A Fish Foodies Fantasy

I first visited Ocean Basket in City Centre Mirdif Mall, Dubai last October when I had the pleasure of interviewing the CEO Grace Harding and Fats Lazarides who was the founder.  At the time they treated to me to lunch and I have been set on returning with my family since.

Finally, on Saturday we did return.  The sandstorm meant that Ian had to cancel training and the only thing to do in order to avoid the fact that there was more sand in our house than in the desert, was hit a mall.  Having not been to Mirdiff we chose there and subsequently ate at Ocean Basket.

Ocean Basket, Mirdif
 Mall

Throughout the interview with Fats and Grace, they mentioned on numerous occasions how important quality of food was.  That they wanted excellent food, at a very reasonable price, “Simple, delicious food that makes people want to return is what we strive for,” said Fats.  And this is exactly what they have achieved.

On a busy Saturday afternoon, as we hadn’t booked in advance, we were asked to wait for 10 minutes whilst they cleared a table that would shortly be finishing.  The clean canteen like restaurant was full to the brim of people.  I loved that they under promised, a trick that all front of house staff could learn, because within 5 minutes we were sat at our table with menus provided for us. 

The bread, butter and dips (I loved the incredibly hot chili oil, and my daughter couldn’t get enough of the tartar sauce), were brought quickly to our table whilst they took the drinks order. 

Platter for 2

With a huge variety of seafood available, Ian and I settled on a Platter for 2, which consisted of 6 mussels, 12 prince prawns, 2 fish fillets, calamari and calamari heads.  It comes with chips and rice.  I was a little dismayed though as when ordering, we had been asked if we wanted to upgrade our prawns.  I did think this a bit odd; especially when I could have sworn the waiter at one stage said that we could do this if we pay an additional 100aeds.  Needless to say, we declined as I clearly recalled being told that quality at a reasonable price is key and with this in mind, we shouldn’t have to pay an increase for prawns.

The fish and seafood is cooked very simply, sautéed in butter.  The Mussels, which I literally had to fight my husband for, were cooked to perfection in a garlic cream sauce.   The prawns were slightly smaller to others, we saw leaving the kitchen, which people must have paid the increase for, but they were delicious, having been grilled lightly.  The calamari was superbly cooked.  Not one piece was chewy, and with my husband not being a fan, I was happy to be left to eat these all myself.

The Platter for 2 is such a large dish, that despite sharing it between our two year old, and ourselves we just couldn’t finish what was on the plate.  The staff were very quick on this and offered to provide a doggy bag so I was able to finish this off later.