La Veranda, Jumeirah Beach Hotel – wind on your face and food on your plate.

We Dubai residents definitely fuss over our winter. We celebrate three months of wonder weather with a flood of winter fashion collections, unlimited barbecue plans and open-air table reservations. So when it started feeling like a sin not to dine out and suck up as much winter as humanely possible, my husband and I picked out La Veranda for our open air Saturday lunch. It was time to eat in the company of some fresh air, cool sea breeze and friendly sun.

La Veranda

La Veranda in Jumeirah Beach Hotel is a casual beachside dining of pizza, pasta and salads. Funnily enough, pizza, pasta and salads were exactly the three items we managed to skip in our order.  Well, in my defense, I was a feeding mom with extreme carnivorous cravings at the said time, and all my eyes could focus on the menu were FRIED and SEARED. Pizzas, pastas and (gah!) salads, no hard feelings please, had to wait until next time.

La Veranda- Stepping out to the beach.

The Saturday crowd in the airy restaurant was relaxed. There was a cute birthday party going on in the beach area with little angels in swim trunks working on their sand castles. After giving our order –  Fritto Misto (mix seafood, roast garlic & caper aioli) & Fried Calamari with Lobster mayo for starters and Rosemary & Green Chilli marinated Lamb Chops & Italian herbs marinated Beef Fillet for main course, we sat back to drink in the blue waters, the magnificent boats and the view of the great Burj Al Arab.

Dining with the Burj Al Arab backdrop.

Service was quick and efficient. Our starters turned out looking tad similar, probably since they were both under the ‘fried’ category. Nevertheless, the dips and the seafood tasted lovely and the batter was fried to golden perfection.

Fritto Misto – La Veranda

The lamb chops and the beef fillet were cooked medium-well, as we had requested. The chops were a job very well done in flavors and richness. The fillet had a delicious marinade, yet I would have liked it a lot better, had it been softer to chew. Any way, the view and the ambience coaxed me into thoroughly enjoying my meal.

Rosemary & Green chilli marinated Lamb Chops.

Italian herbs marinated Beef Fillet.

Finally it was time for Ms. Sweet Tooth to raise her head. Up went the order for the Traditional Tiramisu and a Ricotta & white chocolate pudding with blueberry compote. The tiramisu was above average, if I’m describing with minimum number of words. The husband, who loves tiramisu (especially the kind drenched in alcohol), gave a thumbs-up for this one. The ricotta & white chocolate pudding was a bit too sweet to my liking, but I should probably blame it on my recent addiction to dark chocolate.

Traditional Tiramisu- La Veranda

Ricotta & white chocolate pudding with blueberry compote.

As we were celebrating a private occasion, the management decided to make our smiles broader with a complimentary serving of Chocolate almond truffle cake with raspberry compote. The chocolate was mild, so though it won’t win the applause of hard-core chocoholics, it will work fine for the normal mortals. The divine element was the raspberry compote. I did a pretty good job of scraping the last bit of it off the plate.

Chocolate almond truffle cake with raspberry compote.

It was a perfect day to gobble and make merry. Thanks to the relaxed setting, beautiful location and friendly, efficient staff of La Veranda, gobble and make merry, we did.

La Veranda- the view.

The Pricing Story:

Fritto Misto- Aed 90

Calamari- Aed 75

Lamb Chops- Aed 160

Beef Fillet- Aed 180

Spaghetti Ragout- Aed 70

Devil’s Chicken Pizza- Aed 80

Traditional Tiramisu- Aed 45

Mocktails- Aed 40

Cocktails- Aed 65

La Veranda, Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Marina Beachfront, Umm Suqeim.

Open from 11am- 11pm (on weekdays), 11am- 12 midnight (Thurs- Fri).

Ph: 04 4409300 (ext- 345)

Dresscode: Casual.