I’ve been meaning to write about Leten since our first visit back in January with mum. It’s one of those places that you add to the ‘to-blog’ list but then get busy. It’s reasonably priced and good so you go back again for the second, third, fourth, fifth time. I think if I put the photos of me together in a timeline at Leten you’ll see me growing bigger and bigger at each visit – 90% because of the baby, 10% from the food. Okay, maybe 20% food. FYI I was actually there 2 nights before Little S came, and returned again twice since her arrival – so yea, you get my drift – it’s good 🙂
Where are they? In Dubai mall, next to TGIF, where Chopsticks used to be. And that’s the reason why we ended up there as we used to be regulars at Chopsticks for quick chinese food (after being traumatised by what was served at Ping Pong downstairs). Plus the fact that it was in the Entertainer. They also have a terrace overlooking the fountains for the cooler evenings.
What do they serve? The menu feels very homey to me – mainly Malaysian Chinese food (okay, I’ll just put in ‘Singaporean Chinese’ to acknowledge the Singaporeans reading this blog 🙂 ). Dishes like traditional nyonya curry chicken, black pepper beef, rendang lamb curry, to sweet and sour prawns.
What are our favourites? Boasting as a ‘modern asian fusion’ restaurant, these are the few dishes that we’ve had numerous times and think they do it well. Espresso Chicken, we were initially sceptical about was a nice surprise of chicken cooked with coffee sauce, covered in fragrant toasted almond flakes. Their signature Leten’s Mongolian Beef also another favourite, though not so consistent in quality i.e when they were packed over a random iftar night, you could see it was prepared in a rush. Curry Mayo Prawn and Wasabi Prawns are at a close tie (you can also get Wasabi Prawn at Shanghai Chic.. I still don’t know who does it better). I usually want to order the Cereal Prawn – have always loved this growing up back home and if you have never tried this, give it a shot – deshelled prawns fried, and tossed with cereal mix and curry leaves. From the vegetables list, we usually get the sizzling stone plate tofu, and if we dont’ get around to drive to Dubai International City to buy morning glory, then we’ll order the sambal morning glory (almost as good we our home-cooked version 🙂 ).
What could be better? We could see that the place was getting more popular each time we go. Fairly disappointed with our dinner over Ramadan that one night when my parents were here though, as they could not keep up the quality with the numbers ( staff served the wrong dish – served us the Ma Po tofu instead of the sizzling plate, and the Mongolian Beef was a bit of a wok-fried rushed dish ). Other than that, the food was always been pretty good on the other nights.
On service? Usually consistent other than the busy night, though they don’t seem to remember faces (I find that quite common in Dubai). Maybe it’s me, maybe I need to talk to staff a bit more, hmm 🙂
Would I go back? Yea, we’ve already been back there so many times. For the price that you pay, it’s much better value than what you’ll get in Noodle House and PF Chang’s downstairs. Don’t get me started on comparing with Ping Pong. I’ll actually put it on par with Shanghai Chic 🙂 I just hope they keep up the quality of the food as they grow with popularity … hmmmmm
- Leten
- Dubai Mall
- Entertainer Dubai – 2 for 1
- 04 3253535
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