Alici Seafood Restaurant, Dubai: Dubai’s Best Italian Restaurant?

Alici is situated in relatively new Bluewaters Dubai. At the time of this review, Bluewaters can firmly be described as work in progress. Most units remain shuttered and the Wheel remains under construction for Expo 2020. It is brought to you by the same team behind Tuscan Bistro, Orange Hospitality.

Alici is one of the few (good) restaurants open with an enviously placed view overlooking the sandy Dubai Marina skyline and teal waters of the Arabian Sea alive with jet skis and yachts. There is very generous seating space inside but you want a seat upstairs. The floor-to-ceiling windows invite floods of sunshine into the dining room with uninterrupted views of the skyline. You will have a bright sunlit rich, beautiful view over lunch. At sunset, you can watch Dubai Marina transform from sand to pink to a fiery sunset. The outside terrace is replete with trees in cobalt pots making for excellent, shady al fresco dining in the more forgiving winter months.



The spacious floor is enhanced by the neutral colour scheme with pops of cobalt among the earth tones and smart grey blue and white stripe chairs. Olive trees and framed watercolours or sketches make Alici feel more homely. The cosy upstairs bar is adjacent to the open plan kitchen with a direct view of the chefs hard at work. Old Italian music gently piped through the restaurant.

It would take an individual incapable of love to not be effortlessly charmed and soothed by the dining room. You must get a seat upstairs in front of the windows or in the more private seating area on the left in its own room.

Let’s talk Alici’s menu, shall we?

The menu is primarily seafood (the clue was in the name) but there are a number of options available in case someone doesn’t want that (but query why you are here).

A raw, oyster and caviar selection kick off the menu followed by starters, followed by antipasti starters, soups, pizza, pasta, mains and side courses.

I order the grilled octopus with beluga lentils with a saffron red pepper romanesco sauce (85 dhs, €21, £18, $23) followed by the oven-baked Atlantic halibut with clams, razor clams, mussels and a seafood broth (135 dhs, €33, £28, $36).

The octopus arrives strikingly like a latticed weave of meaty, pale amethyst tentacles collapsed on a rubble of moss-coloured lentils; it looks like a scene where this octopus violently crashed upon a pebbled beach but decided to style it out.



The comparison does not end there. The octopus is perfectly cooked: firm but yielding with a soft, sweet and slightly charred flavour. The charred smokiness is supported by the inherently earthy lentils. It is a modern surf and turf interpretation save that the pulses supplements where meat would be. This is a very large starter both in portion size and price. It could easily be the main course. It demands a white wine bursting with gooseberries or a young, fruity red – unusually, I am not drinking this lunchtime. A mistake as Alici import its own wine from vineyards in Italy, of course.

The saffron red pepper romanesco is a beautiful apricot colour and brings a subtle fruitiness to temper these earthy lentils. I recommend the kitchen leans into the saffron or red pepper a little more as neither come through strongly.

Oven baked Atlantic halibut with clams, razor clams, mussels and a seafood broth

A steaky, thick wedge of halibut arrives in a rouge pool of its own sauce. Our protagonist is accompanied by candy-sweet tomatoes, black olives, razor clams, clams and mussels topped with thyme springs and basil. If you enjoy the traditional Sicilian fish stew of similar ingredients then you’re in for a treat.



The fish is firm but yielding. Every ingredient is very well cooked and the in umido cooking gives a harmonious continuity throughout bringing the dish together. It’s a casually plated dish which is more complicated than it appears. I quickly regret scarfing the breadbasket making a schoolboy error leaving no-carb sponges behind to steep in this sauce. The black olives are divisive perhaps but work when pulled together with the rest of the dish. It works better than another place I reviewed previously attempting to make a dish similar in spirit.

And then there was dessert: cannolis

Cannolis remind me of weekends in Venice weaving through its ages alleyways stumbling across small cake shops their windows glistened featuring hefty cannolis dipped in chocolate and jewelled in hazelnuts or pistachios. A handheld sugary “energy bar” on the go for touristy ramblings.



A trio of cannolis arrive: chocolate, orange and pistachio. They appear like long stuffed finger cuffs wrapped delicately around scented cream fillings. The crisp cannoli shatters when pried open like a clam. My favourite is the aromatic orange cannoli that leaves a soft clean citrus taste to cut through the darker chocolate and toasted nutty pistachio.

But wait, there is more

Petit fours arrive unexpectedly together with the double macchiato I ordered challenging even my resilient levels of greed. Naturally they are gobbled gratefully.

Would I return to Alici?

Frankly, I cannot stop talking about the place and neither can others like here and here. My only mistake was to drive here making it impossible to traverse the seriously good looking and reasonably priced wine menu. A mistake I shall only make once. Wine starts at 50 dhs (€12, £11, $14) by the glass and 230 dhs by the bottle (€56, £48, $62). This pales in comparison to some lesser restaurants where bottles start around 700 dhs like the land that shame forgot (€170, $190, £147).

Let’s talk about price. It’s a fine dining menu and, to that end, you should come with expectations fully managed. However, I found 400 dhs for this quality of cooking, ambience and service to be very competitive save that none of these dirhams included alcohol which would have been on top. Hmm…

Why should you come here?

You are celebrating a special occasion, business lunch or gathering among friends who know and enjoy food, especially seafood. There are some options here exclusively for groups which look very good.