Cafe Blanc – Eastern Mangroves Hotel & Spa by Anantara, AbuDhabi

Finally my first post on a restaurant in AbuDhabi. I’ve seen this Cafe Blanc in Dubai Mall several times and finally when we were here at this beautiful Eastern Mangroves Hotel we decided to visit Cafe Blanc for lunch. The climate was just right that day and you could sit in their outdoor space and feel the nice breeze and see the fancy boats on this little island when you enjoy your heavy lunch which you will witness soon!

Alef layleh wa layleh: Fresh avocado, rose syrup, milk, jellab and dry apricot.
Hanayen: One layer of blended mango pulp with jasmine and violet syrup followed by another lavender syrup, fresh banana and apple juice, finished off with a generous hint of blue curacao.
Orient Express: Jellab and amaretto syrup along with 7up

Their drinks were thrilling. They come in a giant glass and ever so colorful and vibrant. The first one that came on our table was Hanayen. I took my first sip and I just couldn’t wait to taste the rest of it. The man of the match in the cocktail section was definitely Alef Layleh Wa Layleh. Even though it was difficult to spell the name, the drink was very special. It was more like a falooda to me. So filling and yet you don’t want to stop sipping.

Moutabbal debes el reman: moutabbal eggplant mixed with green onion, parsley and topped with pomegranate.
Labneh bil zaatar: Delicious mix of Labneh, thyme and sundried tomato topped with olive oil.

Both these cold mezze came well dressed and I would tear that hot bread, dip them and treat myself
with all pleasure. Both of them came thick and you know this is supposed to be a must know item for a lebanese restaurant so they wouldn’t go wrong here.

Mixed Mezze platter – 2 pieces of rkakat jebneh, 2 pcs of fatayer baqli and 2 pcs of sanbousik
Fattouch lahmeh skewers – Fattouch salad topped with marinated meat skewers.

I always enjoy eating these little bit of items. All that came in that Mixed mezze platter was very satisfying. My favourite was the one with spinach filling in it. Fattouch salad had the right taste and you could enjoy it to finish but I felt the meat skewers that came along could have been more tender.

Djej msakhan: A mix of grilled and shredded chicken breast with sumac, garlic paste and pickles wrapped with toasted markouk bread served with french fries.
Kebbeh Al Fahem: 3 pcs of falvored kebbeh with debes el remmen, chilly and labneh.

Djej msakhan was a thick chicken sandwich. You eat two out of the three pieces and you are done. The chicken was shredded to the pieces of our keema sandwich. I generally like to bite my chicken pieces but this was shredded to such an extent that you just couldn’t get hold of the chicken in your mouth. To me the favourite filling for the kebbeh Al Faheem was chilly or debes el remmen. I thought the labneh didn’t go well with Kebbeh Al Fahem.

Masheweh Combo platter : A platter of 9 mixed grill skewers of: 3 meat, 3 taouk, 3 kafta skewers served with garlic paste, hommos and biwaz bread.

When this platter came on the table there was a sudden silence and everyone’s just curiously looking at it. The juicy Taouk was the best in the lot for me. The hommos and garlic paste that came along with it was super fine.

Trio pudding consists of rice pudding, mouhallabieh and meghleh.

I personally am a pudding fine. I definitely enjoyed the rice pudding and my wife was after the mouhallabieh pudding. The chocolate looking one was not on par as the white puddings or maybe I felt it less sweet than the other two.

I with no doubt enjoyed the Wein El Esmalieh. You pour that sweet syrup on top, get your spoon cracking through those golden pastry hitting the fresh arabic cream and the rest is history. With these kind of delicious desserts it’s difficult for me to reduce weight but if this is the case then every gram is worth the gain to me 😉

I was quite surprised to receive this complimentary hot drink at the end of our meal. It is supposed to improve our digestion process. Normally it comes as a clear drink which is you see on the left but you can add some rose water(right side) to it for Dhs 2. I enjoyed the one with the rose water in it.

Cafe Blanc facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CafeBlancAbuDhabi