ABSOLUTE BARBECUES – Dubai Media City – Buffet

Here I am at one of the most talked about restaurant recently. I’ve heard about this new restaurant many times and after reading an article in weekend magazine last week on Absolute Barbecues I thought it was high time I make a move to this place. Absolute Barbecues have just opened their first franchise in Dubai. They are doing well in India with their stores located in Hyderbard, Chennai and Bangalore. They truly believe in the spirits of barbecue and gives a unique dine in experience in Dubai.

A buffet comprising of Unlimited veg and non-veg grills, a salad bar, a long bench of main course with a variety of desserts and most importantly priced reasonably, makes this an interesting proposition. Pricing would be as below:

• Lunch buffet: Sunday to Thursday – 55Dhs
• Lunch buffet: Friday to Saturday – 75Dhs
• Dinner buffet: Sunday to Wednesday – 80Dhs
• Dinner buffet: Thursday to Saturday – 70Dhs

The seating are comfortable and a spacious restaurant. For me the only disappointment is their location where it’s in the middle of no where. It’s on sheikh zayed road but not easily accessible and visible. I drive always through that road and I never realized there was Absolute Barbecues on my right just after I pass GEMS Wellington school. Many of you who still haven’t started using Google maps might find it a little difficult to locate them initially. Some say it’s at Media city, to me it’s like at the outskirts of Dubai Media City. Parking is available below the building for AB’s customers so that’s taken care.

The center of every table you can find a BBQ grill mesh . If not in use it’s normally covered by a wooden plank and this normally happens when you go for the desserts. On every table you can find extra oil to spray onto your grills if you want your grills extra spicy or more flavoured. If you are an Indian it’s good idea to tell them you want it spicy else it’s a little bland in taste without spice.

From the drinks my favourite was the Indian tadka which felt like an internal cleanser. The last time I had this drink was from 25 degrees North. The shakes such as the mango pulp and banana bonkers where more indian in standard. In Dubai, you get some of the best shakes so I believe they have some working to do here. The shakes can get better. They had this special item called BBQ churrasco which is a big chuck of pineapple coated with cinnamon and honey which is shaved onto everyone’s plate whenever needed. In fact if you go to their official website they even tell you how to make it.

Then came the highlight of the day which were their veg and non veg starters. They bring the entire suite of veg or non veg grills together and place them on your BBQ grill found on your table. And if you want to add some extra spice and flavour to your grill, simply lift that oil spray(smoked paparika, spicy chilly)  found on your table and shoot them onto your grill smoking those grills. It’s actually fun, you are barbecuing! The taste of these grills reminded of our BBQ at parks 😀 I could easily enjoy both veg and non veg grills. The grills were brought quickly to our table. Luckily there wasn’t much waiting for the grills. The service was also quick and responsive. Most of the servers came directly from one of the AB’s Indian franchise. They spoke better hindi than english.

Some of their weekend starters

VEG

• char grilled mushroom
• BBQ grilled and Furit Chaat
• Crispy Corn
• American Cheese Potato
• Churrasco Pineappleveg

NON-VEG

• Chicken Shish Tawook
• American Mustard Fish
• Pesto Prawns
• Mutton Gilafi Seekh
• Lamb Chops and Pepper Sauce

The best part was that these grills were unlimited. The lamb chops, paneer tikka, mutton seekh, pesto prawns were some of my favourites here. By the way this is just the first set of starters. Now scroll below to find out their second set of interesting starters….

•  Wish Grill(non-veg): Turkey, Duck, Octopus, Quail, Squid and Prawn
• Wish Grill(veg): Brocooli, Zucchini, baby corn, mushroom

Just when I thought it was a great start with their starters, they introduced me to another set of starters called the wish grill. It’s little more than just grill which is you choose your meat/veg, sauces and spices. They mix it all and cook them fresh and the starters just got better. The fact that it was mixed with special sauces got the taste better. Wish grill turned out to be even better than the first set of starters which were just grills.

By the time I was done with their 2 type of unlimited starters I just couldn’t think about a maincourse now. But their salads looked interesting so grabbed a few of it. They had 2 different soups(chicken and veg), Biriyani, Curries and different types of Rotis. I wonder how many would be able to eat their maincourse after a heavy start.

They had plenty of desserts. I mainly enjoyed just two of them which was their cake and stone cold themed ice cream basically ice creams that get smashed with your chosen toppings(nuts, brownies, candy etc). Most of their desserts were a little extra sweet than needed. I think they need to just pick a few and focus on it’s quality. It’s been a fun ride at AB’s. But at the end you leave Absolute Barbecues absolutely happy eating loads of BBQ grills. Click here to visit their facebook page.