The Dubai Food Festival will set the culinary world alight when it returns on 25th February with its widest ever line-up of new activities and promotions, including the first ever Dubai Restaurant Week. The Dubai Food Festival will offer a city wide showcase of the emirate’s gastronomic offering to thousands of visitors from across the region. The 2016 Festival promises a packed 17 day programme of new events, celebrity chefs, activities and promotions. We can hardly wait!
Hosted under the new ‘A Taste Celebration’ theme, the 2016 Festival’s stunning city-wide programme of food events and activities will promote the diversity, creativity and multicultural nature of Dubai’s culinary offering.
Dubai Restaurant Week
Launching on the first day of the Festival for 10 days, Dubai Restaurant Week will see 30 of the city’s best fine dining restaurants offer a three course set menu at the exceptional price of AED 189 per person, giving you a great opportunity to explore Dubai’s fine dining scene.
The star-studded restaurant line-up includes favourites run by international and Michelin-starred chefs including Gordon Ramsay (Bread Street Kitchen), Atul Kochhar (Rang Mahal), Heinz Beck (Social), Vineet Bhatia (Ashiana) and Alfredo Russo (Vivaldi).
Offering an eclectic mix of cuisines and flavours, other participants include: Alta Badia, Atelier M, Boca, Café Belge, Fogueira, Fume, Garden, Hoi An, Junoon, JW’s Steakhouse, Kiku, Mint Leaf of London, Okku, Pai Thai, Positano, Rivington Grill, Sea Fu, Seven Sands, The Croft, The Hide, The Ivy, Thiptara, Yuan and Zheng He’s.
Each offering a unique dining experience, guests will be spoilt for choice with menu highlights including: Hawaiian tuna tartar with avocado and truffle juice at Atelier M; Sea bass crudo with charred avocado, amori black garlic and corn chips at Sea Fu; Home smoked salmon tikka at Ashiana by Vineet; hot smoked Norwegian salmon, teriyaki sauce and pickled cucumber at Fumé and Quail two ways with braised lentils and seasonal wild mushrooms at The Ivy.
The Festival Hub
The revamped Beach Canteen will be the Festival’s free to attend, go-to hub destination, featuring 15 delicious home-grown restaurant concepts and celebrity chef appearances, unique beach dining experiences, as well as local bands, DJs, children’s activities, beach sports and an official Festival information kiosk.
Alongside 15 delicious home-grown restaurant concepts and celebrity chef appearances, Beach Canteen will serve up all-new features such as fitness classes, open-mic nights, storytelling by the sea, a farmer’s market and fashion market, as well as local bands, DJs, children’s activities and beach sports.
Couples and friends will enjoy the new open-mic nights each Monday and Wednesday, where the Beach Canteen opens the floor to local talent. All of Dubai’s musicians are invited to participate by submitting a 15 second entry video by 8th February to be shortlisted. With each night themed under a different genre: Jazz on 29th February; Pop and top 40 covers on 2nd March; Latino on 7th March; and Rock and alternative on 9th March, a winner will be chosen from each genre. Entrants will have the chance to win a delicious complimentary dinner at Beach Canteen on the night of their performance.
For those looking for a unique outdoors after-school activity with the children, there will be Story-telling by the Sea in association with BookMunch Café which will take place on the beach each Tuesday with a selection of books inspired by food.
The 2016 Beach Canteen will include special events such as Best of the Farmers Market, where visitors can buy from a selection of different Dubai market’s best vendors, before indulging in their purchases in a picturesque picnic setting at the beach.
Fashion-lovers and friends will love Design on the Decks, a daytime beach market featuring different design and fashion vendors and a one-day special fashion-inspired menu available from Beach Canteen’s 15 restaurants.
‘Music and Mocktails’ will plate up an evening of international music, celebrating the sounds of different nationalities, with a delectable range of mixed fruit beverages.
And by popular demand, Food and Film nights will return, focusing on the longstanding link between food and storytelling by giving audiences the opportunity to experience the two served together. Set under the stars, Friday and Saturday nights will be movie nights at Beach Canteen, showcasing family-friendly films and restaurants offering film-inspired tastes.
Beach Canteen will be the ticketing hub for all the major Dubai Food Festival events. Other highlights of the 2016 Dubai Food Festival will include: Dubai Restaurant Week, Hidden Gems, Fatafeat Kitchen; Street Nights; Eat the World DXB; Taste of Dubai; Kids Dine For Free; and a range of signature restaurant-led events.
Hidden Gems
Also adding extra spice to the Dubai Food Festival’s line-up is the new ‘Hidden Gems’ celebration, in which local residents and regular regional visitors will be invited to help unveil the ‘undiscovered’ side of Dubai’s thriving restaurant scene.
These are the ‘unsung heroes’ of the food scene in Dubai, the hidden treasures that locals know and love to visit. To celebrate the Hidden Gems addition, Dubai Food Festival has launched a competition on the Hidden Gems website enticing people to submit their favourite gem. Entrants will have the chance to win three nights in Dubai with flights* for two people in addition to one luxury restaurant experience from the participating Dubai Restaurant Week List and one Hidden Gems tour experience for two people with Gulf Photo Plus.
And there’s more…
Other highlights of the 2016 Dubai Food Festival will include: the Arabic favourite Fatafeat Kitchen featuring demonstrations from celebrity chefs in Galleries Lafayette, The Dubai Mall; Street Nights; the star-studded Taste of Dubai; the family-favourite Kids Dine For Free promotion; and a range of signature restaurant-led events.
Dubai Food Festival runs from 25th February – 12th March 2016. For more information on the Festival’s schedule and details on how to register for or buy tickets for events, visit www.dubaifoodfestival.com.
Find the Dubai Food Festival on social media, using the hashtag #DubaiFoodFest:
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DxbFoodFest
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/dxbfoodfest
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/dxbfoodfest
