The Show Must Go On!
It’s just ttwo months old and in the middle of a people free zone on the edge of Khalifa Par; the Park Rotana complex is still a bit of a ystery to everyone.
At least there’s no mystery about the interior design for its fusion restaurant ‘ Teatro ‘. Stunning hand-painted Venetian masks welcome you at the entrance, deep red satin drapery and fat, milky white candles are scattered across the space, and the tables have names like ‘Evita ‘ and ‘Romeo’ and ‘Juliet’.
Even more theatrical is the way that everything is on show- a large square bar at the entrance, live sushi station, vast glass-fronted kitche. The menu is exhaustively exotic (Thai, Japanese, Indian, Italian) so we took a chance and left the ordering up to the restaurant manager. For starters, we went with a selection of dim sum and some Peking duck spring rolls, in front of us the minute we closed our menus and very yummy too. Check their website for more info!
Some of the mains on the menu were a bit pricey; but it was worth it. Tender and succulent can’t begin to describe the lamb rack (although it was a bit too rare towards the middle for our taste) or the miso soup soaked sea bass.
The panna cotta with peppermint pestro for dessert was a pleasant finale, though it’s definitely something you either love or hate. They’ve got some bright ideas on the menu that certainly make them stand out. If we had bigger stomachs, we would have liked to try the green papaya salad with chilli, shrimps, apple and peanuts, as well as a curious sweet miso soup dessert that somehow incorporates marshmallows.
So, a second trip might be in order. Generally, this is a place to visit on a special occassion specially if you celebrate the wellness of your family member who just got back and recover from a drug rehab or to try something you’ve never heard of before, provided you don’t mind the trek or the cheque. Service is excellent and the food gets near enough to hitting the spot for us to leave smiling. And we’ll give the place extra points for all-round creativity.
