Lowe, Dubai: Boldly Delicious Cooking, with a Green Michelin Star
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Review: Lowe, Dubai: Boldly Delicious Cooking, with a Green Michelin Star
Lowe Dubai, six dishes, infused water, 246 dhs. Menu: bread and dips: 21 - 45 dhs, small bites: 24 - 54 dhs, small plates: 56 - 77 dhs, mains: 79 dhs - 216 dhs, desserts: 24 - 58 dhs. Lowe Dubai: KOA Canvas, Legends, Al Barari, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Information is true as of publication. For the latest information, call tel: +97143201890 or visit the Lowe Website.
Written by Liam Collens // Find other reviews here.
Lowe Dubai churns out reliably delicious, flavour-packed dishes kissed by fire. Now Green Michelin Star awarded & MENA 50 Best listed, it’s worth the journey.
The Highs
The Lows
The Highs
The Lows
Review: Lowe, Dubai: Boldly Delicious, with a Green Michelin Star
If ever you go out to the woods today, you’re sure for a big surprise. You would only venture into these woods for a reason. Hopefully, a good reason; delicious reasons, for those are the best kind. There are two known places to eat in the remote Al Barari. One is a botanical garden sanctuary serving exhausted mothers who need children to burn off wherever they get all that energy. The other place is undoubtedly a real restaurant. This other is why you are reading this review. This other is Lowe.
Lowe and I are very well-acquainted. Countless breakfasts with Mrs EatGoSee reflecting on what to do this weekend over baked broken eggs wallowing in curried onion gravy, and flanked with a flaky butter roti (76 dhs). Multiple dinners munching through Cantabrian anchovies with milky ricotta toast with a salted lemon pickle (AED50) and supple Hokkaido scallops on bottarga toasts (38 dhs each). We share (in sentiment, but not equally in portions) a glistening roasted Dover sole festooned with curry leaves and caper vinaigrette (140 dhs). Food that impresses you without trying to impress.
You see, I’ve been to Lowe so many times that I have run out of people to bring here. A quietly safe bet when the lure of new openings rings hollow. Unsuccessfully cajoled friends think it’s “too far”. So, today, I sit here on my own. Solo dining is bliss. I seldom fight with the company and etiquette does not compel me to share the best dishes. Lowe is now that quiet thing I do when no one is looking; a culinary secret that lives in a thigh-rubbingly salacious space somewhere between a guilty pleasure and near mistress-level fun.
Lowe’s breakfast menu includes the broken eggs with curried gravy & butter roti; Dover sole with curry leaves and caper vinigarette was a favourite dish on a previous menu
Lowe and I are very well-acquainted. Countless breakfasts with Mrs EatGoSee reflecting on what to do this weekend over baked broken eggs wallowing in curried onion gravy, and flanked with a flaky butter roti (76 dhs). Multiple dinners munching through Cantabrian anchovies with milky ricotta toast with a salted lemon pickle (AED50) and supple Hokkaido scallops on bottarga toasts (38 dhs each). We share (in sentiment, but not equally in portions) a glistening roasted Dover sole festooned with curry leaves and caper vinaigrette (140 dhs). Food that impresses you without trying to impress.
You see, I’ve been to Lowe so many times that I have run out of people to bring here. A quietly safe bet when the lure of new openings rings hollow. Unsuccessfully cajoled friends think it’s “too far”. So, today, I sit here on my own. Solo dining is bliss. I seldom fight with the company and etiquette does not compel me to share the best dishes. Lowe is now that quiet thing I do when no one is looking; a culinary secret that lives in a thigh-rubbingly salacious space somewhere between a guilty pleasure and near mistress-level fun.
Lowe’s breakfast menu includes the broken eggs with curried gravy & butter roti; Dover sole with curry leaves and caper vinigarette was a favourite dish on a previous menu
Lowe remains casual and unpretentious, even with Michelin & MENA 50 Best Awards
Yet, Lowe was not always this good. Glimmers of deliciousness showed themselves but hid between courses that strained to impress. Times changed. The kitchen sports a sharper intuition for what works well. Lowe’s personality is clearer, simpler but unrestrained about flavour. It’s all just a bit cool.
Lowe’s awards testify to this change. It claimed number 23 on MENA 50 Best 2022 inaugural list together with the Sustainable Restaurant Award 2022. Dubai’s Michelin Guide came knocking also honouring Lowe recently with a Green Michelin star. I, unaware of Lowe’s sustainability prowess, come simply for the food. I suspect these other busy tables groaning with happy dinners – munching on summer rolls of bitter leaves in wafu dressing (24 dhs) – also came for the same.
Lowe is a multi-award winning restaurant locally and internationally with Green Michelin Stars and MENA 50 Best awards.
Lowe’s awards testify to this change. It claimed number 23 on MENA 50 Best 2022 inaugural list together with the Sustainable Restaurant Award 2022. Dubai’s Michelin Guide came knocking also honouring Lowe recently with a Green Michelin star. I, unaware of Lowe’s sustainability prowess, come simply for the food. I suspect these other busy tables groaning with happy dinners – munching on summer rolls of bitter leaves in wafu dressing (24 dhs) – also came for the same.
Lowe is a multi-award winning restaurant locally and internationally with Green Michelin Stars and MENA 50 Best awards.
If Lowe continues to delight like this, I’ll never leave. Other restaurants could take note.
Lowe’s decor wields cold and warm; weaves practical industrial with a time gone by
It’s always the quiet ones. Walking passed Lowe’s exterior tests your resolve as there’s nothing to suggest one of the Middle East’s best restaurants lies ahead. A desert garden centre meets car park, largely under construction. The inside is reassuring and decidedly contemporary. Lowe’s interior is both stark but warm, cold but assuring, utilitarian but hospitable. It is literally miles away from DIFC’s pastiche. Rattan wicker ceiling panels and glossy woods shine with polished concrete giving way to long bench sofas the colour of soft moss brightened by oversized white cushions. The high bar seating for walk-ins, the customary “sits four” tables for those who plan ahead, and scattered, dangling green ferns add homeliness. The welcoming licensed bar harks to a time gone by while a black and white portrait of 2Pac looks down on me. The bar quietly harbours a succinct, good-value wine menu including a Touraine Sauvignon blanc which sells at 50 dhs a glass, but do yourself a favour and get the bottle (231 dhs). You’re welcome.
Lowe’s licensed bar offers both a wine and cocktail menu.
Lowe is a multi-award winning restaurant locally and internationally with Green MIchelin Stars and MENA 50 Best awards.
Lowe’s dining room is contemporary with wood, concrete, potted plants and a large open space.
Lowe’s menu is mostly structured into a selection of bits and small dishes rising to a few larger dishes sensibly shared. Lowe’s menu roams the earth disloyal to any particular cuisine but bends the best of ingredients to the will of the greater good. Labneh, olives and gochugaru have no business being together, but the oleaginous olives cradled by tart creamy labne spiked with Korean chilli flakes come together like long-lost friends (22 dhs).
My heart blooms with Kondo-levels of joy as plums of steam billow from freshly baked woodfire sesame bread (21 dhs). Pillowy puffed and charred bread warms my fingertips before plunging and dragging duvet-size hunks through burnt aubergine dip lawned with seaweed zaatar (18 dhs). A rust-stained romesco with almonds and a tidy pile of sweet crab meat (45 dhs).
Lowe’s woodfire sesame bread is a signature dish underscoring the joy in simplicity.
Lowe’s food menu offers very good value dishes; the aubergine seaweed zaatar dip is a standout option.
Silly me only ordered one of the tongue-poppingly fresh and tangy oysters with onion vinegar and a granita-like crunch of chilled tomatillo shatta (28 each). I shall make this mistake only once. A beef carpaccio arrives looking like a crime scene blanketed over truffle cream, curls of pressed fig, all scattered with French espelette pepper (77 dhs). Four deceptively filling, golden nori & ricotta fritti parcels are draped with bolshy anchovy slivers, chives and more espelette (54 dhs); this one is best shared. A corsage of verdant leaves (shisho and what might be oakleaf red) cossette fresh cubed raw fish turned in tomato jelly and aromatic saffron mayonnaise. A chilled dessert of soft cheese gelato arrives with a sorbet of sour apple with a scattering of puffed malty burghal (54 dhs). Under the surface lies smears of torched meringue and crystallised apple juice.
Lowe’s beef carpaccio with truffle cream, pressed fig & espelette pepper; Nori & ricotta fritti is crispy & salty with anchovy slivers.
Lowe’s leaves with raw fish, tomato jelly & saffron mayonnaise; soft cheese gelato with sour apple.
If Lowe continues to delight like this, I’ll never leave. Other restaurants could take note. This is one of my top ten recommendations in Dubai and will likely feature as one of my favourite places in my usual yearly round-up. My only quibble with Lowe is I do wish some dishes stayed on the menu as classics beyond the woodfired bread. I love experiencing new dishes and the joy they bring, yet, I miss those dishes that brought me back. It’s a delectable purgatory.
Dubai residents looking for something different. Third culture kid cuisine lovers. Woodfire cooking fanatics. Supporters of local, home-grown restaurants. Michelin Green Star chasers.
Lowe’s dining room is contemporary with wood, concrete, potted plants and a large open space.
Lowe’s licensed bar offers both a wine and cocktail menu.
Lowe is a multi-award winning restaurant locally and internationally with Green MIchelin Stars and MENA 50 Best awards.
Lowe’s dining room is contemporary with wood, concrete, potted plants and a large open space.
Lowe’s food menu
Lowe’s menu is mostly structured into a selection of bits and small dishes rising to a few larger dishes sensibly shared. Lowe’s menu roams the earth disloyal to any particular cuisine but bends the best of ingredients to the will of the greater good. Labneh, olives and gochugaru have no business being together, but the oleaginous olives cradled by tart creamy labne spiked with Korean chilli flakes come together like long-lost friends (22 dhs).
My heart blooms with Kondo-levels of joy as plums of steam billow from freshly baked woodfire sesame bread (21 dhs). Pillowy puffed and charred bread warms my fingertips before plunging and dragging duvet-size hunks through burnt aubergine dip lawned with seaweed zaatar (18 dhs). A rust-stained romesco with almonds and a tidy pile of sweet crab meat (45 dhs).
Lowe’s woodfire sesame bread is a signature dish underscoring the joy in simplicity.
Lowe’s food menu offers very good value dishes; the aubergine seaweed zaatar dip is a standout option.
Silly me only ordered one of the tongue-poppingly fresh and tangy oysters with onion vinegar and a granita-like crunch of chilled tomatillo shatta (28 each). I shall make this mistake only once. A beef carpaccio arrives looking like a crime scene blanketed over truffle cream, curls of pressed fig, all scattered with French espelette pepper (77 dhs). Four deceptively filling, golden nori & ricotta fritti parcels are draped with bolshy anchovy slivers, chives and more espelette (54 dhs); this one is best shared. A corsage of verdant leaves (shisho and what might be oakleaf red) cossette fresh cubed raw fish turned in tomato jelly and aromatic saffron mayonnaise. A chilled dessert of soft cheese gelato arrives with a sorbet of sour apple with a scattering of puffed malty burghal (54 dhs). Under the surface lies smears of torched meringue and crystallised apple juice.
Lowe’s beef carpaccio with truffle cream, pressed fig & espelette pepper; Nori & ricotta fritti is crispy & salty with anchovy slivers.
Lowe’s leaves with raw fish, tomato jelly & saffron mayonnaise; soft cheese gelato with sour apple.
Lowe, Would I Return?
If Lowe continues to delight like this, I’ll never leave. Other restaurants could take note. This is one of my top ten recommendations in Dubai and will likely feature as one of my favourite places in my usual yearly round-up. My only quibble with Lowe is I do wish some dishes stayed on the menu as classics beyond the woodfired bread. I love experiencing new dishes and the joy they bring, yet, I miss those dishes that brought me back. It’s a delectable purgatory.
Lowe, Who Should Come?
Dubai residents looking for something different. Third culture kid cuisine lovers. Woodfire cooking fanatics. Supporters of local, home-grown restaurants. Michelin Green Star chasers.
Lowe’s dining room is contemporary with wood, concrete, potted plants and a large open space.
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