With the UAE fast becoming a hub of a vast range of dining and entertainment experiences to choose from, Maison Rouge offers a twist to your traditional dining experience and enriches visitors with a delight of food and cabaret entertainment along with a big live band.
When you first step your foot into the venue, it looks like you’ve entered a 1940’s New York gourmet restaurant in a 5 star hotel. Everything, from the interiors to the menu and even the food, is RED! The dining chairs are vintage velvet and the tables are sharp and sleek, straight out of Rick’s Café in Casablanca (1942). Once inside the restaurant, we encountered the longest kitchen counter to have ever existed. The whole counter is divided into a play station for a DJ, a cocktail bar and an outlet that lets you peek into the kitchen where live cooking takes place.
The manager greeted us warmly and we were shown through to the spot where we would be seated to experience the rest of the evening.
To counter all that red, soft spotlights were used to balance out the overpowering interiors and the ceiling was jet black. We were greeted by our waiter and briefed about the intercontinental menu. The menu is truly rich and served the best dishes from 5 culinary destinations of the world.
We were especially thrilled to try their lemongrass Pina Colada, which is unlike anything you’ll ever taste in the whole of Dubai. The fresh taste of lemongrass and ginger perks up the sweet notches of the coconut flavor in the drink.
We were then served Salmon cubes with avocado and an Italian cheese ball. Both were truly sensational as appetizers.
The star of the evening was definitely the 24 karat red velvet burger coated in edible gold leaf. The red of the bun and the taste of the soft chuck beef was out of this world. The bacon and the white swiss cheese amped up the flavour of the burger.
The next was the Kerala Shrimp curry; an Indian dish that tasted like a fusion of coconut and melon shrimp combined with cumin rice. Truly spectacular! As and when we moved from one item to another, the flavours got richer and more exotic, packing a punch with each bite…
The desserts were definitely wholesome as expected. The Maison Rouge cheesecake was coated in red marzipan and tasted like dense cream velvet; it had that fine cheese linger to it that lasted the whole evening. However, what takes the cake is the honey cake! The honey cake was super moist and very rich with amber honey flavor to it coated in caramel topping.
As soon as we were done eating, the performance kicked in!
We saw a red velvet clad cabaret dancer swinging around the centre stage of the restaurant while a jazz band gave out notes to accompany her performance. She had wings attached to her back and greeted us all warmly as she swung around leaving a trail of fresh citrus scent and flyover feathers around our table…
As soon as she left us, we were greeted by a card magician for a trick and play. He then bids his farewell and beyond him appears a violinist wringing out tunes from modern pop hits. Unlike the red theme that runs through the restaurant and costumes of the other performers, the violinist is dressed in a silver dress and her blonde hair is left loose. She took requests of our favorite songs and created a violin rendition of each of them. It was definitely an evening to look forward to after a hard day of work!
The food – just like the live entertainment – was a uniquely wholesome and thoroughly enjoyable experience unlike any other I’ve experienced in the UAE.
Our Final Verdict: We highly recommend this place to people who take food and entertainment seriously. Maison Rouge does not disappoint… Keep in mind that this is strictly an evening oriented place and the venue opens at 8 pm every evening.
Comments