The Park Hyatt’s Beach House has long been one of the most romantic places in Abu Dhabi to catch the sunset across the Gulf, maxing and relaxing on the restaurant’s cosy rooftop with drink in hand. Now there’s another reason to visit: the terrace has just reopened after a summer break necessitated by the scorching temperatures, and The Beach House has a new menu to coincide. We went along to try out the latest additions.
The focus is on Mediterranean dishes – Spanish, Italian and French dishes feature particularly heavily – with two separate sets of selections. On the rooftop, tapas is the order of the day: the best alfresco light bite we sampled was definitely the pulpo alla gallega (tender octopus on a bed of sliced potatoes) with paprika, olive oil and “snowflakes” salt. For anybody who, like us, is a sucker for truffles in any form possible, the Spanish truffled chicken croquetas were a close second.
Downstairs in the cool of The Beach House’s indoor dining area, the size of the dishes went up a notch. There were plenty of refreshing salads, including the watermelon and feta with marinated red onions, but seafood was the true staple. We couldn’t find much to fault in the seared Gulf tuna fillet, the linguine alle vongole (linguine with clams), the rock lobster risotto with saffron and parsley, or the shellfish casserole, overflowing with mussels, razor clams and more (regular) clams.
To top it all off, there’s a locally sourced angle to the oceanic ingredients used, not least in the grilled catch of the day, which was a sizeable sea bream when we visited.
• The Beach House is open daily from 10am to midnight. Dinner is served from 6.30pm to midnight. For reservations, call 02 407 1138 or email restaurants.parkhyattabudhabi@hyatt.com. For more information, visit www.abudhabi.park.hyatt.com
The National was a guest at this restaurant.
aworkman@thenational.ae
