The Boardwalk at Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club has long been a favourite with Creekside diners, and having now reopened following a 20th anniversary refurb with a new head chef and new menu, we can’t see that changing on the basis of our recent visit.
The refurb has given the interior a marina theme, alongside a fresh fish display featuring the best of locally caught and imported fish and seafood, but let’s face it, the creekside terrace is where everyone wants to be. The large terrace sits right over the creek, and although the view leaves you in no doubt you’re in Dubai, with the Downtown skyline on the opposite bank and the traffic flowing over the Al Ittihad Road bridge in the distance, the peace and quiet is almost disarming. If you close your eyes you could believe you’d travelled far from the hustle and bustle of the city and set up camp on a sand dune.
New chef de cuisine, Stefano Andreoni, is clearly a man who is passionate about food. His descriptions of his signature dishes are littered with evocative tales of his Italian home, his time as a fisherman and of course that Italian staple – his mama’s cooking. So when he suggested we place ourselves in his capable hands to guide us through the vast menu, we gladly accepted.
Andreoni has given the menu a pan-Mediterranean feel, taking in the very best of all sides of the sea, from Italian classics like pizza, pasta and calzone to Lebanese dips and Greek salads. Our starter took in a selection of the house mezze, where many dishes had benefited from a touch of Andreoni’s pan-Mediterranean fusion. The hummus, for example, came with pesto, retaining the familiarity of both flavours while somehow charting new taste territory all of its own – my dining companion was moved to remark it was the best hummus she’d ever tasted, and in my eyes the tzatziki wasn’t far behind. The Greek salad came with gorgeous, melt-in-the-mouth feta and a generous portion of the very freshest grilled calamari, while a traditional Italian bread salad and moutabel topped off the feast, accompanied with a selection of fresh bread from the restaurant’s traditional oven. We were both too squeamish to sample Andreoni’s signature chicken livers, but the more adventurous should give them a try based on the chef’s hearty recommendation.
Mains were a piquant grilled sea bass – moist, soft, fresh fish with a light spicing that was flavoursome but not too much for my spice-wary companion, and a plump, grilled baby chicken Arabian style with sides of deliciously herby fried potatoes, vegetables and seafood risotto, all of which received an enthusiastic thumbs up from both of us.
We somehow saved enough room to share the light, fluffy profiteroles for desert, and the pistachio crumble topping was another unexpected extra that we’d definitely seek out again in future.
All in all, a great evening out. All too often in Dubai, a great location is spoiled by average food, but the new Boardwalk is definitely ticking all the boxes on both fronts, and we can’t wait to go back and get started on the pizza menu.
