Samantha Wood

A peek into our sold-out #FourChefsDinner last week. Swipe for the video. 95 amazing guests. An Iberian, aka Portuguese-Spanish culinary theme 🇵🇹🇪🇸 14 dishes. Four wines, Champagne included. A beautiful balmy breeze enveloping Tagomago. You know it’s a good night when you have to ask guests to leave at 1am 😜

Much love, full stomachs AND hearts all down to👇🏼

💃🏻 Our host venue @tagomagodubai on Palm Jumeirah with the prettiest of al fresco, coastal settings.
💃🏻 Host chef Iker Zapata @ikerze of Tagomago on canapés aka Basque pintxos.
💃🏻 Chef Ricardo Gonçalves @ricardofgm16 of @laninadubai served Portuguese starters aka petiscos.
💃🏻 Chef Helio Lino @heliodxb of @lanalusadxb on Portuguese main courses.
💃🏻 Pastry chef Carmen Rueda Hernandez @chefcarmenrueda6 of @brixjourney with surprise desserts.

💃🏻 @veuveclicquot rosé Champagne, Portuguese and Spanish fine wines from @mmidubai 🥂🍷
💃🏻 Wine Academy Trainer Melina Aguirre Jaén @sommmelina from Spanish-speaking Panama presented the pairing.
💃🏻 A Sangria cocktail nightcap to the tune of Spanish flamenco-style music.
💃🏻 The new Canvas range by @monvisowater kept us hydrated 🙏🏼

Would love to hear what culinary theme you would like next 😋

📷📹 @bla.ckboxmedia

#UAERestaurantsUnite 🇵🇹🇪🇸🥂🍷💃🏻 Less

Where does Michele Johnson @findmichele - co-founder of @pitfirepizzabakers dine out? 😋

In this month’s ‘Where Restaurateurs Eat’ column, I asked this super woman of not just pizza fame, but garlic knots and hot honey margs, to share her five go-to, favourite restaurants encompassing:

🔪 Three in the UAE
🔪 One in her home country
🔪 One located elsewhere internationally.

Click second link in bio, and stories to find her top picks 🔗 My newsletter tribe received this post in their inbox yesterday. Feel free to subscribe, if not already.

🔪As always, would love your nominations for female restaurateurs here leading their businesses🔪 You never know, they might not be on my radar - and could land themselves a feature here 🙏🏼 #WhereRestaurateursEat #UAERestaurantsUnite Less

A staggering 95% of my newsletter readers (many of you on here too 😜) voted for my new header-style format that I had proposed for my restaurant reviews, which actually brings great joy to the organisational freak in me 😉

It’s now become de rigueur for every restaurant to boast about its so-called “concept.” A word I am also guilty of using time and time again - and hence the first header of my restaurant reviews moving forward. The FT’s restaurant critic @timhayward makes a sarcastic dig in a recent London restaurant review that warrants a giggle.

Onto this month’s review. @threecutsdxb is a new licensed steakhouse perched atop Rooftop West, Nakheel Mall. In a world where Google mapping is the norm, who cares whether it’s the west or east side of the rooftop? How does that help us with directions? Does anyone use their smart phone compass app, or even know they have one? Anyhow, digressing. We’ll come on to the challenges of this location a little later on.

I should have known by simply looking at the restaurant’s Instagram that a strapline of “FOOD. COMMUNITY. MUSIC” would guarantee a booming playlist, albeit a nostalgic one - especially given the upper case font. But they did reduce the volume upon my request. Another content-worthy discussion point.

The restaurant’s name is a nod to the three steak cuts on the menu - striploin, tenderloin and ribeye. Cuts that are also incorporated into the t-bone and tomahawk. The waiter does not explain “the concept.” A good thing, in my book. It’s self-explanatory. The only time I don’t mind storytelling is for a tasting menu concept, and even then, the less said, the better, so I can enjoy my food whilst still warm. Unless it’s the 14-seater by @gaggan_anand Only then will I happily soak up both the storytelling…and the music.

Click second link in bio to have a read 🔗 My newsletter tribe received this review in their inbox last week. Feel free to subscribe, if not already 🙏🏼

Do you like a restaurant’s “concept” explained to you in person on arrival? Or does a synopsis on the website and menu suffice? #UAERestaurantsUnite Less

International accolades from Michelin and 50 Best have catapulted Palestinian chef-owner Salam Dakkak’s @bait.maryam in JLT to stardom. Seven years after opening her first baby, her second-born @sufretmaryam in Jumeirah’s Wasl 51 complex pays tribute to the Levant region with a compact, elevated menu of meze plates - in contrast to the cosy charm and mammoth selection at the OG.

A pause here to flag the use of the words ‘Levantine’ and ‘Levant’ and their colonial adoption. Something I had never considered until I saw chef, cookbook author and historian @bethanykehdy ‘s recent video and article. All linked in my newsletter on this new opening, emailed to my tribe yesterday - see second link in bio, and stories 🔗 So will you join me in referencing this cuisine as Shami?

This is NOT a restaurant review. Why? A couple of reasons.

🍉 I broke my rule of visiting new restaurants in their opening month. In line with my editorial policy, I like to give new openings a month or so to settle in and iron out any teething issues. However, I was keen to include Sufret Maryam in a feature that I wrote for an international publication - and paid it a visit a month ago.

🍉 Palestinian-owned restaurants can benefit from as much love and custom (i.e. paying the bill) as we can shower upon them. So whilst I find it hard to turn off my critical eye and palate anywhere I eat, it’s unfair to willingly dish out criticism to restaurants whose owners, families and friends are suffering from a genocide. 🇵🇸 #UAERestaurantsUnite Less