dubai. I mean, if this is what Catch Dubai is most like, and the bowls of pasta and chewy beef make up only a minority of the menu, then I get it, I get the hype.
Pictured here is a deep fried oyster with creamy, raw wagyu on top, nestled a top a lobster and truffle potato mash. Mic drop. This was ridiculously good.
For dessert, we decided to take the path less trodden, skip the infamous Hit Me dessert, and picked some sticky toffee pudding and some pecan pie.
The pecan pie was a total miss but the sticky toffee pudding was easily some of the best we’ve had.
Other upsides to Catch Dubai include the DJ (I love a DJ who plays 90s hits), and a super friendly hostess. The server was a grouch and a half, inattentive, and seemed to be getting an ulcer from having to serve us. Get another job, maybe? Service was lacking overall, it was far from a full house but the staff seemed overwhelmed.
Do I see myself going back? Hard pass.
