Simply Abu Dhabi VI

2 0 3 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I W hen you visit the stunning Asia de Cuba restaurant, in St Martins Lane, it feels as if you could be anywhere in the world. It oozes that ultra-cool cosmopolitan feeling, that can only be found in hip and chic cities such as Abu Dhabi, Dubai, London, Hong Kong, New York and Los Angeles… For global travellers with a cultured palate and a love of variety, Asia de Cuba restaurant, overseen by renowned international restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow, combines elements of Asian and Cuban cuisine served in a sharing style within this high energy London restaurant. Housed in a dramatically colonnaded space, Asia de Cuba's innovative menu is matched in its surroundings by a dramatic series of soaring art columns. Asia de Cuba creates a five star backdrop with stylish and opulent surroundings earning its reputation as one of the most impressive venues in London. It has that eclectic vibe fused with a magnetism and attraction that can only be described as a dining haven. It’s a venue with a real presence and a present to be there! Our experience: The crowd is diverse as there is a mixture of characters with backgrounds ranging from the freshest and funkiest fashionistas on the scene to the refined and stereotypical Cheslea toffs. The food; it’s all about sharing the love. The sharing style menu, which encourages guests to order a variety of dishes, works brilliantly. They focus on the shifting in diners' perception of what it means to share food with one another. The ideology brings to life the concept that it's not only how food is prepared, but more importantly, how food is shared, served, and enjoyed. On our visit we were greeted with the newly launched menu for 2012. To start Arnie and I went for the spiny lobster and fresh hearts of palm Cajou, a Thai beef salad which consisted of a mouth-watering spicy seared Carpaccio of beef tenderloin which was devoured faster than our eyes could blink, accompanied with the Tunapica - a tuna tartare on wonton crisps. We wanted more but we had to leave room for our mains and boy was it worth it! We dived into the deepest ocean of culinary delights by opting for the sustainable Chilean sea bass, the Cuban barbeque chicken which was beautifully married off with Thai coconut sticky rice and avocado cilantro fruit salsa with a tantalising tamarind sauce. The star of the show for us had to be the wagyu char sui beef short ribs in chili orange salsa. These ribs were cooked to perfection and our taste buds were truly pampered with every wonderful mouthful of this tender and perfectly cooked beef. The Dessert: You will have a difficult time finding something on the light side in the dessert menu, which like most sweet menus is overflowing with heavy sounding gateaux-like concoctions. In the end we opted to share the Mexican Doughnuts, ten delightful and deliciously prepared puffed brioche balls, which were infused with butterscotch sauce and served with fresh dulce de leche. Asia de Cuba delivered on every account, service, cuisine and ambience, we will be back soon but for now…. Next stop: The gym! For more information visit the official website at: http://www.stmartinslane.com Spicy Hamachi Swordfish Ceviche Scallop Tataki Salmon Civiche