Sushi and Ice Cream, Dubai Mall

I love sushi. There is a Burmese saying that when one sees raw fish one throws away grilled fish. No part of Burmese cuisine involves eating raw fish, so I was never quite sure where this saying came from but it sums up my feelings on sushi. As for conveyor belt sushi, if combining sushi and instant gratification is not genius, I don't know what is. So, when we found out that there was a conveyor belt sushi restaurant called "Yo! Sushi" in the Dubai Mall, we had to go.

We took the bus to Dubai, which was cheap and comfortable, and hopped on a cab to the Dubai Mall. Little did we know that even more culinary happiness awaited us. As we entered the mall, we could not resist the bright neon siren call of sugar in Candylicious, so we walked in. And there it was, staring at us! Emack and Bolio's! Given that it is a small ice cream chain which started in Boston and is only in a few cities even in the US, we never expected to find it in Dubai. It was like running into an old friend from China in Pennsylvania. It brought back memories of happy afternoons when we would walk over to the Emacs and Bolio's on Houston St. and come out with cups, cones, or quarts of ice cream with hot fudge. Since it was the middle of the afternoon during Ramadan, the tubs were chastely lidded. Will they have grasshopper pie? I couldn't wait for sunset.

We got to Yo! Sushi about 10 mins after they opened and the restaurant was already two thirds full. We sat down and started grabbing the color coded plates. They ranged between 11 Dirhams (vegetarians rolls. Really, what's the point?) and 22 Dirhams. Each plate had 2 pieces of nigiri (e.g. salmon for 13 Dhs or tuna for 15 Dhs), 3 pieces of rolls (salmon and avocado for 15 Dhs or soft-shell crab for 20 Dhs), or 5 pieces of sashimi (salmon for 15 Dhs or tuna for 18 Dhs). The fish was fresh and flavorful and the rolls were well constructed. We tried various forms of salmon, tuna, eel, and soft-shell crab sushi and sashimi. The salmon was better (and cheaper) than the tuna. The only cooked thing we tried was miso black cod which was 22 Dhs for 3 small pieces, which was not worth the money compared to the sushi. I should have heeded ancient Burmese wisdom. (If you want miso black cod, go to Wasabi in the Al Diar Mina hotel in Abu Dhabi.) The stack of plates grew and in the end, we spent more than we had intended to but we left full and happy.

We walked around the Mall for a little bit and headed back down to Emack and Bolio's. They were open and ... had grasshopper pie (creme de menthe ice cream with chocolate flakes and oreo cookie pieces), my favorite. One scoop was 10 Dhs which is similar to NY prices. If you are in Dubai Mall, we recommend grasshopper pie, cosmic crunch, and serious chocolate addiction. If you are a peanut butter fan (I'm decidedly not), the peanut butter cup flavor is supposed to be good. Unfortunately, the hot fudge was still on its way from the US but to make us for my disappointment, the person behind the counter gave me a free scoop of grasshopper pie. There couldn't have been a better ending to the day.

We'll be back to the Dubai Mall and, hopefully, hot fudge will have arrived by then. The next adventure will be to search for the shop that sells H&H bagels.

Wasabi

Location: Al Diar Mina Hotel (Corniche and Al Salam, next to the Corniche Hospital)
Telephone: 02-6778415

Sometimes, you just have to have sushi. And a quick Google search of "sushi abu dhabi", Wasabi popped up as the best sushi restaurant in Abu Dhabi. So, away we went. Located on the ground floor of the Al Diar Mina Hotel, it is a little tricky to get to due construction on the Al Salam St. tunnel. It is a small restaurant, and we sat a cute little table for two in a booth with a sliding door. The menu is quite extensive - in addition to sushi and sashimi it has Japanese curries, BBQ (yakitori), rice triangles (onigiri), cutlets (katsu), omelettes (okonomiyaki). However it is pricey. We split the piece Mix Sushi (12 pieces for 93 AED!) and the Miso Black Cod (83 AED). The Black Cod comes with a bowl of rice on the side, a good miso soup, and a small salad with a nice soy sauce vinaigrette dressing. It was a nice big piece of black code, and the miso sauce wasn't too salty as it often is, and was almost worth the price. Not so for the sushi. Don't get me wrong,
the sushi was very good and fresh - but it was not the best I've ever had (for those familiar with Greenwich Village NY, the quality was not as good as Marumi but close). The 12 pieces were a good size, but not 93 AED worth.

Verdict - good food, but not worth the price. Next time we are craving sushi, we'll try the sushi from the Carrefour at Marina Mall.