Lady J’s soulful and enticing music strikes again as I attend ladies night at 53 Restaurant & Lounge with friends. Located on the 53rd floor of the Sheraton Grand Hotel, Sheikh Zayed Road and just opposite the World Trade Centre, this restaurant offers spectacular views. It also offers a perfect platform to showcase Lady J’s vocal talents whilst enjoying a selection from the special menu put forth by this restaurant cum bar cum lounge.
I’m slightly late and a little flustered. My friends are already seated, enjoying the venue’s art deco atmosphere. I take a moment to compose myself before we embrace in greeting. We settle in to conversation over a welcome cocktail. I select the Cherry Blossom, a sour style cocktail with berry infused gin, cherry & chocolate liqueur, Japanese citrus and foam. The individual ingredients are hard to discern, except the foam, of which there is a copious amount. The pick of the menu seems to be the Pick Me Up Royal which, whatever the ingredients, comes with one champagne-flute-diameter bubble on top. I’m not quick enough to snap a pic before it pops.
The serving staff allow plenty of time to reconnect as we sip our drinks. We exchange stories on summer vacations, work, family and holidays. Still jet lagged, Vicky has just returned from her son’s wedding in LA. Celine has mixed emotions about being back in Dubai after her summer in Lebanon. Rim keenly awaits her husband’s move to Dubai following her move from Saudi a few months ago.
Once we’re ready to order, we reflect on the tempting offers from the menu. I select the intriguing sounding baby corn starter on the basis that it must be good to constitute a dish. Tender little charred baby corn cobs served with black truffle, acquerello rice and pecorino cheese. The pan seared strip loin, shiso chimichurri and roasted carrots is a hearty main and chocolate truffle (the tart almost not even warranting a mention) for dessert.
Whilst we await our meals another round of drinks is in order. I select the impossible sounding Pin Up Colada. This is not your usual coconut & pineapple concoction. The Pin Up Colada is touted as a “modern elegant pina colada with white run, coconut consomme, creme de menthe, chocolate liqueur and yuzu all clarified through yoghurt and lychees”. It is decorated with a macron (of all things!). After several sips I can detect most of the flavours. The chocolate and creme de menthe dominate the palate with notes of coconut and lychee. However, no matter how hard I concentrate I don’t get the yoghurt or yuzu. Regardless, there’s just entirely too much going on here for me. The accompanying macron is similarly flavoured and whilst both bizarre and impressive, and although delicious on its own, it belongs in the domain of high tea rather than cocktails.
My cocktail analysis takes place whilst conversations and catch ups continue. Wedding photos are shared, headaches with apartments retold and recent back to school stories recounted. The restaurant’s interesting artwork is also a topic of conversation. It also presents itself as a good background for a photo op.
Our starters arrive. The baby corn comes stacked delicately upon each other. It is also delicious in a flavor concentrate sort of way. The char gives a lovely smoky taste which works well with the pecorino. The truffle and rice seem absent from the plate but there are some tiny decorative tendrils that are a nice touch (they remain unidentified). All in all, however, there is a lot of baby corn and whilst the charring saves it, I remain unsatisfied.
Luckily we don’t have to wait long. Lady J and her band take up their instruments on the 53 Restaurant & Lounge stage just as our mains arrive. My steak, prepared medium, is tender and the accompanying chimichurri just as piquant to the palate as Lady J is to my ears.
The songs start off quite soulful as she sets the mood with Alicia Keys’ If I Ain’t Got You along with two guitarists and a drummer. It’s not long however, before the energy builds with Shackles, Mary Mary and an impromptu dance floor begins. Some mesmerising guitar solos compliment the overall performance but there is no mistaking that this is the Lady J show. Her enthusiasm is palpable and it feels like a bubble that the crowd is absorbing and expanding before returning it to her. In a cycle of to and fro, the energy builds.
Dessert arrives whilst I am away, lost in the music. Even the strange styrofoam yuletide log looking platter doesn’t detract from the beautiful presentation. The two chocolate truffles nestle in a mini garden of edible dirt, berries, saucy droplets and flowers. It it sweet, bitter, creamy and utterly perfect. I might become lost in another music moment…
If the desert has distracted me for a moment, then the music continues to transport me . The atmosphere builds and has shifted from soulful to pop into funk with the dance floor picking up more momentum.
By now it’s getting late. On stage, Lady J is belting out Tina Turner’s Simply The Best and soon it’s only Celine & I left at our table. We order another drink and stay on to enjoy the rest of the performance, fleeing only when the band has finished their final encore and the lounge is threatening to turn into a nightclub.
Good To Know
Restaurant 53 Restaurant & Lounge at the Sheraton Grand Dubai hosts various nights of shows. Currently playing on Fridays is a stage version of Beauty and the Beast.
Would I Return?
Yes.
