Weekend in Dubai - What's Katie Doing?

At the moment I’m out in Saudi Arabia a lot for work, given the restrictions in Saudi Arabia (on solo women and drinking primarily!) I jumped at the chance to spend the weekend in Dubai. It was the perfect chance to catch up with my friends who live there.

View over Dubai marina

As my friends live near Dubai marina we hung out in that area for most of the weekend. The JBR and beach walk area has developed a lot since I was there for the Miny (Miki and Jonny) wedding. One of the most striking things is how vibrant it was (admittedly I was there at the weekend when locals are out and about), and they seem to have embraced street art:

Some of the street art seen on JBR and the beach walk.

A lot of the art was part of the Immerse at the beach competition.

There’s even a colourfully painted stage area – although we didn’t see anything going on there.

The beach walk itself didn’t exist when I first visited Dubai in 2011 and now its fully developed, with beach amenities, like showers, sunbeds and toilets, plus loads of restaurants and cafes and street eats.

Quick selfie with palm tree, plus I’m showing skin!! (It felt great to be in the sun and not in an abaya!)

We first stopped at Eggspectation for ‘brunch’ (it was 2pm by the time we were seated as they had a queue, but any meal with eggs has to begin with B, right?)

I had the Bravacado – avocado with eggs, cheese and salsa, everything seems to come with garnish of fruit (healthy) and potatoes (not so healthy!)

Miki loves this place as the chain originates in Montreal, which was her stomping ground for 15 years or so 😃

We then sauntered along the beach walk to check out the market at the end and stopped for a drink and some icecream at Godiva:

They only do 2 flavours of icecream in Godiva, dark and white chocolate!

Godiva was popular with the locals – we saw a family with 4 kids fighting it out over the chocolate & fruit fondue!

Some more street art near Godiva

I think this one is my favourite street art spotted – still under construction when we were there:

Yes I’ve slapped a filter on it to make it more vibrant, but the geometrical yellow and blue is very striking!

After an afternoon relaxing we headed out to the marina for dinner and the nearby Pier 7.

On the sixth floor of Pier 7 is Asia Asia, which has an outside balcony overlooking the marina:

Great view! Now is the perfect time of year to sit outside in Dubai as it’s not too hot or humid – we even had a fresh breeze.

We left the menu ordering to Miki – Asia Asia is a fusion Asian restaurant and has everything from crispy duck to ceviche and grilled squid:

The table got pretty full pretty fast!

From top left, chargrilled squid, Hamachi ceviche, Korean steak, chargrilled asparagus.

The Hamachi ceviche is my top tip – the fish was in a yuzu sauce with truffle oil and the combination is amazing, with the yuzu cutting through the richness of the truffle.

The Korean steak was also very tasty – we had ours pretty rare and it has a bit of a chilli kick if you are sensitive to spice!

I love the atmospheric decor in the restaurant too – when you step out of the lift its dark with spot lights and many water features.

Buddhas were everywhere, along with bird cages and statues holding lights.

We enjoyed the food and the drinks – trying some of the wines by the glass and then toddled back so that Miki and Jonny could pack for their honeymoon (aka Minymoon!)

So that morning I went to meet my other good friend in Dubai – Cameo. We headed for brunch at Tom & Serg, an antipodean chain – think amazing flat whites and avocado everywhere!

My amazing coffee with latte art

Cameo ordered the fried shrimp tacos:

Cameo got stuck in!

I ordered the scrambled eggs with goat cheese and mushroom, then added extra avocado, just because!!

Served with some sriracha hot sauce!

We then debated about dessert, had a rest and then perused the cronut choices…..

More coffee, chocolate and salted caramel cronuts – luckily they had take away boxes!

A look inside the salted caramel cronut – making me feel full just looking at it!

And so concludes my culinary weekend in Dubai! Where’s your favourite place to go at the weekend in Dubai?

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Comments

if i had a superpower... says

March 30, 2016 at 12:52 am

I still haven't made it to Dubai. It sounds fascinating!

Katie Hughes says

March 30, 2016 at 11:48 am

It's perfect as a stop over if you are heading anywhere further abroad – just avoid the heat of midsummer if you want to enjoy the beach! (Eating is good year round!)

Mirela says

August 6, 2016 at 10:34 am

I will love to come back to Dubai, I only visited briefly at the end of July two years ago, it was incredibly hot and Ramadan time, so no terraces 🙂 Love this post, lots of health choices

- Katie Hughes says
  
  August 6, 2016 at 11:17 am
  
  There is so much more open in Dubai from when I first visited in 2011 😃

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