Frankie's

Frankies
Oasis Beach Tower,
Dubai Marina
Tel: 04 399 4311





Hoist the Colours! Shout it from the rooftops!

After a run of disastrous restaurant experiences I finally had a great meal in a great restaurant, huzzah and large ones all round.

Frankie’s is a tie up between the enfant terrible of the UK restaurant scene, Marco Pierre White and Frankie Dettori, His Highnesses favourite jockey.

On the ground floor of the Oasis Beach Tower in amongst the concrete jungle of Dubai Marina is this absolute gem of a restaurant. You walk into the bar area which is very comfortable and cosy and then just through next door is the restaurant. The room looks great, the tables aren’t too cramped, low lighting, lovely white tablecloths, deep pile deep red carpets, lots of plump sofas along the wall, it really is fabulous. Tasteful, elegant and creates a wonderful atmosphere.

We had an early table booked at 1930hrs as one of our colleagues had a late flight to catch. However, one of our guests didn’t actually turn up until 2130hrs (no prizes for guessing where they were from!) and this caused a few problems with the seating arrangements for Frankies operates a two shift system. However the maitre’d was unfailingly polite, very accommodating and the problem was resolved quickly and without fuss. It was all very professional.

Given Mr Dettori’s background I expected this to be a full on Italian restaurant but the menu was a bit of a Franco-Italian entente cordial, predominantly Italian but with strong French influences.

I started with the foie gras and followed with a pasta dish. The foie gras was delicious, a little overcooked for my personal preference but I am just being picky. It was accompanied by a tiny little cube of balsamic vinegar jelly but what it lacked in size it sure made up for in potency. It was the most intensely flavoured jelly I have ever tasted, it was a full frontal assault on the olfactory senses and a mere pinprick completely overwhelmed the foie gras.

My pasta dish was cooked to perfection, simple but faultless, and every little bit was scooped up.

The wine list covered a very good selection of the new world wines and I was very pleased to see that the prices were on the lower end of what is currently being charged around and about Dubai.

The service was very friendly, very professional with staff that actually seemed to not only know what they were doing but actually enjoyed doing it.

I was very impressed with this restaurant, great food, not daft prices, great service and all presented in a comfortable, elegant dining room. The pleasure was definitely enhanced by coming at the end of a two week period where I had experienced nothing but utter rubbish in some of Dubai’s supposedly best hotels. I full-heartedly recommend this place, get yourselves down to Frankie’s and have your faith restored.