Cafe Isan, Dubai: Tasty Thai, But I Thought I Took A Wrong Turn
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Cafe Isan, Dubai: Tasty Thai, But I Thought I Took A Wrong Turn
Cafe Isan, Level 1 Armada Avenue Hotel, Cluster P, Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Cafe Isan’s menu: starters, sides and soups, 22 - 47 dhs, salads: 33 - 94 dhs, curries: 41 - 52 dhs, mains: 42 - 52 dhs, noodles and rice: 13 - 52 dhs and desserts: 32 - 37 dhs. Licensed drinks from 29 dhs. Find the latest information on Cafe Isan's Website or call tel. +971 5 8529 1003.
Written by Liam Collens // Find other reviews here.
Cafe Isan’s Thai dishes scratch the itch from its eclectic basement-like restaurant (go for the roof terrace).
The Highs
The Lows
The Highs
The Lows
Cafe Isan, Dubai: Tasty Thai, But I Thought I Took A Wrong Turn
This food writing business creates many side effects. Weight gain, high cholesterol, but the most insidious is apathy. Dubai does very little by half so many restaurants double as mausoleums to overstimulation. Restaurant critics eat out so often it creates a derealisation effect. Yes, I can hear your tiny violins. Such culinary foreplay in Dubai has diddled with me for so long that I have become de-sensitised and *almost* numb.
Wagyu this, truffle that. I recently dined somewhere where it’s clear the chef is almost as tired as the limp, insipid chicken breast he served. It shall remain nameless, but trust me when I say you know the place.
I will be honest. I visit some places and then put my fingers on the keyboard because the SEO is a good look. The consequences are that certain much-loved haunts are overlooked. Places where I spend my dirhams. The places where you see me visiting on Instagram again and again. I am consciously writing more about such places in addition to exploring pastures new.
Wagyu this, truffle that. I recently dined somewhere where it’s clear the chef is almost as tired as the limp, insipid chicken breast he served. It shall remain nameless, but trust me when I say you know the place.
I will be honest. I visit some places and then put my fingers on the keyboard because the SEO is a good look. The consequences are that certain much-loved haunts are overlooked. Places where I spend my dirhams. The places where you see me visiting on Instagram again and again. I am consciously writing more about such places in addition to exploring pastures new.
Cafe Isan is the sort of place I could find myself again and again
Cafe Isan is not yet one of my much-loved places, but there’s certainly room for it. FYI, my favourite Thai in town is JVC’s Sticky Rice. Those sticky glazed tamarind tenders and the stir-fried clams occupy a special place in my increasingly fatty liver.
Cafe Isan and my last review about Mohalla Restaurant share three important things. Both Thai and Indian food are cuisines where my enthusiasm outstretches my knowledge. Both restaurants are very reasonably priced, and, lastly but most importantly, I enjoy most of the dishes I eat. Dishes I would order again; dishes that warrant you reading on.
Cafe Isan’s menu strikes the right balance. Plenty of the Thai greatest hits. The sort 80% of customers will repeat order those creating a sustainable business model. Cafe Isan’s chicken pad thai (AED 42) may evoke backpacker holiday memories where some gap ‘yar’ student munched a pad thai while squatting on an overturned bucket overlooking a world-class beach just before a full moon party, coma-inducing levels of Lao Khao and much, much more.
Cafe Isan’s basement tries to conjure memories of Thai beaches and markets with scenes such as beach clothes hanging from the walls and ceilings.
Cafe Isan and my last review about Mohalla Restaurant share three important things. Both Thai and Indian food are cuisines where my enthusiasm outstretches my knowledge. Both restaurants are very reasonably priced, and, lastly but most importantly, I enjoy most of the dishes I eat. Dishes I would order again; dishes that warrant you reading on.
Cafe Isan’s menu strikes the right balance. Plenty of the Thai greatest hits. The sort 80% of customers will repeat order those creating a sustainable business model. Cafe Isan’s chicken pad thai (AED 42) may evoke backpacker holiday memories where some gap ‘yar’ student munched a pad thai while squatting on an overturned bucket overlooking a world-class beach just before a full moon party, coma-inducing levels of Lao Khao and much, much more.
Cafe Isan’s basement tries to conjure memories of Thai beaches and markets with scenes such as beach clothes hanging from the walls and ceilings.
I cannot tell you whether Cafe Isan’s food is authentic. I did enjoy almost everything.
Cafe Isan and Chef Patthama Chaklang’s rise and story
Cafe Isan’s doles out plenty of lesser-known Isan specials. Dishes that peek into Chef New’s personality, her farming origins and – maybe – what her family eat when they are not feeding you.
Patthama Chaklang, aka ‘Chef New’, is Cafe Isan’s story. From a farming family in Thailand’s Isan (about half the size of Germany), a region known for sticky rice and Laotian influences, such as the fragrant rubble of Cafe Isan’s chicken larb salad (AED 39). Patthama opened Cafe Isan in Jumeirah Lake Towers to acclaim and awards. Dubai’s food cognoscenti – especially chefs with whom I am close – speak enthusiastically about Cafe Isan. Some detractors peppered into a cacophony of praise. Patthama’s rise and expansion of Cafe Isan is to be respected.
Cafe Isan is licensed with a range of Thai favourites like Chang beer and some cocktails like the Hibiscus Margarita. Cafe Isan’s menu includes this array of Thai dishes: a mussel omelette, charred baby squid, coconut ship and a papaya salad.
Patthama Chaklang, aka ‘Chef New’, is Cafe Isan’s story. From a farming family in Thailand’s Isan (about half the size of Germany), a region known for sticky rice and Laotian influences, such as the fragrant rubble of Cafe Isan’s chicken larb salad (AED 39). Patthama opened Cafe Isan in Jumeirah Lake Towers to acclaim and awards. Dubai’s food cognoscenti – especially chefs with whom I am close – speak enthusiastically about Cafe Isan. Some detractors peppered into a cacophony of praise. Patthama’s rise and expansion of Cafe Isan is to be respected.
Cafe Isan is licensed with a range of Thai favourites like Chang beer and some cocktails like the Hibiscus Margarita. Cafe Isan’s menu includes this array of Thai dishes: a mussel omelette, charred baby squid, coconut ship and a papaya salad.
Cafe Isan’s basement betrays Dubai’s bling
Turning the corner into Cafe Isan’s Armada Hotel location, I thought I took a wrong turn. A sort of Thai pub homage in a basement; both stark and striking in equal measures. Picnic tables (yes, indoors), multi-coloured plastic crates stacked like lego bricks. T-shirts and board shorts hang from the walls. I sit with an inflatable pink flamingo waiting for a friend to arrive. I try to catch a waitress’s eye for reassurance that I am indeed in the right place (service is a little slow especially for somewhere empty on a weekend).
Cafe Isan’s decor is restrained with little suggestions of Thai backpacker chic here and there.
My friend joins me. She’s both a friend and a worthy competitor. You see, we both enjoy watching each wilt and break under the weight of chillies. To dispel myths and stereotypes now: not everything at Cafe Isan is apocalyptically hot. We opted for the nuclear codes; you do not need to do the same.
I cannot tell you whether Cafe Isan’s food is authentic. I did enjoy almost everything. Grilled whole squid – tender, charred and stained in yellow hues – comes with sticky rice and half a crunchy, fresh papaya salad made with a good nose blast of chilli (AED 109). This is a perfectly good lunch alone. The dipping sauce should come in jars. The aromatic beef salad, stacked with heaps of red onions and fragrant mint, is rolled in cracked rice lending some much-admired crunch (AED 47). Hibiscus margaritas tame the flames (AED 50). A crunchy mussel omelette festooned with bean sprouts and coriander was crispy, hearty and delicious (AED 45). A brutally cold Chang beer chases fried mussels and flames down a treat (AED 39).
Among the sweats, the only delinquencies lie in two dishes. A handful of coconut shrimp that lacked the excitement and power evident in other dishes (AED 40) and a red Thai prawn curry (AED 52). The curry was not the suave luxuriant balm for which I longed. The sauce’s curious viscosity reminds me of ready-packaged egg whites. I double down on the beef salad instead.
The whole bill with water is a smidge over AED 500 for what’s decidedly too much food for two people. Walking out, delirious on Scovilles, I inspect an I LOVE THAI FOOD shirt for a price tag, none to be found.
Cafe Isan’s order during our lunch session: grilled squid with seafood sauce; spicy beef salad with red onions and herbs; crispy mussel omelette; green papaya salad; crumbed coconut prawns; our receipt with the bill.
Cafe Isan strikes that right balance of well-priced and well-placed. The food would bring me back but I am more interested in checking out their licensed roof terrace elsewhere in JLT.
Jumeirah Lake Towers residents looking for a cheap and cheerful licensed restaurant. Thai food fans hungry for nostalgia. Budget eats visitors to Dubai. Anyone on the hunt for a Fight Club-level thrashing of chilli spice.
Cafe Isan’s basement restaurant is quite restrained to put it mildly.
Cafe Isan’s decor is restrained with little suggestions of Thai backpacker chic here and there.
Cafe Isan’s food, drinks and menu
My friend joins me. She’s both a friend and a worthy competitor. You see, we both enjoy watching each wilt and break under the weight of chillies. To dispel myths and stereotypes now: not everything at Cafe Isan is apocalyptically hot. We opted for the nuclear codes; you do not need to do the same.
I cannot tell you whether Cafe Isan’s food is authentic. I did enjoy almost everything. Grilled whole squid – tender, charred and stained in yellow hues – comes with sticky rice and half a crunchy, fresh papaya salad made with a good nose blast of chilli (AED 109). This is a perfectly good lunch alone. The dipping sauce should come in jars. The aromatic beef salad, stacked with heaps of red onions and fragrant mint, is rolled in cracked rice lending some much-admired crunch (AED 47). Hibiscus margaritas tame the flames (AED 50). A crunchy mussel omelette festooned with bean sprouts and coriander was crispy, hearty and delicious (AED 45). A brutally cold Chang beer chases fried mussels and flames down a treat (AED 39).
Among the sweats, the only delinquencies lie in two dishes. A handful of coconut shrimp that lacked the excitement and power evident in other dishes (AED 40) and a red Thai prawn curry (AED 52). The curry was not the suave luxuriant balm for which I longed. The sauce’s curious viscosity reminds me of ready-packaged egg whites. I double down on the beef salad instead.
The whole bill with water is a smidge over AED 500 for what’s decidedly too much food for two people. Walking out, delirious on Scovilles, I inspect an I LOVE THAI FOOD shirt for a price tag, none to be found.
Cafe Isan’s order during our lunch session: grilled squid with seafood sauce; spicy beef salad with red onions and herbs; crispy mussel omelette; green papaya salad; crumbed coconut prawns; our receipt with the bill.
Cafe Isan, Would I Return?
Cafe Isan strikes that right balance of well-priced and well-placed. The food would bring me back but I am more interested in checking out their licensed roof terrace elsewhere in JLT.
Cafe Isan, Who Should Go?
Jumeirah Lake Towers residents looking for a cheap and cheerful licensed restaurant. Thai food fans hungry for nostalgia. Budget eats visitors to Dubai. Anyone on the hunt for a Fight Club-level thrashing of chilli spice.
Cafe Isan’s basement restaurant is quite restrained to put it mildly.
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