Ariana’s Persian Kitchen

Ariana is the latest arrival to the Iranian culinary scenery in Dubai. The restaurant is by Chef Ariana Bundy who has a TV show and is a cook book author living in Los Angles. This is her first restaurant. The restaurant serves Persian cuisine with a modern and refined take. The starters were very good particularly the Whipped Lighvan. The Kashke Bademjan and the Mirza Ghassimi were both ok. The Gheymeh Bdjn and the Ghormeh Sabzi were also good. The Iranian bread, however, was served cold and thick to the extent that it was unedible. The Kabab Barg was excellent but the Koobideh was on the dry side and almost burnt. The jewelled rice was a good innovation but the plain rice served with the stews was very dry and not to the standard. The desserts were ok. The Faloodah was poor; more of an ice than Faloodah and the combination of raspberry ice cream was not good and did not substitute for the traditional lemon juice. It’s also lacked saffron. The Iranian baklava was good. The service was very poor and completely disjointed. They served the starters then they forgot about us for almost 30 minutes until we had to remind him to serve the mains. They served that mains, but again forgot us completely until we had to call them again. They took the order for the desserts and the tea and forgot to serve the tea. The manager came to ask us about the food and we told him that we have not tried it yet so he said he will come back to check once we have tried it. He never came back. It was obvious that he was just doing a duty rather than a genuine check up. Overall, it is a good offering with stylish seating, but it will have to improve if it wants to compete with other Iranian restaurants in the town.