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Dubai’s Michelin Star Restaurant That Pro Chefs Love

Today, Condé Nast Traveler joins Chef Sarah Aqel, owner of Dara Dining, in Dubai to try her favorite dishes at Orfali Bros. This Michelin-starred restaurant doesn’t follow a certain cuisine; instead, it combines unusual flavors and breaks the rules with its food.

Released on 11/20/2024

Transcript

This Dubai restaurant plays

by all the rules and breaks all of them

whenever they feel like it.

Everyone is screaming,

Eat the dish, Sara!

I can't disappoint the audience.

Mm, mm, mm!

This dish makes me dance.

I am Chef Sara Aqel.

This is the Orfali Bros Bistro,

one of my favorite restaurants in the city.

They don't have a cuisine,

they just combine unusual flavors.

And these are three dishes that I absolutely love.

[upbeat music]

[plate scrapes]

This is the corn bomb.

It has different flavors, different textures

of the same ingredient, which is corn.

Crunchy tortilla, creamy corn puree,

and then it has a charred corn on top,

and so much umami from the parmigiano

that is shaved on top of it that is 36 months old.

[tortilla crunches]

Mm!

Next thing that I love about this is the mess.

[upbeat music continues]

Next dish is the Orfali bayildi.

Bayildi means fainted.

So, the imam fainted after he had this dish

from his wife the first time.

There is a chili garlic and walnut paste

that we use in a different eggplant in the Middle East.

And then there is the tahini yogurt.

Excitement.

Look at this texture.

Mm!

It is savory.

It has a spice.

It has a crunch from the walnuts.

The eggplants are super mushy and cooked.

And then you have all these flowers that adds a floral,

not so strong, but just about enough flavor to it.

[meat hissing]

[upbeat music continues]

And now the final dish, shish barak a la gyoza.

So, shish barak a la gyoza is arguably a Chinese recipe

brought to the Sham region.

So Orfali decided,

You know what?

There are a lot of arguing about this dish,

and I'm just gonna make it mine.

There is a yuzu yogurt in the bottom,

the sujuk spicy oil with some Aleppo pepper, I guess.

And then the meat inside.

Has the right amount of fat.

Oh.

Mm, mm, mm!

This dish makes me dance.

Even if you're full, you can't leave

without trying this pistachio cake.

There are different levels of roasting of Aleppo pistachio

in each layer.

Fascinating what one ingredient can do.

These were my highly recommended dishes

at the Orfali Bros Bistro.

Give them a try and let me know what you think.

[upbeat music ending]