When you’re meeting the best chef in the UAE<\/a>, you are pretty much happy to meet up wherever he suggests.\u00a0 In this instance, a return trip to Al Naseem — perfect for a beautiful day in January, to Il Borro Tuscan Bistro<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 To be completely honest, I don’t usually crave Italian food — especially when dining out.\u00a0 Yes, I’m probably doing it wrong, but pasta rarely comes off as genuinely elevated to me.\u00a0 Additionally, I’ve had a few friends visit this venue with decidedly average feedback.\u00a0 Anyway, delighted with the company, I would’ve been happy to dine just about anywhere.\u00a0 With three foodies together, we all defaulted to ‘please let someone else make the decision for us.’ That is, I make food choices EVERY SINGLE TIME I go out.\u00a0 I am continually ordering for myself, my husband, and larger groups of people.\u00a0 Thus, with the briefest look at the menu, for starters, we decided on (and no, I don’t feel like writing in Italian today, so these are the choices in English): Baked Zucchini Flower (AED85), Burrata (AED88) <\/em>and Grilled Octopus (AED88)<\/em>.\u00a0 Of the group, the stuffed zucchini flowers disappeared the quickest, because, beautiful vegetables stuffed with cheese are always well received. The octopus, while beautifully plated, doesn’t get eaten as fast (we actually leave some).\u00a0 And well, burrata is burrata.\u00a0 What you see is mostly what you get, although I think variations at both Cafe Milano<\/a> and the Lighthouse<\/a> offer something more elevated.<\/p>\n

For our main dishes, not stepping too far out of traditional Italian, we tried Mushroom Risotto (AED108), Pumpkin Tortelli (AED108)<\/em>, and a Seafood <\/i>Spaghettini (AED135)<\/em>.\u00a0 The risotto was easily the best of the three and achieved everything I look for in this style of pasta — equal parts creamy, savory and a seamless inclusion of mushroom.\u00a0 The price on all of these dishes has me raising my eyebrows a bit, but I suppose they could be split between diners (or, at a minimum, enjoyed at another time).\u00a0 The tortelli\u00a0are the most beautifully plated, but the technique isn’t quite up to perfection, as we find some chewiness in the construction of the pasta.\u00a0 Similarly, the seafood pasta is nice, but not particularly memorable.\u00a0 Of the main courses, I would most likely only order the risotto again (to be fair, it was outstanding).<\/p>\n

Utterly full\u00a0from the first two courses, we decided to bypass any desserts.\u00a0 And, as we chatted, there was a lot of action at a table close to ours (pictured below).\u00a0 And then, one of the most unique (and rarest) Dubai things happened — HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and ruler of the Emirate of Dubai walked in!\u00a0 We were absolutely star struck.<\/p>\n