IZU Bakery & Brasserie – Citywalk

There’s always a new restaurant or a cafe to cheer you up at City Walk. At IZU you get the joy of both as one side is a cafe and the other side is a restaurant. Sometimes it can be tough to make a choice if you want to sit in their cafe next to their ever tempting freshly baked french pastries or at the Brasserie facing their open kitchen where you can smell aroma of cooked food. Either ways, you are going to have a good time here. By the way, IZU is named after it’s Chef Izu who has successfully launched two other restaurant in Dubai.

The cappuccino here came cute with bear art. The white and brown sugar also looked like gems in a cover. Interestingly this coffee comes with a side small pieces of brownie which is really a treat!

BAKERY

There is no way you can ignore their buttery, flaky croissants , Danish pastries, cakes and other viennoiseries stretched across on a table at the entrance of IZU cafe. Quite smart of them to keep it this way with no glass barriers between me and those pastries as I just couldn’t stop looking at them, beautifully presented. My favourite would be their walnut caramel roll and the Apple tart. The bakery would be a perfect spot for those who generally enjoy eating rich puff pastry like me. Their full sized brownies are over powered by sugar that we had to quit half way.

Greek yoghurt – Aed 55 – with peach 🍑 compote, nuts & honey

Tartines were an interesting item which I bumped in here for the first time. It could be fruits or spread of vegetable such as beetroot on goatcheese and bread. Eating vegetable Tartines felt to be a good choice for a healthy tasty start to the day. The Greek Yoghurt loaded with peach and nuts is one of my favourites here for breakfast. Felt really good in the tummy after having this one.

When it came to savory there was this innovative Spanish omlette that reminded me of the quiche at a first glance. Well there was nothing wrong in taste but I would still prefer to have it the original way. The IZU steak burger was just fantastic. Everything from inside and outside was perfect. The beautiful soft bread and tender meat inside is commendable.

Brasserie

Drinks – AED 30 – from left – Sahara kiss milkshake(mango,passionfruit & vanilla ice cream) and Tropical Blush(blackberries, orange and pineapple)

Sahara kiss milkshake – AED 30- (mango,passionfruit & vanilla ice cream)

Forget about all their drinks, just make sure you go for their Sahara kiss milk shake. Tasted so pure, thick and felt like a natural dessert. Unfortunately, the tropical blush mocktail wasn’t up to the mark. The complimentary breads served at the brasserie was really nice and just make sure you ask them for the olive oil and Balsamic vinegar as they don’t seem to bring it along with the breads until you ask them and yes, they make a difference to the joy of eating breads.

Artichoke salad with grapefruit, orange, kalamata olives and rocket – AED 50

We got the right start at the Brasserie with their starters. The fresh artichoke salad was yummy filled with flavour and the fried calamari with aioli was crisp and fried to perfection and finger licking good! Except for the tentacles, we made sure to finish it all.

Diavola – AED 65 – Tomato sauce, mozzarella, spicy salami, artichokes, olives and chili flakes

The Italian dishes at IZU was impressive. The Diavola pizza was a melt in the mouth with a well baked base that would ooze cheese with right level of spice to get your mouth watering for more of it’s slices. The Ravioli was a special of the day which was tightly stuffed with prawns and asparagus that was quite heavy indeed.

Smoked Salmon fillet with grilled fennel – AED 90

Sides – Homemade french Fries(AED 22) and Sauteed Mixed mushrooms(AED 32)

The salmon tasted fresh and well smoked but I realized grilled fennel is not my company. I probably would have preferred something else to it. The additional sides were outstanding, the chili fries were hot and crunchy. The mushrooms was also worth a mention here.

Surely they have one of the best Tiramisu in town. A 100% satisfaction guaranteed. An elegant dessert soaked in rich and dark flavours of coffee & chocolate along with Mascarpone cheese. But with a tag of AED 55 for this piece of Italian dessert, I wonder how frequent we can afford to have this one. Click pictures below to see them in full screen view.