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You might be forgiven for thinking Tim
Burton had something to do with the interior design, here.
You can almost see him gesticulating by the pizza station
as you enter Anise – the twisting, expansive ground-floor
restaurant at Festival City’s new InterContinental Hotel.
He leads you round the corner, screeching at the Chef behind
the Lebanese cooking station, beckons him stage left and
then hollers for the lighting to be dimmed above the sushi.
Like many of Burton’s movies, Anise is all about the lighting.
Scenes around every flawless corner fade and sparkle in
a clever sensory extravaganza – coordinated by leading Japanese
architects Super Potato. A salad station takes centre stage,
in which each slice of cucumber, each marinated tomato seems
to glisten beneath carefully placed beams, as though prepped
especially for its turn in the spotlight. Bearing down above
it all, in the middle of the restaurant is a huge chandelier,
constructed of colour-changing rods of light, reminiscent
of a sci-fi prop; Kryptonite shards perhaps – mesmerising
to watch over a plate of hand-crafted, creamy Caesar salad;
lethal to a cowering Superman.
Not least un-movie like is the fairytale tree, which hogs
the bottom corner of Anise like a beast that’s been unceremoniously
snatched from its forest home, stripped of its tough outer
layers and decorated with a rather un-masculine rain shower
of dangling fairy lights. These fall in vertical lines between
its braches, never touching the tree, yet rendering this
once ferocious forest-dweller trapped in an un-seasonal
Santa’s grotto. Distressing perhaps, for the tree. Quite
pretty to look at, anyway.
We reclined in our wooden chairs, dangerously close to the
ice-cream cabinet with its beckoning tubs of thigh-expanding
toppings: think crushed pistachios, glazed redcurrants and
naughty nuggets of crumbled chocolate bars. But we almost
wished we were on the other side. Through the frosty glass
of the dessert counter sits a large, round table, adorned
on our visit with a proud “reserved” tag. It’s surrounded
by a protective army of wooden blocks, like a mini Stone
Henge carved specifically for a storybook dinner party.
Anise is so large that it could have easily teased your
nostrils with a thousand promises, and snatched the tastes
away with your spirit as you’re forced to eat in a room
with no soul. But luckily, there’s goodness at the end of
your journey, and it doesn’t all come from the architecture.
As you clutch your plate and shuffle past pots of mussels
bubbling, fillets of hammour frying, pizzas baking and dim
sum steaming, the Chefs outstretch their arms and shove
plates of their daily taster-sized specials under your nose.
The salad-tosser grins like a Cheshire cat as she handpicks
your sparkling greens and mixes them to order. The waiters
dodge and weave around the tables, bringing pre-ordered
dishes to your placemats, and the whole room buzzes not
least because of the view – a conversation-starting panorama
of the Creek and “luxury” marina.
Thankfully, the food we sampled was just as intriguing as
those smells. The wood oven vegetarian pizza was crispy
and light, with just the right amount of mozzarella oozing
over the peppers. The pan-fried tuna atop sesame noodles
was crunchy on the outside, and kicked our lips with a black
peppered twang, reigniting our desires for the homemade
ice-cream. It arrived scooped atop an airy strawberry cheesecake
that could, like the restaurant itself, have been woven
together by fairies.
Even though Tim Burton might not actually leap from that
giant tree with a lightning flash from a sudden move-style
thunderstorm as you leave, your magical time in Anise will
most likely boost your fading passion for the all-you-can-eat
experience. The InterContinental have achieved here what
so many other hotel buffets fail to do – they’ve given just
as much character to a mammoth room as they have to their
exceptional dishes.
Anise. Festival City, InterContinental Hotel Dubai.
Open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner 6.00am – 1.00am
Taxi: Festival City
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