Taste of Abu Dhabi: Discounted dishes to try at food festival this weekend

Save up to Dh40 per item as restaurants serve their signature and child-friendly fare

Save Dh40 on Li Jiang's rock n roll spicy prawn sushi dish at Taste of Abu Dhabi. Photo: Li Jiang / The Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi, Grand Canal

Al fresco food festival Taste of Abu Dhabi returns to the capital from Friday, with a host of restaurants setting up kiosks at Yas Park 1. The three-day event will also feature cooking demonstrations, and meet-and-greets with chefs including pitmaster Hattem Mattar, chef Marco Pierre White and children's cookbook author Annabel Karmel, plus plenty of goodies to try and buy.

This year, the festival is also partnering up with Ne’ma, the National Food Loss and Waste Initiative, as its food waste reduction partner. The collaboration aims to educate festival-goers, as well as participating chefs, on on global food waste solutions in a bid to encourage individual and social responsibility, and promote sustainable practices.

The USP of the festival – as with its Dubai counterpart – however, is the chance it affords to sample signature dishes by restaurants at a fraction of their usual price. This year, most venues have also created an exclusive to Taste Abu Dhabi dish, as well as offering one child-friendly option apiece.

In the order of the savings you can make, here are 10 dishes to try (plus options for little ones).

Prawn sushi, Li Jiang

Festival price: Dh35 (save Dh40)

The Ritz-Carlton restaurant is known for its extensive (and relatively expensive) sushi and sashimi selection, which ranges from Dh65 to Dh130. At Taste of Abu Dhabi, it's serving up a rock n roll spicy prawn sushi, priced at Dh75 on the a la carte menu. The “kid-approved” dish, meanwhile, is banana spring roll with caramel sauce (Dh20).

Margarita pizza, Paradiso

Festival price: Dh30 (save Dh40)

Sometimes all you want at a festival is a cheese pizza, and this one Yas Bay restaurant does a mean (if usually pricey) margarita, with good quality tomato, mozzarella and basil. More tomato comes by way of the children's penne pasta (Dh20).

Birria tacos, Barbossa

Festival price: Dh35 (save Dh27)

The birria tacos are priced at Dh62 on the regular restaurant menu. Photo: Barbossa

A filling of slow-cooked lamb is served alongside tangy birria sauce with onions, coriander, radish and salsa verde in crisp taco shells. The Yas Bay restaurant also offers a crispy chicken and cheese flour quesadilla (Dh20) for children.

Roasted potatoes, Oak Room

Festival price: Dh30 (save Dh25)

No ordinary chips, these are roasted in Wagyu fat dripping and even served with beef gravy on the side, plus pickled onion and horseradish cream. The Abu Dhabi Edition restaurant's children's dish is a mac and cheese with mustard sauce.

Jasheed croquettes, Ryba

Festival price: Dh35 (save Dh20)

Jasheed bites are priced at Dh55 on Ryba's a la carte menu. Chris Whiteoak / The National

The Emirati restaurant at Zayed Port, which recently won two Michelin Guide accolades, combines Italian arancini with tender shark meat, dried lime, local daqoos sauce and creamy saffron mayo. Children will enjoy the mango cheesecake (Dh20) with passion fruit sauce and vanilla cream cheese.

Mussels dynamite, Desert Lotus

Festival price: Dh35 (save Dh20)

A fresh take on the popular dynamite shrimp dish, this one offers baked mussels, crabstick and fish roe slathered in spicy mayo sauce. The Al Raha Beach restaurant's dish for children, meanwhile, is chicken satay (Dh20) with peanut sauce.

Tortilla de patatas, Jose by Pizarro

Festival price: Dh30 (save Dh20)

The restaurant from Conrad Abu Dhabi Etihad Towers makes its Spanish omelette with free-range eggs and paired with caramelised onion, virgin olive oil and poached potatoes. Its child-friendly offering is a portion of chicken croquetas (Dh20).

Indomie noodles, Otoro

Festival price: Dh30 (save Dh12)

The Japanese venue by Michelin-lauded chef Akmal Anuar serves a flavour-packed noodle bowl, with veal chorizo, garlic, asparagus, onion, soy, beans pomace oil and shio kombu. The Rabdan restaurant's child-friendly dish is a chicken slider (Dh20) in a soft potato bun with Gouda cheese.

Fried feta cheese, Mika

Festival price: Dh35 (save Dh10)

Fried feta with filo is priced at Dh45 on the regular restaurant menu. Photo: Mika

You might not be saving too many dirhams, but as The National's review noted of this dish: The fried feta filo is a sharing-style nightmare. Between the crash of elbows and stampede to grab a forkful of a crunchy corner or a dunk of the honey sauce, it ends with a passive-aggressive dance-off of: “You have the last bit,” with the wife. There’s no time for chivalry, so before the last bit of fake politeness rolls off her tongue, I swoop in. The easiest way to avoid it? Order one each and tuck in while they're piping.

Bulgogi kimbap, Taon

Festival price: Dh35 (save Dh7)

The Korean restaurant from Sofitel Corniche serves its protein-heavy bulgogi with seasoned beef, egg and crabstick, mixed with carrot, cucumber, yellow radish pickle, sesame oil, sesame seeds and rice rolled with dried seaweed. The Korean-style corn dog (Dh20) for children, meanwhile, comes with a French fry exterior and chicken sausage within.