Last week on October 22nd, Ian and I went on a date night to Anar restaurant in the Madinat Jumeirah. The restaurant, serving traditional Persian food, is set on one of the canals next to the traditionally built souk, lined with palm trees lit up at night by fairy lights, with the Burj Al Arab framed at the end of the canal.
With a myriad of restaurants to chose from, we used The Entertainer as a guide and settled upon the Anar. Luckily, we booked our table in advance and were given by far the best table, right on the waters edge, away from those using the canal path as a walkway and without being on top of other diners.
On arrival the staff were polite and friendly. Their knowledge about the food was also very good. To start we chose to share the Kofte Anar. Luckily for us, this was a good choice as it served with a large salad, cheese and lots of bread, and after being asked if we had eaten Persian food, to which we relied no, we were told to eat it sandwich like with lots of sauce.
The lamb was beautifully spiced, and the pomegranate provided an explosion of sourness that offset the flavours of the lamb very well. We didn't use too much sauce; which was a pomegranate sauce and was a little too much for me when used too heavily as it is rather bitter. Luckily, as it was to the side of the dish, this was entirely to your taste.
The staff convinced me to have a Anartini cocktail, which I admit, did not take too much convincing, and at 49aeds was not expensive. It was however very strong. We are not talking paint stripper type strong, but it did take a few mouthfuls before you stopped pulling a face as though you are sucking on a lemon, when drinking it.
This, plus the bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, 200aeds, meant that I had stopped taking mental notes of our main course and Ian became funnier. For his main course, Ian had the Soltani (a huge lamb kofte) which he just could not finnish, with a selection of three different powdered chutneys which were too bitter for his taste. I had a Khoresht Anar which is a sweet and sour lamb stew served with rice and jewels of pomegranate seeds. As with Ian, the size of the serving beat me and I had to leave some of the food.
I would love to talk more about how good this food was (Ian and I both agreed that we would come back), but sadly the cocktail and glass of wine meant that everything is a little too hazy apart from my repeating that I would definitely be eating there again.
The Madinat Jumeirah is very chilled in the evening with holiday makers strolling about trying to figure out where to eat, and made us feel as though we were on holiday. when we arrived, Anar was busy, but by the time we left at 10pm, every table was taken; The same can be said for all of the other restaurants along the waterfront.
There were lots of people with families in tow. You are even able to take a boat trip along the canals which only last about 15 minutes. This is on my list of things to do with my neices and nephews (the baby ones at least). It is quite sweet seeing the kids wave to you as they go past on the miniature dhows.
Total Bill:
1 Kofte Anar 58aed £ 9
1 Soltani 185aed £29
1 Grilled Veg 30aed £ 5
1 Anartini 49aed £ 7
1 Sauvignon Bl. 200aed £32
1 S.Pelligrino L 30aed £ 5
Total inc tax 607aed £95
It should be noted that I have not included my main course which was 1 Khoresht Anar and cost 120aed or £19. This was removed from the bill we used a voucher which gave us the cheaper main course for free (BOGOF). We can also use our Emirates Platinum Discount Card here, but on this occasion, using the voucher was better for us.
Yes,
we would be going back. Madinat Jumeirah is a must visit for any
tourist and will be perfect for us to take our families. You can start
off having a shop in the souk, and finish off with a drink in one of the
many restaurants and yes we would definitely recommend the Anar.
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