Rhodes Mezzanine Grosvenor House West Marina Dubai Tel: 04 399 8888 Average price for two: Dh800-900 Gary Rhodes has had an eventful career. His first big job came in Amsterdam, where he was hit by a Transit van after narrowly avoiding an oncoming tram. The accident was serious, causing Gary to undergo brain surgery, which lead to the temporary loss of his sense of smell - a disaster for a chef. Following his recovery in the late 1980s, he was unleashed upon the British public as a TV chef - an explosion of young energy, all waving arms and six-inch spiky hair.
Fast forward 20 years - and a glut of TV series, a batch of cookbooks, several successful restaurants and a host of Michelin stars - to Dubai in 2007. Gary Rhodes was in the city, his spiky hair considerably tamed, for the grand opening of Rhodes Mezzanine. He was being dragged around a hot and stinky fish market by me for a photo shoot. I can personally vouch that his sense of smell was working perfectly on that occasion.
On that day he turned a handful of prawns and a couple of hammour fillets into something truly inspired, a simple seafood dish full of bright and exciting flavours. And he was just at the beginning of turning Mezzanine from a generally lacklustre contemporary British restaurant into another Rhodes success story. Following one seasonal menu change back in March, Rhodes and Paul Lupton, Mezzanine's executive chef, would probably agree that the restaurant is still evolving. So on our latest visit we were eager to chart its progress. Rhodes may have shortened his spikes but has his Dubai venture still got a sharp edge?
Rhodes Mezzanine's distinctive white dining room still glowed in occasional bursts of warm orange, minty green and blushing red hues - a necessary embellishment to prevent the restaurant from resembling a hospital, albeit an eccentric one. The service was still impeccable - from the moment we arrived to the moment we left, we were given the VIP treatment. The amuse bouches were every bit as good as the last time we were here, especially Rhodes' famous frothy white tomato soup. But what surprises would the summer menu reveal?
The answer was not many and not all of the changes were successful. For example, I was dismayed to discover the exclusion of Rhodes' signature jam roly-poly, an exquisitely rich and stodgy traditional English pudding. Perhaps it was a touch too heavy in the grip of a boiling summer, but who cares what's going on outside when you're being buffeted indoors by the air conditioning? I cheered myself up with the intensely fishy smoked haddock welsh rarebit risotto, which was as rich and comforting as a six-foot teddy bear stuffed with Dh500 notes. Meanwhile, my dining partner was quickly deconstructing the artfully arranged warm langoustine with scallops and caviar-dashed hollandaise sauce. Both starters occupied familiar territory, but why change a winning formula?
Knowing that British food can be as heavy as the average Briton, my companion opted for the light red mullet. It was delicately crisped on one side and moistly fleshy on the other, and came with a lively tomato, fennel and saffron sauce. Being British, I was undeterred by the notion of heartiness, and opted for the lamb. The sliced roast loin was cooked to pink perfection and placed on a melting bed of spinach next to some creamy broad beans and a fluffy log of mutton and potato hash. Drool Britannia!
Irked that there was no jam roly-poly to wrap my nostalgia up in, I chose the next best thing: bread and butter pudding. Toasted lightly on the top and lusciously creamy on the bottom, the sodden bread with sweet sultanas and vanilla ice cream was like school dinner heaven. My friend's chocolate pudding with Bailey's ice cream and chocolate sauce was every bit as rich and obscenely gooey. Rhodes was rocking. And on this showing, his Anglophile antics at Mezzanine will continue on its steady course to greatness. As long as he continues to avoid Transit vans.
