Our mission to dig up new good eats in Dubai this time takes us to exploring the busy district of Al Satwa. The busy place is never short of delightful few finds thanks to the influx of expats from all over the world. One such is a Pinoy buffet place that’s one for the books—the Red Table Restaurant.
The restaurant veers away from fancy interior, safe to say that it is an unassuming dining place that lets its food selection reveal its own. The flavorful aroma suffusing the place makes you want to linger over the delicious Pinoy cuisines at their eat-all-you-can station. Along with the impeccable service of the Pinoy servers, the Red Table buffet gives that happy excursion of our native taste nowhere else available in Dubai. It is said that for a restaurant to be successful, it has to step out of making typical food. This is exactly what’s good about Red Table.
The more than 25-year casual restaurant has an extensive selection of dishes that covers a broad spectrum of different cultural influences. Aside from Filipino food, it also serves Japanese, Thai, and Chinese gastronomy. To make sure that diners enjoy fresh, hot cuisine at every turn, Red Table prepares food by batch made with no preservatives whatsoever.
The menu changes daily as well. But perhaps the most endearing discoveries were Pinoys’ all-time favorite adobo, chicken inato, beef bulalo, and kare-kare. The version of Japanese maki rolls, and tempura are also luscious. The restaurant serves up to 16 dishes and a wide choice of mouthwatering desserts every day. At the stir fry station, a speedy cook also shows how ingredients, of your choice, are cooked.
The good thing about the restaurant is its keenness in serving fresh feast. Filipina owner Emily Gurnani says: “We know exactly where to get fresh ingredients, as we believe that the greenness of vegetables, the freshness of fish and meat are just as important as the taste.
Originally, Red Table was an Iranian-Arabic restaurant. Although the restaurant still serves this type of food, its owners added a separate space for the Pinoy and eastern cuisine buffet. Gurnani explains that their commitment to fresh, honest food emanates from their working experience at supermarkets that spans decades. Having worked at a supermarket for a long time, Gurnani says she knows how to spot fresh and spoiled. It’s no wonder why her restaurant has high regard to the quality of ingredients. The Filipina came to Dubai in 2000.
She worked at a supermarket in Satwa for four years, where she met her husband Dinesh Gurnani, who’s from India. Today, the couple also owns a few branches of supermarkets in Deira. When they took over Red Table in January last year, they thought of including Pinoy dishes. Gurnani says Pinoys have a strong concept of “fast” food service, with varied taste buds, which is why they decided to add Asian cuisine buffet to the restaurant.
Red Table’s unmistakable dining experience is open from 5pm to 11 pm. For orders: 0523143573, Ramadan timings: Iftar- 2am. Deliveries and take away: 4pm onwards.
