ana – The Dubai Mall – Dubaicravings.com

Starters at ana Restaurant, The Dubai Mall

Emirati restaurants have always stuck to their classic hits but ana imagines beyond the regular roots and can be easily considered as a modern Emirati restaurant. Ana elevates the experience with their creative cooking, blending different worlds together in a particular dish and food is actually a work of art in here and surely instagram worthy. They have now introduced new dishes by experimenting recipes to give diners a unique experience. This is a restaurant that you must visit if you need to find a change from the regular menu and get some exciting flavours for your palate. It will also be the first restaurant that will provide perfumes to use at the end of meal which is a part of Emarati tradition to apply perfumes on guests before they leave their home.

Interiors – ana Restaurant, The Dubai Mall

Balcony seatinga and view from Ana, The Dubai Mall

The restaurant feels airy and spacious with high ceiling, different kinds of seating and very much suitable for group of people or a celebration. The views from their balcony faces the tall Downtown Dubai buildings as well as the wide view of the dancing fountain. The restaurant wall has a soft touch of pastel colors and is pretty as their food. One thing we noticed was, even though a new restaurant, their gold cutleries seems to be wearing out already.

Passion Fruit Martini – AED 34 – orange juice, passion fruit, lime and lemon

Saffron Cheesecake Milk Shake – AED 36 – Saffron, Vanilla ice cream, fresh milk, cream cheese and cardamom

We started with their signature drinks. They were just unbelievable. We were so glad we ordered the passion fruit Martini from their long list of drinks menu, it’s a drink designed to be with you till the end of your meal. Usually the quantity of the Martini drink is just limited to the size of the martini glass, but in this case the frozen juice is heaped on top which just melt with time and was a perfect companion throughout our meal at the restaurant. I even enjoyed holding the matte finished glass. All their drinks came in a matte finish material which made them look and feel very elegant. The saffron cheese cake milk shake was one of a kind. If you’ve had hot saffron milk before, it’s similar but this one’s cold and thick which is a sheer joy in every sip. As their compliments you get hot breads and Arabic dippers which was pretty good and the freshly baked breads are commendable.

Ash Soup – AED 47 – Herbs based soup served with kishk sauce and topped with crispy onion

Dill Kashmiri – AED 45 – Dil bread filled with potato, green moong sprout, fried bread and chick peas topped with yoghurt sauce, mint chutney and mia tamarind sauce

Burrata and Pepolata – AED 51 – Bell pepper sauce, orange pistachio, pomogranate seeds, burrata cheese, sesame seed and sumac

Prawns Samoosa – AED 45 – Crispy dough stuffed with prawns rogout served on labneh, yoghurt sauce with pomegranate seed and sumac

Prawns & Calamari – AED 54 – fried shrimp and calamari coated with flavoured tempura and dipped in mayonnaise chillis sauce

The soup was a good start. It reminds us of the typical Iranian soup. The Indian starter was fabulous which was the Dill Kashmiri. Even an Indian restaurant might not be able to deliver this well. I thought it was one of the best chaat we’ve had. Absolutely worth an experience, a little bit sweet and a little bit tangy. The burrata salad was majestic. It was a new taste and combination which we haven’t seen lately. This is a must try if you are looking for something different. The prawn samoosa came pretty in the middle of a yoghurt sauce, beautifully decorated with pomegranate seed and sumac. Note the samoosa isn’t crispy which is fine but we felt the prawns inside these samoosa haven’t been as catchy as their other dishes in taste. I think they need to rethink the formula for this one. You get some nice king sized shrimp and calamari as starters which comes heavily dipped in their mayonnaise chillis sauce, as they come dipped they feel a bit soggy but you will still enjoy these seafood fries very much, thanks to the luscious sauce.

Rose Rice Lahem – AED 63 – Saffron rice, almond pistachio, dried barberry served with beef shawarma, tahina sauce, mix nuts and fried onion

Mbahar Lamb – AED 89 – slow cooked lamb shank in creamy curry sauce served with saffron rice and fried onions

The rice dishes are a specialty here. You need to try the Rose Rice dish which comes with either chicken or beef shawarma. It was just amazing with plenty of nuts, dried berries, beef shawarma. Ofcourse there was much more in it, but all these content together makes this rice dish very different and great tasting. The one thing we appreciated from the Mbahar lamb was the tender lamb in it which was succulent and juicy. The lamb would just easily cut off your cutlery. The interesting catch to the Mbahar lamb dish was that they made the masala out of the famous Madras curry hence it’s yellow in color with a decent touch of spice.

Freeze Dance – AED 47 – fluffy cake served with hot triple milk sauce, cheese cream, chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream

The Freeze dance is actually a milk cake that had some extra content such as the ice cream and chocolate sauce. I think you really don’t need the ice cream and the rich chocolate sauce.The soft cake that came soaked in the hot triple milk sauce was pretty good enough to enjoy. Also those crisps floating in the milk made the dessert even better. The ice cream was cold and hard, didn’t think it was really needed. It also makes it difficult to cut the cakes as it came in between. We then ended our time at ana with a fresh hot Arabic coffee which was pretty good and refreshing. I thought it was the perfect ending to our lunch at ana.

Qahwa Emirati – AED 47 – Arabic Coffee with cardamom and saffron

Perfumes to spray as an Emarati Hospitality before leaving the restaurant

We were a little surprised to see a selection of perfume put on our table. These were local perfumes that are provided to diners at ana to use before they exit the restaurant as part of their hospitality. Click here to visit their official website. Click pictures below to see them in full screen view: