ISHQ, a 22-seat Indian tasting room, opens at Raffles Dubai
Chef Nimish Bhatia serves 13 or 19 courses of regional Indian cooking at one sitting a night, from Dh799, in Wafi City.
Dubai has a new place for a long Indian dinner. ISHQ by Chef Bhatia has opened inside Raffles Dubai in Wafi City, a 22-seat restaurant that serves only tasting menus, one sitting a night, built around the regional cooking of India rather than the familiar curry house list.
The name is the word for love, and the restaurant comes from the team behind Mann Marzi, the Indian restaurant already at Raffles Dubai. Chef Nimish Bhatia writes the menus around places and family memories: there is a palak patta chaat that nods to the street stalls of Chandni Chowk in Delhi, an Assamese mango fish made with sea bass, raw mango and mustard, a lobster course inspired by Madurai, a Kashmiri wazwan course, gucchi musallam with morels, saffron and yoghurt, and a dham from the Kangra Valley. Dessert includes a rose, carrot and sandesh gelato from Bengal. Owner Anju Gautam added recipes from her mother's kitchen in Jalandhar and from her own travel diaries.
There are two menus. The 13-course menu costs Dh799 a person and the 19-course menu Dh1,099, and each comes in a vegetarian and a non-vegetarian version. A drinks pairing adds Dh500. Service starts at 8pm, and with only 22 seats the room works more like a chef's table than a dining room.
It joins a small group of Dubai restaurants that have moved Indian food into the tasting menu format, alongside places such as Trèsind Studio, which was named the best restaurant in the Middle East this month. ISHQ is smaller and more personal, with each course tied to a region and a story.
Book through the restaurant's website, ishq.ae, which links to OpenTable, or by email at reservations@ishq.ae; the restaurant also lists a phone number for bookings. With one sitting a night and 22 places, weekend tables go first. Allow most of the evening for the longer menu, tell the team about allergies when you book, and choose the vegetarian version at booking. Raffles Dubai is in Wafi City, Umm Hurair, next to Dubai Healthcare City Metro station.