Review: Alici Restaurant, Dubai: Dubai’s Best Brunch?

Alici’s brunch opens generously with the raw selection featuring a quartet of Dibba Bay oysters on crushed ice, chilled slices of pearly amberjack, a sea bass tartare and a tuna tartare. It is a light, fresh opening that kicks off a 13-dish brunch. The locally-sourced Dibba Bay oysters are remorselessly snuffled by me as others look on begging for clemency with their eyes; none is coming. Our pearly amberjack with pomegranate, apple and lemon dressing is crisp and clean. It is suitable accompanied by our sea bass tartare with spiralized cucumber and celery. There is a deft, restrained touch about the starters that Chef Dominicio carries ably from my a la carte experiences at Alici to this brunch. Dubai always wants to project that ‘more is more’ where Alici knows where to stop.





The service at Alici’s brunch is superb and engaging. Our waiter, Shafiq, glides between tables wielding a magnum of rose. Shafiq is a reliably generous pour with an eagle eye and Jedi-like sense for when my wine glass approaches perilously low.

Further courses arrive. Standout dishes included the calamari in guazzetto, a homely dish of sauteed, scored baby squid with cooked datterino tomatoes and black olives. The calamari wants doorknob-sized wedges of fresh bread to drag through the tomato-rich sauce. A dish ready to convert the most squid sceptical.



Our parmigiana di melanzane delivers a soft, whole aubergine partially peeled and reconstructed together with buffalo mozzarella and parmesan on a bed of San Marzano tomatoes and basil. This dish together with the bedsheet-thin pizza pala offers vegetarian options and some reprieve for people who may want a break from seafood. The pizza pala is enjoyable but probably not strictly necessary as a carb plank served among a multitude of courses. At 13 course, this feels like the one I don’t need, but reasonable people will disagree.



Our appetizers are rounded off with the Italo-Dubai institution: burrata with organic heirloom tomatoes and basil oil (another vegetarian option) and arancini al ragu di mare. The burrata is milky, sweet and supported by the ripe tomatoes and pools of aromatic basil oil. The arancini are some of the best I have eaten in Dubai but, still, I find it hard to get excited about arancini especially now after nearly 10 dishes. Reasonable people will disagree with the following: the pizza and the arancini do not add much to an already extensive brunch menu. Still, looking around, many snuffle them without so much as a blink.

Alici’s brunch main courses

Alici invites guests to order one main course from the menu options. Some may consider this limiting but the idea of grazing through more than one main course felt like a threat. There is a lot of food here and my choice of loose-fitting polo shirt never felt better.

Main courses are lifted from the a la carte menu featuring a few Alici classics such as the ravioli di stocco a datterino, tagliatelle al tartufo and the linguine “gentile” all’astice with whole lobster and tomato sauce. Three main courses are available to share between two to four people including the very popular branzino al sale where a salt-crusted sea bass arrives on a beautifully painted tray. The staff crack and dismantle the sea salt armour from the sea bass and serve it tableside. These gestures help solidify the communal Southern Italian dining experience washed down with Soave Classico, the Alici brunch house white.

Our group orders the grilled salmon fillets, grilled grain-fed baby chicken and the homemade spaghetti with sea urchin and amberjack tartare.


The grilled salmon fillets are a spring-like dish accompanied with asparagus, broad beans, baby potatoes, courgette and a carpaccio-thin confit Amalfi lemon wheel. It is light, capable cooking that goes down easily with a touch of smokiness from the grill. The baby chicken is a hearty portion with gargantuan potato wedges dusted with ash. This dish would not be out of place at a grill house.



My homemade spaghetti with sea urchin and amberjack tartare is a beautifully-presented tangle of spaghetti tresses stained in a warm blush of sea urchin that lends creaminess and subtle richness. Diced morsels of amberjack tartare relieve the richness with freshness. This is my second opportunity to eat this dish at Alici and, this time, I found the spaghetti to be firmer than al dente but nonetheless enjoyable. Some will find the texture divisive especially diners like Mrs EatGoSee who like their pasta ‘cooked’, as she says.

Alici brunch desserts

Brunch desserts are often an afterthought. The sweets are often morsels carrying all the character and passion of a corporate soulless ‘international all-day dining’ hotel buffet. Others go a bit try-hard and fall in love with the concept over delivery (I am looking at you Bull & Bear).



Alici successfully turns out desserts deserving of a more pricey brunch. The chocolate tarte studded with sea salt and a cooling vanilla ice cream is simple but indulgent. A trio of ice creams reminds diners that gelato and Italian ice cream is still one of the best around. An impressive torch meringue arrives like a marshmallow hedgehog begging to be broken with a spoon. A small plate of what could be bomboloni (Italian doughnuts) want to be dunked into a macchiato but, overall, I think could be left behind as three desserts after so many courses it more than enough.

Alici’s brunch overall

Alici successfully sets itself apart from a plethora of Dubai brunches. Alici leans into its core value proposition which is sophistication, elegance, some of the best service in Dubai and cooking with a clear vision. Alici is a seafood restaurant for discerning diners prepared to spend money and expect a return on their investment.

Exceptional views on the terrace watching the Dubai Marina skyline fade from sandy to pinky-twilight is nursed by cocktails. Some diners like me will stay for digestifs, coffees and amaros.

Would I Return to the Alici Brunch and who should come?

Absolutely, it is one of the best brunches in town. It is not, however, a budget option and so would not be a brunch I would enjoy regularly. Dubai does offer more expensive brunches, usually buffet affairs in “luxury hotels”. I suspect those brunches are food stock liquidation exercises thinly guised as a bounty of choice. Happy to be told I am wrong.

Alici’s brunch feels better suited to special occasions like out of town visits, parents visiting, goodbye or birthday brunches.

The Alici brunch is aimed at a 30 something and 30 plus crowd. Fans of Southern Italian food and seafood. People who come to brunch predominantly to sit with loved ones, eat and enjoy table service. Diners looking for pink flamingos and pool parties while biting their lip and dry humping the air will find plenty of options along the nearby JBR. Enjoy.