Liam Collens

Hoe Lee Kow is not a new restaurant, but it found a new life with me.

I am recovering from a chronic addiction to Culinary Class Wars on Netflix, a Korean competition cooking show that held me by the neck for the week I binged it.

I am always late to trends, fads and fashions vs the rest of the world, but now Korean food excites me and holds my attention in a way I never expected.

My YouTube feed is a delirious mix of Korean cooking YouTube videos and Hey Bear (kids…).

Hoe Lee Kow is not a traditional Korean restaurant, but it is the closest one to my house and it affords me a familiar entry point from which to know my ssamjang from by gochujang.

@hlkbyreif’s reception was mixed on opening around July last year and I do think that I have I seen it even half full—but that is not because it is bad. In my opinion, it is quite good.

I could argue at length that it is ahead of its time in a city that has not fully embraced Korean food.

I wonder if others, like me, will pivot over to HLK as the wash of K-Culture makes it way across the world.

My write up about Hoe Lee Kow is available through the @substack link in my profile.

#itsliamcollens #hoeleekow #dubaihills #dubaifood #DubaiRestaurants #koreanfood #koreanindubai #substackwriter #dubaiwriters #culinaryclasswars #culinaryclass Less

Recently I wrote about Gregoire’s announcement to leave Ossiano after ten years (off and on) working at Ossiano. @pallavisangtani and I went to pay our respects to a chef that’s played more than his fair share in shaping what fine dining means in Dubai.

You’ll see some facts in a write up available for my Substack subscribers. (It’s not an exclusive club, you can sign up any time!)

You’ll learn Anchored is a ten-course tasting menu that relinquishes itself from the French focus of previous menus. It reads more as a dip of the cap to the spate of collaborations that passed through this aquarium over the recent many years.

What I really want to know is what comes next. What comes next for Gregoire? Will he stay in Dubai? What will happen to Ossiano? A restaurant that so easily could become a tourist trap if left unsupervised.

In the meantime thank you Gregoire for all the memories. I spent my 40th here and it’s something I’ll never forget.

#itsliamcollens #ossiano #ossianodubai #gregoireberger Less

Reif would only do unconventional, and his omakase at The Experience By Reif Othman is precisely that.

Tucked inside the superb Reif Kushiyaki in Dubai Hills is this smaller, limited seater omakase restaurant where the menu changes every two months. I mention this because even this menu is for a limited time.

Fresh from a stretch in Copenhagen cooking with Kristian Baumann for the Mapo pop up, Reif returns to cooking Nordic seafood with a Korean twist. So this TERO experience is also a bit @hlkbyreif, you could say.

Some omakase experiences are servants to tradition. Meditative quietness. Pale woods and a bar counter with only a sushi chef for company. Maybe even only sushi or a miso soup among the incoming mystery courses.

The arcade themed waiting room behind Kushiyaki’s kitchen is vivid and intimate. The doors retract to reveal a red room with Guns and Roses, 2Pac, Metallica and Green Day over the speaker.

It’s far from traditional.

This is often why I recommend TERO to those omakase-curious or people looking for Japanese, special occasion worthy but not stuffy. A place for an easy-going night out for bowls of tasty things with music that us elder millennials remember fondly.

Two seatings per night are available Wednesday to Sunday. Ten courses for 888 dirhams.

Pictured are some of my favourite courses of this Nordic season at TERO:

1️⃣ Maitake mushroom with stracciatella and truffle

2️⃣ Tapchae noodles with shellfish cream, caviar and king crab

3️⃣ Stawberries spiked with gochugaru and pink peppercorns

A special mention to this mouth-cleansing Blanc de Blanc from @champagnefrerejeanfreres 🥂

Thank you @reifo.kee as always for this very kind invite 🙇🏽‍♂️
A brilliant job by the @terobyreif team and special mention to @freckledphase 🍾

#itsliamcollens #invited #omakasemenu #terobyreif #tero #dubaijapanese #dubaihills #deliciousdubai #specialoccasiondinner #wheretoeatdubai #dubaibestrestaurants Less

I’ve written about Tresind Studio many times. Probably more than any other restaurant, but I’ve not written about it like this.

I was very kindly #invited to the launch of the revised Rising India menu. For those who do not know, Rising India is Tresind Studio’s tasting menu that divides India into five regions. Chef Himanshu and the team explore the culinary traditions with each region but put their own contemporary spin on regional cuisine.

I could tell you about each of the dishes in the 18-course tasting menu—and perhaps I should. However, you could read the review that I wrote about the restaurant recently which is available through the link in my profile (together with a photo diary about this current menu).

The most recent piece that I published on my Substack is more of an ode to Tresind Studio and their team. I’ve watched this kitchen changing and grow over the last few years. They were nights when the restaurant was practically empty and I sat watching a team of consummate professionals continue to serve a menu while the tables around me were cancelled. These were the bad old days.

Nowadays, you would probably struggle to get a reservation. Two Michelin stars, number 13 in world 50 Best and number two in the Middle East North Africa’s 50 Best will do that to you.

But so does word-of-mouth and the near evangelical drum beat of a few die hards like myself who firmly believe that what the kitchen is doing here is unique and worthy of your attention.

As I said in the piece, one of the ways I look back on a restaurant and the evening I spent there is would I care if the restaurant closed? There are supposedly over 13,000 restaurants in Dubai and given this volume, the answer has to be no.

But I would miss Tresind Studio deeply and the void it would leave behind would be visible from space.

So go. Go yourself to find out.

#itsliamcollens #tresindstudio #finedining #2michelinstars #indianfinedining #worlds50best #menas50best Less

It’s challenging to write about collaborations in the full length review format because—let’s be honest—they are often one off events that you won’t be able to go to again and do you want to read about that? Read about something you missed?

Therefore I started writing about collabs and other events on my Substack (which you are absolutely encouraged to subscribe to) in the form of a photo diary?

What is a photo diary?

Well, I share the experience through a photographic journal.

Ok, but isn’t that Instagram?

Frankly Instagram’s word count is too short so Substack gives me more room.

Words and room to tell you about why this collaboration between TakaHisa x La Cime was original. Room to share what fine dining collaborations are usually like. Words to delve into why TakaHisa remains one of Dubai’s best restaurants in my view—and I’m really not clear why the Michelin Guide Dubai continues to blithely overlook it.

You can learn more about La Cime, a two Michelin star restaurant in Osaka, Japan. These collabs are usually a good moment to decide whether it is worth checking out the guest restaurant. I go on to tell you that I regularly visit guest collaborators when I am on their home turf.

I hope to go to Japan for an extended stay one day; La Cime would be on my list of should-visit restaurants.

Lastly, I was invited to TakaHisa which means this incredible lunch was gifted to me. Thank you to the teams as always.

#itsliamcollens #takahisa #takahisadubai #lacime #michelinguidedubai #michelinguidejapan #photodiary #substackwriter #wheretoeatdubai #omakaselunch Less

Opening a fine dining restaurant high in the hills of the Indian Himalayas is a decision. It’s hours away from the closest airport and so remote that the odds of you just being in the area is closer to zero than one.

Audacious, as a word, exists for this kind of throw of the dice.

Why would you go? Why did I go?

I ventured to Himachal Pradesh because this part of India is unknown to me. My wife ventured to the Nepalese Himalayas twice and my only direct experience of India was limited to Delhi and Gurgaon.

If you’ve been there, you’ll know those are particular places. They don’t speak to Kerala’s backwaters, Goa’s long beaches and Mumbai’s sprawling metropolis that doubles as a zeitgeist of culture not only in India, but abroad.

With my wife and child back in the UK, I had a weekend where i could go anywhere—but I wanted to go somewhere.

Then there’s the mountains. I knew about NAAR. I met @prateeksadhu years before at @tresindstudio when he was at Masque. He’s talented, and something this far flung deserves a closer look.

It was worth it. A memorable experience and one where you can sense the restaurants best days still lie ahead.

The team is young, ambitious and gender balanced (hurray!). The ingredients are local and seasonal. The revelations kept coming, from French cheese makers living within these hills to a palate cleanser of red plums paired with a Marlborough Pinot Noir, so good, I shared the whole video of the experience.

It’s relaxed but serious about what matters. Just listen to the music playing.

A full review is up on EatGoSee and available on Substack shortly. Thank you to @payalmaharana @__.tutti___frutti.__ @sneha_09 @cinnamon_augratin @shakyhand.serves and others for a memorable night.

#itsliamcollens #restaurantnaar #naar #woodfirecooking #modernindiancuisine #himachalpradesh #indianhimalayas #indianfinedining #eatgosee #substackwriters #foodandtravelwriter Less