It is just the perfect weather for restaurants with outdoor seating areas to shine. They are preferred when diners are looking for just a little more than good food. Dubai, on the other hand, has many delightful restaurants and cafes that offer great food, outdoor seating and spectacular views.

On the hunt for the next big thing, I heard so much about this new neighborhood eatery in Downtown Dubai. Fümé is a homegrown casual dining restaurant that offers international cuisine. The dishes on the menu are based on comfort food with a family sharing concept, the food is set in the middle where diners casually serve themselves. Fümé means smoked in French, and it refers to their in-house smoking of the finest meats and fish, which includes smoking, pickling, preserving, hot and cold smoking, curing and braising.

The venue consists of two levels and an outdoor seating area, all overlooking Mohammed bin Rashid boulevard and Burj Khalifa.

As soon as you walk in you cannot miss the chic industrial design of the indoor area. It is adorned with vintage chandeliers and artwork made from a variety of interesting materials on concrete walls. When indoors, you will love the full view windows overlooking the outside area and letting in a little sun to shine over the beautiful setting. This area seats around 130 diners on round wooden tables and chairs.

The outdoor area is my favorite, the view is just beautiful and seats up to 80 diners on wooden tables and chairs with steel legs. On each table, there is an aluminum can filled with cutlery as a center piece.

The award-winning menu of home cooked comfort food is perfect for sharing with friends and family. It was inspired from tales of gourmet adventures throughout Europe, North and South-East Asia, where a passion for the Asian style of balancing sweet, salty, sour and spicy flavors are incorporated into European style dishes.

Yasmine, my friend, and I choose their best selling items on the menu. We started with Fümé Salad consisting of watermelons cubes, duck, cashews and hoisin sauce. The salad is both colorful and refreshing. The sweet crunchy watermelon, the soft juicy duck and salty cashews make for a perfect combination. This dish is highly recommended anytime of the year.

Then we had the Francois Vol-au-vent. This puff pastry is fluffy and crunchy; it is filled with creamy diced mushrooms, spinach and baked tomatoes and is topped with shaved Parmesan. Need I say more?

We also tried the smoked salmon because we were tempted to try the Norwegian salmon that is smoked in house. The salmon was exquisitely fatty, and beautifully smoky and served with a side of crispy pita, guacamole, raw onion and capers.

Next up was the main course. Chock ribs comprise six hour-smoked beef chuck ribs and a side of slaw. Anything that has been braised for six hours must be good, and this did not fail me either. I cannot explain how delicious this dish is; the boneless glazed beef is crunchy on the outside and is so tender in the inside that it actually fell apart. The glaze is a combination of sweet and spicy perfection. This dish is a must try.

Another recommended main dish is the 3 Lamb Cutlets with Korean spice pickled red cabbage. The cutlets were bursting with fat and flavor.

On the side, we needed to choose something green just so that we could pretend we are healthy. But our choice did not fail us; we chose the wok-fried fine green beans that were fresh, flavorful and crunchy. Mac N Cheese side comes in a small pot and reminded me of my childhood. You must also try the silky mash potatoes, it was indeed silky smooth.

My favorite part of the meal comes in the last, the dessert. The Banoffee pie consisted of cookie crumbs, caramelized bananas, whipped cream and peanut butter layered up in a parfait in a jar. Yes instead of toffee, it’s peanut butter. I wasn’t a big fan of this combination, it wasn’t balanced. We also tried the Bounty bar as it was recommended by the chef. I didn’t really enjoy it either, it tasted exactly like the chocolate bar but a lot heavier.

I now know why Fümé is a family style neighborhood eatery, it is the best way to describe a fulfilling and comforting home cooked meal. It is simply Fumazing.

Opening hours: From 8:00 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Expect to pay: AED180 per person.

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