Restaurant review: miX by Alain Ducasse, Dubai

Twenty-one Michelin star chef, Alain Ducasse, held out for a long time before opening an outpost in Dubai. And the wait seems well worth it – he’s opened a glittering 400-seater restaurant in Dubai in the recently inaugurated Emerald Palace Kempinski Dubai.

The sprawling restaurant has a separate bar, lounge, and al fresco dining area. But the interior design hero is a three-storey Fabergé egg inside which at the top level is a 12-seater chef’s table.

We sat on the terrace of the restaurant, with views of Downtown Dubai far across the water. We began with the wagyu beef tiradito where wafer-thin slices of beef were complemented by raw mango on a bed of avocado with olive oil. If you’re still feeling peckish, ask for the Oriental croquettes in which the combination of sweet potato and chickpeas is incredibly fluffy.

The mains are where the restaurant comes into its element. The lobster dried pasta and black truffle is a signature dish here and consists of pasta mixed with sour cream, black truffles, lobster jus and chives in a potent explosion of flavours. For an all-out feast, ask for the sea scallops topped with even more black truffles and salad cream. The giant king prawn, laid on a bed of tomato confit is very Instagram-friendly.

For dessert, the layered milk pastilla has Moroccan roots, while we’ll allow you to discover for yourself the surprising ingredients of the curiously-named Paris-Dubai dessert and will only add that it resembles a bicycle wheel – a tribute to the Tour de France.

There’s a good reason that Ducasse is the most decorated Michelin star chef alive.

Emerald Palace Kempinski, Palm Jumeirah, Dubai. Weekdays 5pm-1am, weekends 5pm-2am. Tel: (04) 248 8860.