Week 5 – Tribeca

Time for a night out with the girls!

Eating, drinking, chatting… a perfect combination for a group of girls on a Thursday night – and even better when it’s a package deal that doesn’t break the bank!

We decided to try out TriBeCa, located at the JA Ocean View hotel, JBR. It’s been around for a while, but since I’ve never been there, well, that makes it something new 😉

They have a live Jamaican Band on Thursday nights to get you in the party mood, and a teddy bear who hangs out on the speakers – just in case you need a cuddle 😉

On arrival (after battling out the Marina traffic!) we were all pretty much in need of a cold beverage and food… and thankfully neither of these took long to arrive! Since we were all going for the package deal option, the food came out super quickly – sharing starters are brought to the table, and once you’re done with them, if you feel like you need more, you just ask! And they’ll bring!

But don’t get too full on the yummy starters – flatbread, chicken wraps, nachos – because the mains are still coming, and there’s dessert!

Starters!

The mains are a pick-one-item kinda effort – between the 6 of us we ended up choosing either the cod or the risotto. The risotto was the hit of the table!

Risotto

They then give you a nice break between the meals to savour some more beverages – which just keep coming as and when you stick your hand up. And then the desserts are again pick-one-item so we ordered two pieces of each (there are only 2 options) and shared them among us. Nutella/banana cake, and good old plain ice cream! Yum!

Desserts

I highly recommend this place as an option to go for a package deal – and not just for a girls night out! The band was a lot of fun, the food was tasty and for AED249 all-in, you absolutely cannot go wrong!

Menu

Smooth start to the evening

Bar vibes

Week 36 – Some food, some funny

There is never a shortage of (new) things to do in Dubai. While it’s easy to get sucked into a routine and do the same things week in and week out, it really is easy enough to break out of that mould and enjoy new and interesting things to do – if you spend just a little time looking around for them.

Take for example my new things for the week… a new restaurant (it’s actually been around for longer than I’ve lived here, but I’ve never been to it), a stand-up comedy event (again, been going for years and years but I’ve never made it there), and a new bar (I think this one is actually fairly new in the area).

Frankie’s, located in Al Fattan Tower, JBR

Now, while I’m a lover of all things food, I don’t actually know much about the big fancy chef names behind the food – and we have a plethora of them here in Dubai – so I wasn’t familiar with the names behind Frankie’s (sorry!!!). However, we were after a fancy night and apparently these guys know how to do that, so Frankie’s it was 🙂

And these guys did not disappoint!

Warm aubergine (involtini de melanzane) for starters, and chicken ravioli (ravioli ripeni di pollo, fonduta di taleggio, funghi di bosco – try saying that out loud!!!!) and seafood taglioni (padellata al frutti di mare) for mains. YUM!

Starter

Padellata

The Laughter Factory, Movenpick, JBR

We then moved on to some stand-up comedy at The Laughter Factory. These guys run a stand-up comedy night that runs for a few weeks at a time, changing venues around Dubai each week… I guess to make it easily accessible to as many people as possible.

If you’re looking for some side-splitting, spit-your-drink-out-your-nose kinda laughing, then I urge you to check out the next Laughter Factory date and get yourself some tickets! This will definitely become a regular feature in my life!

JB’s bar, JBR (kinda nice ring to it, hey?!)

Time for a nightcap and JB’s provided it perfectly. Bustling little bar, but not so busy that you can’t get a drink; decorated brilliantly; decent music; some cute little touches. The kind of place that could be ‘the local’ 🙂

Week 22 – Running to Breakfast: Barefoot on the beach

This week’s something new goes back to basics – running barefoot, on the beach, and enjoying a delicious breakfast post-run!

A few weeks ago I decided that I wanted to try a run on the beach – barefoot. You’d think that since I live in a coastal city that I’d be at the beach, or running on the beach, regularly… but no. Not me. I have once ventured onto the beach during a run, but it was in shoes… so this was a chance to try out something completely new 🙂

I rounded up my 2 faithful running buddies – Nat & Sara – and we met at the beach bright & early on Friday morning.

We walked down to the shoreline, took our flops off, and headed out along the beach for a casual, slow run. And what fun it was! But boy was it difficult, and completely different to running on the road. We reached the end of the beach and started walking a bit… and all of us had the same thought: Don’t mention running again. Just enjoy the walk.

And so we did. We ended up walking the full length back. So, not entirely a successful ‘run’ but still a thoroughly enjoyable morning out, getting our heart rates up, enjoying the morning air, the water breaking around our ankles and some good old banter the whole way 🙂

Once we were done, we wanted to head out for something to eat as we often do after our runs, but with it being Ramadan many restaurants are closed during daylight hours… but we managed to find a restaurant in The Movenpick Hotel that was serving breakfast 🙂 So we headed off to The Talk and filled our hungry tummies with delicious breakfast, and tasty & refreshing fresh fruit juices. Yum!