Rare beauty

Rare at Desert Palm Melissa Sleiman heads out of the city to experience a taste of romance.

In Dubai, a place like Desert Palm is hard to find. Not just because my taxi driver makes me sit through three U-turns on the seemingly endless Hatta/Oman highway. But mainly because the tranquil setting manages to make me forget about the hectic city life and enjoy the surroundings and great food.

I visit Desert Palm's restaurant called ‘Rare' - a reference to the uncommon dishes and a varied meat selection - on a Tuesday night. The place is abandoned. The seating inside looks a bit dark and cramped.

The terrace however, is spacious and with an impressive view. The outside area borders a huge grass field, used for playing polo matches. No doubt the place looks spectacular during lunch hours.

The terrace itself is elegantly decorated. Blood-red rose petals float on water next to huge, white columns supporting a high ceiling. The dim light of the tables' orange candles complements the colours of the setting sun.

It's the perfect atmosphere for sitting down with good friends or in my case, spending a romantic evening with my husband. I pick out a table near three Emirati women and a group of English tourists. A waiter clad in black and red rushes towards me.

He pulls out a chair with a comfy cushion on it and places a napkin on my lap. The menu is unusual. It possesses a range of rare delicacies including oyster and quail, mixed with more common dishes such as gnocchi. Even a selection of cheeses is listed.

As a starter, I choose a lobster pancake and my husband goes for the tomato tartare. The waiter returns with sea scallop ‘amuses' on a bed of tomato salsa. The flavours create a powerful explosion in the mouth. Excellent combination. The lobster wrapped in pancake and topped with salmon roe is also tasty.

The sauce is a bit too sweet, but the soft bread with sesame seeds on top neutralizes part of its strong flavour. The tomato tartare with artichoke inside is a miniature piece of artwork. My husband thinks it's too "complicated", but I reckon that's fine as long as it tastes as good as it looks.

In contrast to the entrees, the main courses are slightly plain-looking. The pieces of meat lie on beds of mashed potato, with brown sauce sprinkled over them. I have the Wagyu beef sirloin, from a Soutern Queensland cow which was massaged daily to prepare it for my dinner plate. It's similar to Kobe beef, a Japanese specialty, my waiter tells me.

Although the cow's cellulite treatment sounds a bit odd, it does work. The sirloin steak is probably the best I've ever tasted (and I'm a carnivore). It's very soft - so soft that I wonder if it will melt if I stop chewing. The fat is intertwined in the meat and really brings out the flavour. The cook has also done a wonderful job. The meat is evenly pink all over.

My husband orders the New Zealand venison loin. It's his first time eating the flesh of a deer and he likes it. As he requested, it arrives medium to well-done. Sceptical that steak can taste good unless it's rare or medium, I try a piece as well. I'm surprised - it's very tender. Both dishes are accompanied by unidentified, yellow vegetables (big versions of asparagus) and marinated mushrooms. It's an evening full of firsts - but scrumptious ones.

I order another fresh fruit juice as we wait for dessert. The orange and pineapple drinks are slightly diluted by an excessive amount of ice cubes - just how I prefer them. Usually the problem with juices is that they are either too sweet, too thick or filled with artificial flavours. But these have a slightly sour taste to them, resembling that of the real fruits.

The bittersweet chocolate cake with mascarpone is very rich in taste. Although my stomach is very full thanks to over half a pound of meat, I manage to eat half of the cake. I don't particularly like the bittersweet taste, but the pureness of the cocoa fascinates me. My husband is not a fan of chocolate. We pay the bill (950 AED) and head outside to wait for a cab. What a blissful evening.

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