Restaurant review: truffle mania at Caramel on Saadiyat Island

Caramel is a good, albeit pricey, business lunch spot for Sadiyaat's workers – so long as you don't mind having truffle oil on everything.

Caramel restaurant on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi. Courtesy Caramel Abu Dhabi

When a shopping district is called “The Collection”, you know it’s going to be expensive. From DNA, a shop that sells “Bioaesthetics”, to a Spinneys that is about 13 per cent more expensive than the one in Khalidiya, this retail space on a newly finished development on Saadiyat is premium. So it’s likely that such a location makes it ill-suited for a quick lunch break.

Caramel is in a corner of The Collection. It is not a cheap lunchtime destination. A three-course meal with trimmings cost Dh320, with mains at around Dh150 each. Steak, or lobster, or a dish that combines both, will set you back that day’s “market price”, whatever that is. It is unlikely to be a steal.

For starters, my lunch review colleague and I shared a tuna pizza and King Crab tacos with fresh salsa. The tuna pizza had a paper-thin, crispy base, with a thin layer of tuna carpaccio and a mild mayonnaise flavoured with ponzu, a Japanese citrus. Slathered generously over the top of the tuna pizza was truffle oil. The flavours of the tuna and ponzu were mild; the truffle oil was like a mushroom-flavoured shotgun blast to my tongue.

I don’t like truffles. My colleague pointed out that whether you like truffles or not is partially genetic. To some they taste divine; to others, like dirt.

I looked at the menu, and the preponderance of truffle products struck me. From macaroni cheese with truffle oil to beef carpaccio with truffle oil, via penne pasta with truffles, bolognese with truffles, and fish and chips with truffle mayonnaise, it’s clear that someone at Caramel really, really likes truffles.

Perhaps the chef mistook the price of the fungus for an indication of its popularity.

We ordered mains from the truffle-free menu items. This reduced the possible number of main meals by almost half – from nine to five. It was, of course, possible to order any of these main dishes with a side order of forest mushrooms, or creamed spinach with black truffle yoghurt.

q&a not all about truffles

Enough about the truffles. What else did you eat?

I had many kinds of fish: seared Chilean sea bass with shrimp risotto, lobster broth and tomato basil tapenade. This was light and subtle: perfect for lunch. My colleague, a budding triathlete, possessed by a constant lust for protein, had lamb loin with Puy lentils – an ingredient that really deserves to be ubiquitous on a menu.

And there was dessert?

Of course. My colleague, who had never eaten a crème brûlée, ordered the crème brûlée. Some people are just not cut out for the restaurant review business. I ordered a pumpkin cheesecake. I strongly believe that pumpkin cheesecake is one of nature’s greatest bounties. More importantly, it is a highly efficient sugar, dairy and cinnamon-flavoured pumpkin delivery vehicle. It was hard to fault.

How was the atmosphere?

The restaurant is very attractive, and it likely to be a sophisticated nighttime venue. Complex, angular lighting arrangements and modernist wooden panelling decorate the space. Views from the deck of windows are pleasant. Curved alcoves looked acoustically insulated, making them suitable for business conversations. A private dining area makes parties possible. The restaurant lacks Wi-Fi, which is a nuisance for compulsive business emailers with important things to communicate. But if you don’t have roaming data, you’re probably unimportant anyway.

Would you go again?

At night, for drinks. The mocktail selection and nighttime ambience can compete with any in the city. Or possibly to relax on the terrace during winter – if ever I’m on Saadiyat enjoying the beach.

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