Nasimi Beach at Atlantis

Thursday night I went to check out the Nasimi Beach at Atlantis. When I got there at 8 pm, there was nobody from my birthday party people. Apperantly everything starts at Nasimi after 10pm. So I didn’t want to stay there alone and I went to Nobu to have a quick dinner.

Nobu’s sushi bar is fantastic that you do not have to pre-reserve. First come first serve. Sushi bar chefs are like bartenders. They do everything to make you happy. They first offered me a New Style Salmon. This is a Nobu style salmon sashimi which I love. And next they offered me rock shrimp tempura, this is another Nobu signature dish that I enjoy every time I eat.

After Nobu, I walked back to Nasimi via Atlantis pool area. I was extremely tranquil and nice.

Nasimi is in front of Atlantis Hotel, nicely set on the beach, overlooking to Palm Island. There are casual and very relaxing seating areas on the beach. First of all, I didn’t know that I had to walk on the sand and I had my Pedro Garcia stilettos which was sad. Place was nice and they serve sisha –nargile- on the beach like many other places. This is extremely common in Dubai that wherever you go, you can get sisha. But music was extremely laud. I wonder why they had a dj set at Nasimi instead of something more relaxing. Overall, like many other places in Dubai, outlook was perfect but when you’re there, nothing was special.

Sandy Weekend

Today is the first day that the guests had left and our beautiful sunny days are back. Yes, they were very lucky to see the rainy and sandy Dubai and only one sunny day during the five days trip. It has been extremely windy and sandy last couple of days that we have a handful of sand even at our balcony on 17th floor. Funnily enough clothes dry much quickly outside; I call ‘the hair-drier effect’ of the warm wind.

Still you can find lots of things to do in Dubai when the weather is really bad. Shopping is the option one. Not a bad one especially the Shopping Festival is in town! At the end our guests had to spend lots of time –and money- at Dubai Mall, Mall of the Emirates and Gold Diamond Park. We have been to Frankie’s one night. This is our ‘round the corner’ Italian with very good risottos, especially asparagus risotto with sautéed goose liver, wood-oven pizzas and alcohol. Well if you know Dubai, you know that we do not get alcohol served everywhere so one more reason to love Frankie’s and despite the bad weather Jazz Festival continued at JBR.

On Friday, I have prepared a Turkish Breakfast. This is a separate article, ‘How to Prepare a Turkish Breakfast in Dubai’. We spent Friday afternoon this time as Dubai Desert Classics at Emirates Golf Club. That was very nice and relaxing afternoon, following Mikko Ilonen as usual. We could not make it to Atlantis Aqua Park but we have been to Nobu at Atlantis - Again! Well, Nobu is a a must-do in Dubai for me anyway. Black cod was fantastic as usual.

I wanted to book a day at Burj Khalifa to visit the Observation Deck together with the guys. Apparently it’s so busy that I had to book an appointment. First I called their hot-line on Wednesday and they had time slot available for Friday at 8pm but it turned out that they do not make any reservations and I had to go to Dubai Mall and get the tickets. Tickets are 100 dirhem but if you just go and want to visit you have to pay 400 dirhem. So guys went to pick up the tickets on Thursday and Friday was no longer available! So, they are busy! In fact only available time was Sunday late evening, which was already too late. So they didn’t have a chance to visit the tower. I think it was good that they didn’t have a chance to visit the Burj Khalifa because it’s now temporarily closed for visitors due to maintenance for a month! It’s been open less then a month and unfortunately due to the heavy traffic, some maintenance required. I am afraid I’ll not visit the place any time soon!

Nobu Forever!

I didn’t like Japanese food at all! I thought that I won’t enjoy because it’s raw fish and seaweed, yay! I never like them. Once I was in New York and I was taken to this lovely restaurant that was supposed to be one of the best Japanese ever and even there I didn’t try it! It was a bit embarrassing to turn down Chef’s specials though but that’s life.

When Nobu opened its doors at Atlantis Dubai a little bit more then a year ago, I wanted to go and check out the place. Just to see the design, is service good and so on. But there was only one obstacle! I didn’t eat any Japanese or sushi.

Anyway encouraged myself and got there with a group of friends. And it turned out that Japanese cuisine is not all about rise and sushi at all.

Nobu’s contemporary style is quite different than any Japanese and Chef Nobu Matsuhisa is just creating a fantastic feast with his special sauces that the taste is something extraordinary. A must taste dishes for me at Nobu are; fantastic Black code in Miso; shrimp tempura Nobu style that I can eat every day and Yellow Tail Sashimi with Jalapenos, I love it.

And the designs of those every single dish make me feel like becoming a food stylist or a photographer simply because they are so simple yet stylish.

I now became a very snob-ish Japanese fan ever because after trying Nobu (or Zuma), sushi house round the corner is just no-no for me.