The Royal Rose Hotel sticks out like a gold-plated thumb in this part of downtown Abu Dhabi, its dazzling facade at odds with the rows of humdrum apartment and office blocks in Al Markaziyah, one of the capital’s oldest districts. Inside its signature restaurant, Barocco – that name hinting at its stated aim to create a “baroque ambience” – the grossly gaudy decor doesn’t let up. It’s so OTT, it’s almost impressive. Never mind the smart-casual dress code. You’ll feel dowdy in anything less than a Louis XIV costume.
The culinary ambitions are nearly as grand. Barocco’s menu filters the Mediterranean dishes of Spain, Portugal, France, Italy and Greece through a distinctly French fine-dining lens, with a clutch of Arabian dishes thrown in for good measure.
Not that the people of Abu Dhabi seem to have caught on yet: during our dinner, just one other person patronised the restaurant; several other hotel guests climbed the small flight of stairs from the lobby, looked around for a minute or so, then seemingly decided that eating at such a ritzy restaurant must be a pricey pursuit. After we ordered, the chef peeked towards our table, perhaps in shock that anybody was dining here at all.
Which is a shame, because for all the highfalutin grandeur, in a five-star hotel, Barocco isn’t regally expensive. Case in point: our starter of Spanish-influenced “la tienda” grilled octopus and boiled fava beans with paprika olive oil, at a modest Dh42 for significant chunks of meaty tentacle. Anybody who can order fava beans without (at least internally) attempting a Hannibal Lecter impression is a better person than us, though.
The Barocco crab cakes (Dh52) were the first of two of the restaurant’s self-proclaimed signature dishes we sampled. You get a somewhat paltry three cakes, and it seemed the effort that went into the accompaniments – a smear of remoulade sweet chilli sauce, five tiny pesto-embellished cherry tomatoes and a tasty apple-dominated green salad – was at the detriment of the forgettable, slightly limp crab cakes themselves.
The Cretan risotto (Dh52) restored some signature-dish pride through a taste of Greece, flavoured with lamb “juice”, aged Gruyere cheese, morsels of lamb and mushrooms, plus lemon truffle oil. It was a heady, rich combination that just skimmed the right side of stomach-swelling.
The duck with caramelised apple (Dh86) pulled off a similar trick, while concurrently cementing the feeling of dining like 16th-century Gallic royalty. The apple, in disguise as roast-potato-style servings, had bite, while the raspberry sauce was positively decadent.
Barocco’s dessert flair was arguably its crowning glory. The St Honoré (Dh32) was a delicious double-decker of puff pastry and whipped cream. The “potpourri” ice cream (Dh36) wasn’t quite as bonkers as its flowery moniker suggested, comprising a scoop each of strawberry and chocolate ice cream with a mini fruit salad and three shooter-glass-sized helpings of berry, mint chocolate and cappuccino sauces.
On this evidence, it seems that Barocco largely has a menu fit for kings and queens. The only problem now is persuading the subjects of Abu Dhabi to enter it without assuming the final bill will demand a national treasury at your disposal.
• Our meal for two at Barocco, Royal Rose Hotel, Abu Dhabi, cost Dh450. Call 02 672 4000. Reviewed meals are paid for by The National and conducted incognito
aworkman@thenational.ae
