Rouge @ Hilton Capital Grand Abu Dhabi

Definitely, the best, Asian fusion, that we have had.

Being of asian backgrounds ourselves, we’ve never really wanted to go for Asian fusion because, a) authentic asian food it always, better (and cheaper) and b) half the stuff we can cook it at home, anyway!

Now we’ve definitely had our minds changed after an amazing culinary experience in Rouge.

I’ll start off with the interior of this restaurant.

I think anyone, even if they weren’t of a construction background, would be impressed with this place. Rouge lies on the 1st floor of ~~Rocco Forte Hotel (~~2015 Update, now Hilton Capital Grand) in Abu Dhabi. It’s one of the three restaurant/bars that encapsulates the atrium to the side of the building, which has a see-through glass facade, supported by white-painted steel trusses. Beautiful engineering.

It’s an asian fusion restaurant, so to the side it has tall red vases and ceramics as decor. You can see Oceana Grill which lies on the ground floor . Look up and you see a ceiling many floors above, which is actually the support structure for Blue Bar. I’m actually quite curious to know who the structural engineers were for this building! All the tables are lit by these little covers, with red LED lights. Different, and nice.

Let’s get onto the menu, the exciting part.

I started with an order of “Oriental Spice” cocktail, containing sake, lychee liqueur, lychee puree, red chilli and lime. The drink itself sounds sexy, doesn’t it, ha ha. I’ve never been a fan of cocktails but this one was so good, I was so excited to try another one after. It’s sweet, you can taste the lychee and a tinge of lime, and the spiciness only comes after it goes down your throat. Amazing.

G ordered pan-seared beef to start, which lay on top of a avocado, cucumber and haiware maki. I had the Fire-torched scallops dynamite maki with avocado and Masago caviar. This is the part where you’ll ask me, what is that? I don’t know how to describe it because I’m not a food critic, but trust me – it’s de-li-cious. I think G and I spent the whole night just talking about how good the food was. It’s the kind of food where you’ll actually close your eyes so you can cherish every morsel. Mmmmm….

Next cocktail was Kaffir Touch – Rum, pineapple, coconut, kaffir lime leaf and lime. Mm if only I can have another one right now…….. 🙂

Onto mains, G had Sea scallops, with King Crab Gratin and Edamame puree on the side. We reckon that was just average. But hang on, wait till you see what I got! – Wok-fried Australian lobster with asparagus and XO sauce. As our good friends in New Zealand would say, “orgasmic food indeed…”.

We had this with fried rice on the sides. I think you definitely need to have rice or noodles with these dishes. Otherwise it’ll be a little too salty, or strong-tasting.

We finished off the night with Green tea creme brulee to share. We were absolutely stuffed. The creme brulee was not too sweet, which was good. The green tea ice cream had a very light hint of green tea to it. I much prefer something stronger but hey, that’s me.

Night-cap for the both of us was a Long Island Ice Tea. Now, you know how when you order a Long Island in bars, you get some watered down rubbish and you can’t even taste the alcohol and they charge you a fortune for it because it’s “Long Island”? Not at Rouge! A Long Island costs 45 dirhams, which is standard – much cheaper than Dubai for sure. And it was so strong I was about to ask them to add more coke, haha. Crazy. I remember the terrible one we had in Covent Garden during our short London Days. I should tell them to learn a tip or two from Rouge. The only thing though, is that they really should use single coloured straws instead of the stripey ones because it just ‘cheapens’ the whole look for a fine dining cocktail.

This is a bit of an odd comment but we actually really liked the cutlery that they used in this restaurant. I’m sure a lot of thought came into the choices because the fork and spoons, was…. I don’t know how to describe it.. it was…. it had a very slim curved body to where it meets the head. Now that just sounds weird doesn’t it. Anyways. You get the idea. We like it. I wonder where we can get this?

You know what. If Rocco Forte was a little closer to our home, we would go back for weekend dinners, or take our friends there when they visit. Cheers again to the chef, and to the staff Moe, Vera and Yani.

It’s a bit of a stink that it’s in Abu Dhabi and not in Dubai but hey – next time we drive down there for events, I want to try the rest of the cocktails on that menu… One by one 🙂