I am a big fan of Thai based Anantara Resorts and Hotels which has properties world wide. Recently I had the pleasure of dining at their award winning restaurant in The Palm Dubai.
Named after South East Asia’s famed river Mekong, it is the signature restaurant of Anantara The Palm. Mekong offers a culinary journey to Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese cuisine.
Here’s what Anantara The Palm have to say about Mekong Restaurant:
Experience the vibrant culinary cultures of Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese cuisine at Mekong, our resort’s signature dining venue. Named after South East Asia’s legendary river, Mekong offers a journey infused with rich and flavorful discovery. Indulge in authentic eastern recipes at rickshaw-style seating and oriental tables, or reserve the discreet private dining room which is perfect for intimate celebrations.
When we arrived at the restaurant on Saturday evening, it was busy, mostly with the resort guests and few residents. We were soon escorted to our table and handed a large book like menu.
About the ambience
Entering inside the restaurant, we felt like we were on a holiday in South East Asia. Loved the vibrant and traditional decor of the spacious venue.
Mekong offers various kinds of seating arrangement. The rickshaw style seating in their outdoor terrace seems to be most popular as most of the guests wanted to be seated there.
Drinks
We started with drinks first. Their wine list is impressive. Apart from that they have a good selection of cocktails, mocktails, fresh juices and other spirits. They have a separate signature cocktail list too. We ordered couple of drinks from that list.
Flaming Rickshaw is their most popular cocktail. It had a small ceramic rickshaw kind of container with pure guava, fresh pineapple, two different rums, orange liqueur and a flaming piece of passion fruit.
This drink is good for sharing between two people and can be made without alcohol too. The Flaming Rickshaw is a super refreshing and tasty drink. A must-try cocktail at Mekong.
Angry Bird was another exotic drink that was served in a bird cage. It was a vodka based drink with passion fruit, fresh lemon and mandarin orange. The drink was light and delicious.
Food
We were offered a complimentary platter with various ingredients like onions, lemon, peanuts etc where we have to wrap all the ingredients inside the leaf and eat it. This is supposed to be good for digestion.
The menu is vast and varied, but the veg options are limited. For starters, we ordered Papaya Salad, Veg Spring Rolls and Crystal Veg Dumpling. Our starters were good, the Crystal Veg Dumpling was the stand-out dish among the starters. The bite sized dumpling was stuffed with minced veggies like shiitake mushroom, oyster mushroom, baby corn and snow peas. It had that delicious melt-in-your mouth quality to it.
Main Course
Thai Yellow Curry with veggies was creamy, spicy and delicious.
The Phad Thai that we ordered was disappointing. It was too sticky and tasted extremely bland.
Steamed Baby Bok Choi is a simple dish and you can’t go wrong with that.
We were served freshly made white and black Jasmine Rice to go with our meal.
Dessert
Sticky Rice with Mango is a classic Thai dessert that I love. But at Mekong, it wasn’t that good. The sticky rice was not sticky enough and neither was it sweet enough.
But thankfully the other Thai dessert Tub Tim Krob made with coconut milk and water chestnuts was amazing.
Food at Mekong is hit and miss when it comes to vegetarian food. The cocktails were outstanding. The service was super slow, it took a while for the food to arrive, I know it was a busy night. But still we expect good service from a restaurant of that calibre. The atmosphere is gorgeous.
For reservations:
Phone: 04 567 8304
Email: mekong.dubai@anantara.com
megsblogged.com 