The first (of many I fear) foodie entry

Gemma and I love a good meal, its by far our biggest vice. Something my midriff has paid the price for many years.

In the last two or three years we've been lucky enough to have experienced some fantastic restaurants and meals. Since arriving in Dubai we have, like the rest of population of Dubai, have lived to excess, regularly experiencing the best and the worst of what Dubai's chef's have to offer. Every time we taste something out of this world, or pay far too much for something awful, I've felt the need to share those thoughts and either help people find a worthwhile culinary experience, or avoid paying through the nose for something poor.

The first review unfortunately falls into the latter category.

We woke late this morning after a long day yesterday, for me it started with a 6am 88km bike ride, followed by taking Gemma to a charity boxing event last night, we got into bed in the early hours of this morning. So the decision for our lazy Saturday (we work different weekends here, Friday is the religious day) was to lay in as long as possible, seek out a nice lunch, and then brave ikea.
Jamie Oliver's Italian in festival city sounded like an easy choice for a healthy wholesome tasty meal.

Weirdly, it actually ticks all of those boxes. But we won't be going back.

The meal consisted of:
3 Italian dips with bruscetta
Scallops in an Italian red sauce
"Tasty" chips
Chestnut mushrooms with mozzarella
Vanilla ice cream with honeycomb

Its tough to actually pick out the parts we enjoyed, which doesn't make for a great start. The first is presentation, Jamie's food always looks great, unique platters, great colours, and well thought out design. I love a good bit of presentation and Jamie's is always great. Simple yet individual.
The second is that the ice cream was excellent (all three spoonfuls of it)

Now, unfortunately, to the downside.
The drinks arrived with the food. 20 minutes after we ordered. Not a massive game changer you may say, but there were only 6 diners in what is probably a 100 seat restaurant.

ALL of the bread tasted stale, and we had three types between the bread basket and the starter. Also usually a nice tearing bread is served warm to fully appreciate the flavour and texture, not here.
The tomato sauce on the scallops was so heavy in raw garlic that one of the scallops only tasted of fire, and subsequently tinged everything I tasted for the next five minutes.
The 'tasty' chips were quite obviously reheated and limp, like the rest of the meal they were Luke warm. They did have a lovely flavour, but it was overshadowed by the poor standard of preparation.
As for the mushrooms, they too were tasty, but also luke warm making the cheese resemble that from a reheated pizza the morning after.

I'm sorry Jamie, but this franchise is harming the brand! Until now I've always been a fan of most of your endeavours

For outrageous dubai prices, this wasn't terrible at 300 dirhams including a cocktail. That said I'd still advise that you spend hard earned 300 elsewhere.

Until the next time.