Unraveling The ‘Enigma’ Of Turkish Cuisine
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Cuisine Style: Turkish
Average Price: $$$$
Overall Rating: 5/5
Dined in: November 2016
By Sean Overpeck (CFE)
**A full article and index glossary of restaurants, wines, recipes and travel for
Wine Dine and Play are in the pages section above, or by following these links:
Executive Chef:
Yunus Emre Aydin
The taxi cab driver got lost as he tried to find the Plaza Versace, a newer hotel that was roughly a year old, sitting on the edge of the Dubai Creek and tucked away on a side street with lots of construction and even newer things popping up all around it. That has been the story of Dubai for the past ten years. The Versace is reminiscent of a 16th century Italian Palace with subtle traces of Arabian architecture. Featuring a striking entrance, high ceilings, and landscaped gardens, it is a sight to be seen. Like any luxury hotel, it has a larger selection of restaurant and bars numbering eight in all, with the Enigma restaurant among them.
Enigma is defined as a person, thing, or situation that is mysterious, puzzling, or ambiguous. The Enigma Restaurant in Dubai is all those things along with a journey that has unfolded over the course of a year, bringing to you evolutionary culinary tales from across the world. Enigma is the first restaurant in my experience where the concept theme completely changes every three months. Most restaurants change menu items with the seasons, but Enigma changes their entire cuisine style. Upon my visit they were on their third concept, focusing on Turkish cuisine with Chef Yunus Emre Aydin. The first two creations were as follows:
The journey of a Nordic Chef:
Born in Sweden, this highly ambitious chef has traveled the globe to build on his knowledge and study under the best restaurateurs in the trade, eventually gaining his own two Michelin stars. Combining the best of Nordic culinary traditions with impulses from abroad has eventually led him to be ranked at number 31 in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants. Today Frantzén has a number of restaurants to his name including Restaurant Frantzen, The Flying Elk, Catering Frantzen, Studio Frantzen, Corner Club, and Gaston wine. Here was Chef Björn’s Menu at Enigma.
The Spanish Vanguard:
Part-chef, part-botanist, Quique Dacosta is an undeniable leader of avant-garde cuisine in Spain. Chef and owner of the eponymous 3 Michelin star Spanish restaurant in Dénia, Alicante, Dacosta is famed for skillfully crafting gastronomic masterpieces that change perceptions. The radical chef manipulates style and substance in harmony to create techno-emotional dishes and multi-sensory experiences.
The Turkish Delight:
As mentioned at the beginning, I wanted to unravel the Enigma of Turkish cuisine, and Chef Yunus took me down a journey to do just that. His menu had two choices, à la carte or a tasting menu broken down by:
- Cold Starters & Salads
- Hot Starters & Soups
- Main Courses
- Tasting Menu
- Desserts
The tasting menu was broken down into six courses. The Chef introduced himself as soon as I was seated, explaining the à la carte and tasting selections. Apparently, the previous chefs offered only tasting menus with their concepts which is very common for fine dining in Europe, however in Dubai it did not go over very well, as most of the clients rarely enjoy a full tasting and prefer one or two courses when they dine out. Chef Yunus therefor offered both tasting and à la carte. The bartender explained the cocktail menu and offered the wine list. I did not order a drink at first and wanted to review the list in more detail. The bartender must have misheard me, thinking that I wanted what he recommended which was the Arazi Sun with Bombay Sapphire, Prosecco, Galliano, and lemon. He delivered it my table, and though I didn’t order it, I did not refuse it. It was very flavorful, citric, and light.
The soft opening for the restaurant beginning with the first two Chefs was on January 16 of 2016, with the grand opening event on November 15, ten days before my visit, and the base for this review. There were twenty tables in the dining room and fifteen more on the patio overlooking the Dubai Creek. Being seated near the doors leading to the patio had good and bad points. One great point was the view, and the nice breeze, but the bad was the cigarette smoke that would blow in from the smokers on the patio. This, however, did not affect my dining experience to a large degree as the door was only opened a few times during my dinner.
You begin the tasting menu as you would the à la carte with fresh Turkish rolls, served with a Turkish tomato dip and olives. As you tore the bread, a blanket of steam was released, flattening the bread to spread the dip on to it. The dip had some spice with a little onion, chili pâte, and capsicum. The olive selection was made with oils strictly from Turkey.
 |
| Turkish rolls with tomato dip |
The first course was an Ahtapot (octopus) cooked for eight hours at 78 ̊ celsius (172 ̊ Fahrenheit), served on a black dish with micro greens, then topped decadently with a citrus sauce and avocado cream. The chef told me that this was their best selling à la carte dish on the menu, filled with wonderful flavors and lite seasoning. The octopi were fished from the Mediterranean off the coast of Spain.
 |
| Ahtapot (octopus) |
Course number two was a smoked eggplant soup (Tutsulenmis Partlican Corbasi), served with little chunks of goat cheese topped with fresh lime, the aubergine poured over it into the bowl. The Eggplant had a whiter colored texture versus the typical black eggplant, most likely due to the smoking process. What also made each course exciting was the fact that the chef came out to introduce each course, which normally the server would do.
 |
| Smoked eggplant soup |
Before the third course, the chef brought out a bonus dish called the “shrimp Asian,” a very colorful presentation, almost as brilliant as the presentation of the octopi. The dish had a lemon cream bottom, topped with the two shrimp pieces, a basil chai, with apple sorbet, brunoise of green apples, radish slices and mandarin pieces. The shrimp was prepared confit, and the dish was served with a 2013 Sasseo Primativo by Masseria Altemura. According to the winemakers' note,s it has an intense ruby red, offering scents of sour cherries, violets, licorice, and sweet spicy hints. It is velvety, warm and persistent: a wine to sip slowly together with a substantial dish or whilst just reading a book. The Sommelier in training was named Vladimir from Ukraine.
 |
| Shrimp Asian |
Course number three was a beetroot couscous dish served with a 12-hour duck confit cooked at 185 ̊ all prepared risotto style with Kars Turkish cheese with white and green asparagus garnished on top. Once you dig into the dish you can see the small shards of duck, but don’t really know that is what it is until you have your first taste, and every bite after having a strong duck flavor, mixed with the beetroot made it a great tasting combination.
 |
| 12-hour duck confit |
The fourth course was a seabass dish with three separate flavor profiles that you can individually taste, but also explode together with this awesome fish. The profiles are sweet, bitter, and salty. The bottom of the plate had a sweet carrot sauce, with spinach, and “Black Sea Findik” bass topped with a hazelnut crust for a salty top, then a side of caramelized Belgian endive for a bitter flavor profile. The endive was slowly cooked for 23 minutes, then basted in butter. This dish had perfect texture and flavor, mild, plus flaky.
 |
| “Black Sea Findik” bass |
Seven-spiced lamb neck was the chef’s signature dish and course number five of the tasting. It is prepared at 68 ̊c (154 ̊ Fahrenheit) for 36 hours, and when asked, the chef says it takes a long time, but worth it to see the guests reactions and happiness. The dish is served with fondant potatoes and a spiced jam, with the lamb jus.
 |
| Seven-spiced lamb neck |
Dessert:
The sixth and final course was broken down into three selections starting with a palate cleanser with an ice cream designed to challenge the guest as far as the flavor profiles. It was an eggless ice cream made with just cream, milk, and milk powder, with the flavor profile for this evening being thyme.
 |
| Thyme ice cream |
The second selection was an apple mousse, with orange sauce and a“Kaymak” ice cream infused with hazelnut and a hazelnut cream. The dish had thin inner layers of apple and reminded me of mille-feuille. This was a light dessert designed not to overpower you so that the first course of the night and the last course would be just as memorable.
 |
| Apple mousse |
The third selection was a bonus dessert that the chef thought about named the red plum, produced by another chef in the kitchen a day prior to me dining. It had walnuts, Kaymak, rose infused pomegranate cream, and caramelized red plum. The walnuts did slightly overpower the plum flavor, but all the other flavors of the dish were excellent. Plum from my knowledge is rarely seen in a dessert dish in the United States, so this was a nice final addition to the tasting. Though I’m not big on strong coffees, I enjoyed a Turkish coffee with some Turkish Delights for a final palate cleanse. The coffee was super strong that made me go holy ?!&%
 |
| Red plum dessert |
To conclude:
Enigma embraces the essence of Turkey in a fine dining environment, challenging the stigma of pre-fixe cuisine, bolding the flavors of the natural land. It captures the organic flavors of Turkey that tourists don’t see, combining the Mediterranean with flavors of the greater Ottoman-Turk traditions. This is not your typical style of Levant cuisine, as Enigma instead will give you a true meaning and discovery for Turkish cuisine and the country in general better than Istanbul ever could.
Please see these guidelines for Tipping in Restaurants and on following proper etiquette, customs, cultures, and avoiding assumptions when you dine out.
Other Noteworthy Middle Eastern Cuisine Articles & Restaurants:
Al Fanar Restaurant and Café Authentic Emirati Cuisine, Festival City, Dubai, UAE
Asail AlSham Sweets “Mastic” Ice-cream in Deira Dubai, UAE
Bourj Al Hamam Restaurant Levant, Jordanian, and Lebanese cuisines with a buffet in Amman, Jordan
Café Arabesque Contemporary Middle Eastern and Levant buffet in the Hyatt Park, Dubai, UAE
Safar Restaurant Arabic and Emirati blended buffet at the Dubai International Airport (DXB), UAE
Sufra Restaurant Traditional & Authentic Jordanian Cuisine in Amman, Jordan
See the whole list by visiting “The Wine Dine and Play Article Glossary”
Other Dubai restaurants and articles on Wine Dine and Play:
|
Take a tour of the tallest building in the world
Dubai, UAE
|
Posh and artful French cuisine + culinary experimentalism at Intercontinental Hotel
Festival City, Dubai, UAE
|
Contemporary Japanese restaurant, sushi, & cocktail mixology
DFIC, Dubai, UAE
A Top 20 on Wine Dine and Play
|
|
Traditional British seafood spot
DFIC, Dubai, UAE
|
Authentic churrascaria-style dining
Palm Island, Dubai, UAE
|
Acclaimed upmarket classic & innovative Italian
Dubai Marina, Dubai, UAE
|
See the whole list by visiting “The Wine Dine and Play Article Glossary by country”
Final notes, review basics, observations and more pictures:
Most reviews are subjective, depending on the writer; but they should also be responsible, and respectfully written, upholding the truth, and accurately conveying the experience to the best of the writer's knowledge, even if it includes metaphors the restaurant may not like to read about. My ratings are by the stars I award (from 0 to 5). The rating is calculated on a point accumulation of six separate factors based on individual experience. They include wine and other beverage selections, plate presentation, customer service, restaurant or café ambiance, food quality, and wow factor. To see more details of this rating list, read this article:
Scores are detailed in the factor chart below:
Formula Factor Conclusions and Overall Ratings
|
Max Points Possible:
|
Total Points Awarded:
|
Total Points deducted:
|
Ambiance
|
10
|
8
|
2
|
Food quality
|
10
|
8
|
2
|
Plate presentation
|
9
|
9
|
0
|
Customer service
|
7.5
|
7
|
0.5
|
Alcohol and other beverages
|
8
|
7
|
1
|
Total regular points awarded
|
44.5
|
39
|
5.5
|
Total percentage Before Bonus
|
0.876404494382023
|
||
“Wow” factor BONUS
|
5
|
3
|
0
|
Total bonus percentage
|
0.0674157303370786
|
||
Total percentage with a bonus for the final star rating
|
0.943820224719101
|
||
Stars Awarded (see chart below)
|
0 - 5
|
5
|
**A full break down and explanation of the observations and point disbursement is available in the linked article above. To receive a detailed copy of your score, feel free to contact me at any time and I will provide it to you.**
***
Overall Star Rating:
|
5 of 5 Stars:
94% Rating with a 3 point “wow” bonus
An Extraordinary Dining Experience
|
Wine rating:
|
6 of 10
Old World selections:
France, Spain, Italy, Germany
New World selections:
Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Washington State
|
Corkage fee’s:
|
This Restaurant does not list any corkage fee’s however, most American restaurants charge
$25.00 per bottle
|
Restaurant style:
|
Conservative dining
|
Cuisine style:
|
Arabic, Middle Eastern, Turkish
Allergen or dietary accommodations:
Halal, Local, Low Carb, Organic, Pescatarian, Sustainable, Vegetarian Options
|
Reservations:
|
Not Required, But Recommended
Walk-Ins:
Accepted, but not guaranteed
|
Dress code:
|
Casual or Conservative attire
Local Emirate Dress
|
Child policy:
|
The Restaurants reviewed on this site may have a kids menu or cater to them; however, for full enjoyment of food and wine, it is recommended that kids not to be in attendance, unless they have been trained in proper etiquette.
If not then:
Hire a Babysitter!
|
Experiences:
|
Place for foodies, Modern, Lounge, Hotspot, Great outdoor dining, Good for special occasions, Beautiful décor, Scenic views, Intimate, Classy, Upscale, and a Neighborhood Gem.
|
Payments:
|
Cash, Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express
|
Parking:
|
Valet
|
Wifi
|
The restaurants reviewed on this site may have Wi-Fi, but do not require you to go online, because the excitement of the food and wine alone will keep you too entertained instead of checking your social media and emails.
|
Noise level:
|
Low
|
Smoking:
|
Nonsmoking restaurant
WARNING: smoking patio
|
Patio or terrace:
|
Yes
|
Food Prices
(excludes, alcohol, taxes & 20% gratuity’s)
$£€¥ - Under 50.00 (inexpensive)
$£€¥ x 2 - 51.00- 99.00 (moderate)
$£€¥ x 3 - Over 100.00 (pricey)
$£€¥ x 4 - Over 200.00 (expensive)
$£€¥ x 5 - Over 400.00 (very expensive)
**Currencies reflect the world’s major travelers, restaurant, or wine connoisseur’s**
Currency:
|
Price
|
Emirati Dirham (AED)
|
د.إ
|
United States Dollar (USD)
|
$$$
|
Great Britain Pound Sterling (GBP)
|
£££
|
Canadian Dollar (CAN)
|
$$$$
|
Chinese Yuan (CNY)
|
¥¥¥¥¥
|
European Union (EUR)
|
€€€
|
Alcohol prices:
$194.00 AED
Enigma:
Palazzo Versace Dubai
Culture Village, Al Jadaf
P.O. Box 128431, Dubai, UAE
Contact Information:
Restaurant website:
|
|
Maître d or host:
|
+971 4 409 2900
|
Online reservations
|
|
Email Contact:
|
|
Serving hours:
UAE Standard Time
(GMT, Zulu, or UTC + 3:00)
|
Dinner: Mon-Sat
7:00 pm - 11:00 pm
Closed Sunday
|
Social Media
&
Accolades:
|
|
****
The worlds best restaurants is a subjective list of who is writing it and changes on a regular basis. The Wine Dine and Play best experiences are based on my highest rated stared restaurants, meaning that the visit was an outstanding or extraordinary experience. From cafés, chains, mom + pops, hole in the walls, to fine dining including a few Michelin spots. Visit the Top 100 page to see the entire list.
A few to tease you with…
|
Creatively presented high-energy Mediterranean fare
Denver, Colorado, USA
|
Farm-to-fork upscale local chain for Southwestern cuisine
Austin, Texas, USA
|
Upscale eatery with butchery at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Tampa, Florida, USA
|
Other Pictures:
 |
| Enigma dining room |
 |
| Smoked eggplant soup |
 |
| Turkish coffee |
“Culinary perfection consists not in doing extraordinary things,
But in doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.”
-Angelique Arnauld (1591-1661)
Who is John Galt?
TTFN
