I thought I was in an underwater restaurant

After checking Picasso’s Exhibit in Gallery One of Emirates Palace, we craved for seafoods for lunch. We landed to Sayad Restaurant which is inside the palace. The area next to the huge aquarium (reminds me of Exotik Restaurant) near the entrance is filled with fresh flowers as shown above.

As we walked to the tables, I actually felt I was under the water. The whole place will give you mixed feelings of serenity and freshness. The restaurant is themed abyss-blue and in one area you will see the stocks of live sea creatures waiting to be cooked.

We began with the spinach bread and spicy flakes. The flakes have a distinct nice taste that made me want to finish it. The sauteed mussels in lemon juice and coconut is served with beef chorizo sausage and coriander. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The roasted hammour with king prawn on top is one of their bestsellers. I honestly didn’t find it outstanding. I was just impressed with the huge prawn, after all he’s a king prawn.

The deep fried hammour nuggets and orange-colored potato wedges were interesting. It oddly yet palatably tasted like fish and chicken combined. The waiter suggested to try their bestseller tiramisu for dessert. But no, I think I am so acquainted with sugarless or not, whatever kind of tiramisu. We ordered banana and chocolate samosa instead.

As you can see, I didn’t really like much the roasted hammour. The french wine sustained my appetite. But it was expensive. It costs (worth it) USD 16 per glass. I just wanted to try the nicest one, but there are so many options as you can check from one of the photos.

I had high expectations about the chocolate samosa. With the banana, it was served in a coconut sticky rice (so thin), ice cream and pandan emulsion. The chocolate basically tasted like champorado.

Dining here is quite expensive, all of that costed at least PhP7,000 or USD160 (including the almost 20% service charge). That’s understandable because you’re eating inside the palace. You surely can enjoy better seafood dishes which are priced reasonably in other places. But let’s pretend that they’re charging fairly - for the ambience and underwater feeling.