Family Friendly: Golden Mile Galleria – exploring Little Gladiators & Puff Baker Cafe.

Palm Jumeirah might be graced with a lot many attractions like the Atlantis, but of no less significance comes Golden Mile Galleria Mall, the first shopping and dining destination on the iconic landmark, perfectly set for a family friendly outing. From tastefully curated lifestyle stores to finely done cafes and restaurants, the options are varied as you trail along the elegantly arched walkways. The mall held a Fitness Festival during early November, which included family centric activities, trainings and workshops on yoga, bootcamps, rebel trainings and more. On weekends, there were full day workouts for kids and adults featuring hip hop class, drum workouts, zumba classes, circuit training etc. FoodKissed was extended an invitation to visit the mall for a customized schedule to experience couple of the varied elements that the mall had to offer to its patrons. This post hence, talks of our visit to the children’s gym and a lovely little restaurant in the mall.

Our first stop was Little Gladiators, a one of its kind elaborate gym for kids. We were supposed to undergo a session of kickboxing for Little Miss Mehreen who is, mind you, 4 years old and was quite excited about the whole deal! The session was for Mehreen and little Luca (son of Tani of OurbigDubaiAdventure). There was a warm up session, stretches and a full fledged introduction to kick boxing (well, as full-fledged as it can be for a couple of 4 year olds!). Both looked pretty serious enough throughout the session, and needless to say, that was such an endearing sight! This was supposed to have been followed by a 45 minutes swimming class and a session of virtual gaming, but since the manager was not in sight, we decided to let Mehreen join a session of gymnastics which was just beginning at the time. The girl, who absolutely loves gymnastics, had a merry time rolling along the poles and balancing on the benches.

The latter part of the mall visit was a dining experience at Puff Baker Café. Puff Baker is a contemporary family restaurant serving International dishes and has a cute, well-done zone for cooking classes for young chefs from 3 years old. We were served by Vikas, a fine lad who knew the menu and manners equally well. Our order was quite comprehensive as it consisted of soup, salad, sandwich, mains and desserts (all shared amongst us) as per Vikas’s recommendation.

The dinner began with a 1 by 2 serving of Mushroom soup, Quinoa salad and Bresaola salad. The soup was lusciously thick and the split portion size was ample enough for one person. Being not much of a quinoa fan, I took my cursory couple of spoonfuls of the salad and passed along the platter to the rest of the family. The Bresaola salad however, seeked my entire attention, what with the dried meat, the figs and the balsamic reduction. Truly what my pregnant soul needed. Only off point was the parmesan shavings which could have been fresher and softer.

We then moved on to the chicken sandwich which were thoroughly enjoyed by the guests with me, and the gratinated penne (since Orecchiette was unavailable) – a dish that was held on ransom by my daughter who is a little pasta addict. The English breakfast, which we ordered for dinner (because we can) was quite a good deal with fresh and well done eggs, enjoyably greasy veal bacon, home – made baked beans and freshly squeezed orange juice AND a nice cup of coffee.

As every dish that arrived was looked at with a sharing-agenda, we felt confident to order 2 desserts. Hence, the pain perdu and the chocolate fondant found its way to our table. Pain perdu was listed in the menu as a Puff Baker special – one bite into this dish and we understood how it earned its title. It was a greatly easy dessert to nibble on, not too strong or decadent, but simple and sweet enough to be relished. The chocolate fondant on the other hand, was not for the faint hearted as it was dark chocolate cake with a melting center – an indulgence purely for the strong-willed. Like me. Duh!

It was truly a very enjoyable dinner at Puff Baker Café and even with the already decent-looking prices, I was pleasantly surprised to see that they were on Entertainer, which would give me a Buy-1-Get-1 on main courses on regular days. The main course menu had much to offer from Chicken tagine to Shepherd’s pie and Beef tenderloin, but exploring those will have to wait until another day.

What our table saw:

Forest Mushroom Soup (AED 26)

Puff’s Special Quinoa (AED 54) – White quinoa, fresh avocado, cherry tomato, cucumber, cranberry, pomegranate, black olives, mixed lettuce and sunflower seed with Dijon mustard vinaigrette.

Bresaola Salad (AED 59) – Bresaola, Rocca leaves, grapefruit, dried fig, Parmesan shavings and walnuts with balsamic reduction.

Chicken Sandwich (AED 40) – Focaccia bread with grain fed chicken, crushed avocado, fresh tomato and orange lime dressing.

Gratinated Orecchiette chicken with light creamy mushroom (AED 54) – Orecchiette pasta with grain fed chicken and mushrooms in a light creamy sauce and gratinated emmental cheese.

Puff’s English Breakfast (AED 58) – Choice of eggs with grilled tomato, veal bacon, roasted baby potatoes and baked beans, toasted bread, coffee and fresh juice.

Puff Baker’s Pain Perdu (AED 28) – signature brioche French toast with mixed berries, vanilla whipped cream served with honey.

Chocolate very Fondant (AED 28) – Warm chocolate lava cake served with vanilla icecream.

Golden Mile Galleria has much to offer if you are looking for a laid-back weekend stroll in the mall for some good food and sunshine, especially in the company of your family. Personally for me, Little Gladiators was a good find and I’m quite keen to take my girl for a swimming class assessment one of these Saturdays. You can check out the classes, schedules and rates on their website: http://www.littlegladiators.ae/. And once I have exhausted her energy levels (IF AT ALL that’s possible!), I might take the lot down to Puff’s once more, ask Vikas to get me a nice tenderloin perhaps and look forward to another rendezvous with the pain perdu or go out with guns blazing for the salted peanut butter stack! Afterall, there’s no telling where the cravings can take us!