Restaurant Review: Toshi

A mini bridge welcomes you into Toshi at the top of The Millennium Hotel, Tecom, where the tables sit alongside a running stream while a small, calm fountain helps to create a Zen-like atmosphere.

As this was a Thursday, Toshi’s Thai-style buffet night, the tables were full of oriental delicacies you would expect to find on the menu at most Asian restaurants, but here they were done to perfection.

The real pièce de résistance was the chef – more a culinary wizard – who cooked live in front of the customers, making them part of the process. I made my selection from the assortment of raw vegetables, meat and fish laid out in front of him and watched in hunger-driven awe as he cooked up my main course.

I plumped for a king prawn stir-fry, with a few extras thrown in, while my friend was treated to a mixed sushi-sashimi tray off the menu. Both our meals were fantastically falvoured and delicious enough to have us going back for more.

The service for the evening was very good, attentive and accommodating; the waiters gave the impression no request would have been an order too far, though sadly we never put that theory to the test.

The setting, environment and layout of the restaurant gave an affirming sense of calm and tranquillity and even then there are private rooms, separated by glass and Shoji – Japanese screen doors – which afford an extra element of privacy and romance.

Bidding adieu to the incredibly polite staff and making our way out into Dubai’s stiflingly warm and sufficatingly humid night, it dawned on me how surreal it is that a small piece of Japan sits 18 floors above the ground in Al Barsha – a world away from it’s surroundings, which is not the only thing that makes it well worth a visit.