Rue Royale Restaurant Dubai – A Touch of French Flair By The Waterfront

Along the water complex of shops, fine restaurants and entertainment, the 1.5-km seaside promenade at The Pointe Palm Jumeirah may possibly spoil you for choice when it comes to deciding which eatery that would possibly tackle your palate, but Rue Royale Restaurant Dubai disseminates a touch of French Flair with their culinary delights.  mylifestylenews writes.

Nestled on the west marina of The Pointe, the location is relatively easy to get to and once you park, it’s a short walk to the promenade by following the signage that may offer you a further navigation by finding the exact locale. It sits smack bang with a perfect view of the Atlantis, The Palm alongside with the immense dancing fountain! Naturally, views are all quite well and bewitched by it especially when you choose to settled in the alfresco area.

The name is inspired by the famous street in Lyon, Rue Royale, but other than that, any other connection is tenuous. Opened in 2019, the gastronomy was brought in by the Two Michelin star chef Mathieu Viannay, the culinary mastermind behind La mère Brazier in Lyon serving French bistronomique cuisine. Viannay was brought out to Dubai to open this new concept. What the reality is - a French restaurant with a Middle Eastern “twist”. The menu was presented on a tablet where the French menu is not that extensive and the other half of the menu is given over to Iranian cuisine, with the already très French restaurant titled endorsed. We were instantly puzzled and started off the evening feeling a little bit apprehensive.

The interiors at first glance seemed quite polished, but after looking at the finer details, some things just didn’t make sense. There seems to be a garden theme for the interior design reminiscent Le Jardin Secret with a hanging circular feature over the centre of the dining room, from which white cutout leaves tangling around with layers of circles adding a somehow arty touch yet not quite juxtaposing the centre light installation of glass baubles that cascade down toward the ground. Definitely not for the romantic kind, if you are looking for the typical dimmed lighting French dining ambience.

The whole dining room has an open view of the vibrant modern kitchen, each side of which is partitioned by a huge glass and wrought iron wall in the style of a French conservatory, which is quite picturesque, at least. Fabric panels of contrasting material also hang as decoration, but are hanging at different levels – not deliberately, so looking haphazard. Raised plaster reliefs in flowers motifs decorated at the corner on the walls with an attempt to create a feeling of being in a French jardine, yet rather more Moorish Spain influenced. Elegant French Christofle cutleries are used by pushing the envelope further for an up-market touch alongside with flatly ironed double layers of table cloths well set up. Across the main dining room there is an adornment with Iranian style arches and finished with modern element mosaic tiles. The neither-nor interior trying to blend in two different cultures with not so much of similarity in terms of design and décor seems rather confusing. Nevertheless, everyone loves a touch of French cuisine, don’t they? We certainly do. So we decided to clear our minds of the confusing messaging and as the name Rue Royal suggests, we definitely opted out of the Iranian menu option and kept our focus squarely on the designated French menu instead and placed our order.

<Stuffed Mushrooms>
This dish is a baked portobello mushroom topped with a snow bed of grated parmesan, buffalo mozzarella and parsley, served with lightly grilled and tossed zucchini. A delicious combination of ingredients with the mushroom redolent of the forest floor and a generous portion as well, it is delightfully fresh on palate and simply delicious.

 
<Tartare de Boeuf a la Francaise>
This presentation was a timbale of small, diced pieces of beef that were nicely seasoned and tender and a pleasing taste on the palate. The Dijon mustard also provides a pleasant kick on the bite yet less dominating nor too pungent which is another blessing.
 

<Citron Escalopes>
These pan-fried scallops came in a lemon supreme confit with butter and fresh baby spinach. The scallops were well seasoned and nicely seared to a light burnt crust on top complimented by a zesty butter citron sauce and whole peppercorns, the leafy spinach counter balanced the citrusy sauce and harmonized the entire dish. The scallop could be easily cut with just a touch of the knife. Nicely done and highly recommended!

<Citron Chicken Supreme>
This chicken dish is delightfully presented with a bed of sautéed colorful spring vegetables – baby carrot, snow peas, string beans and broccoli as well as round baby potatoes. The grilled chicken breast and thigh marinated on lemon and herbs may need more time to soak in the flavour as it was rather bland in taste. The aroma of the lemon sauce was the first stimuli for the appetite but the breast was rather dry. The dish overall was very enjoyable, plus the vegetables were cooked to perfection. That is always a challenge to master a chicken dish as such where the breast meat is cooked to perfection but the thigh is still uncooked evenly inside or the breast meat is rather overly done while the thigh remained moist and tender. And the latter was presented to us.

<Boeuf Rossini >
This dish is such a classic – a beef fillet with pan-fried duck liver atop all sitting on a bed of potato pancake and drizzled with truffle sauce. The presentation was stunning but on first bite, that ‘wow’ factor didn’t occur – the meat was not as tender as it should have been and was quite grainy, chewy and slightly dry despite it was cooked to our medium rare liking. The lightly crusty pan seared potato pancake turned out to be the star of this dish that was utterly delicious and unfortunately being let down by the rather bland, stale and uninteresting duck liver.

 <Entrecôte Boeuf Grilled Black Angus >

This was by far the highlight of the evening and the kitchen nailed this dish. The beef came with two sauces – honey glazed soy and mushroom – and a side of fries (how could you not have fries with a premium cut of entrecôte which is quintessentially French in all regards). The Black Angus is incredibly flavoursome, with a well balance of meat and fat perfectly cooked as requested. A gentle slice with the sharp steak knife is all you need to enjoy such beauty. When a premium cut is offered on the menu, usually, you do not need much accompanying sauces but Rue Royal has its way to tempt you by enjoying the meat without leaving any drop of the devlish-ly homemade sauce. A must order!
 

<Mille Feuille>
Our supposed last taste of the evening and it finished on a high note with the caramelized flaky and crispy puff smoothly stuffed with the cream filling ice cream, which was equally delicious. A classic French dessert carried off with panache!
  

<Dessert Buffet >
A dessert ‘buffet’ platter of cut fresh fruits, mango cheesecake, madeleines, pecan nuts, pistachio choux pastries, macarons and marble cake was delivered to us by surprise. This is what they serve for afternoon high tea, beautifully presented, neatly aligned in order and joyfully worth a snap shot! While we were not enthused about every bite, overall a great value and a wonderful way to try out a multitude of different flavours from their dessert selection.

While we had hesitation at the beginning and now the apprehension is no longer required on the culinary front, it seems that the kitchen brigade can create and deliver a fair French flair from a couple of dishes that we have sampled. Some ingredients need a bit of tweaking and some dishes are highly recommended. Feruz, our server was attentive, but a bit more in depth product knowledge would be an advantage. Being a ‘dry’ restaurant (no alcohol being served) was a bit strange for us and to many other diners (perhaps) as French cuisine and refined wines go hand in hand for an enchanting dining experience but if that is not a deal breaker, then you can avail yourselves of some tasty mocktail concoctions to add a bit of colour to your table for pairing some refined gastronomy, and then some…in Rue Royal’s surprising fusion and unique way of dining experience.

Tried & Tested:

Location: 3.8/5

Design & Decor: 3/5

Food & Beverage: 3.8/5

Service: 3.5/5

Value For Money: 4/5

Experience: 3.8/5

 

Highlights:

Entrecôte Boeuf Grilled Black Angus

Rue Royal Restaurant Dubai

Palm Jumeirah

The Pointe Buiding #12B

Palm Jumeirah Road

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Tel: +971 4 241 2828

Reviews are based on actual day of visit and experience. mylifestylenews reserves the right of final decision in case of any disputes. All images are photographed by mylifestylenews team without any photoshop enhancement and are the property owned by mylifestylenews unless otherwise stated.