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Terra Secca, Al Wathba, Abu Dhabi: Unfulfilled Potential
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Terra Secca, Al Wathba, Abu Dhabi: Unfulfilled Potential
Terra Secca, 2 starters, 2 mains, 2 desserts, 1 bottle of red wine, 1 large mineral water (not local water, shame): estimated 945 dhs excluding service (US$257, £194, €227). The meal was included in a full-board package at Al Wathba Luxury Collection, prices are estimated based on the menu list price. Antipasti: 75-120 dhs, soup: 95 dhs, primi: 90-15 dhs, mains: 145-550 dhs, desserts: 45-110 dhs.
Written by Liam Collens // See other reviews here.
Terra Secca, Al Wathba did not improve with a change in hotel management. It does not live up to its potential to be a destination restaurant in a desert retreat.
The Highs
The Lows
The Highs
Outside pastoral dining is perfect for Abu Dhabi’s winter evenings
Enjoyable selection of Piedmont and other Italian wine
The Lows
The food execution does not live up to its potential
Beef cheek with polenta is an unmitigated disaster, one of the worst dishes I had this year
Service is amiable but disorganised
Review: Terra Secca, Al Wathba, Luxury Collection Spa and Resort
I know Terra Secca and, plot twist, even reviewed it once before. Al Wathba changed management since my last visit during a global pandemic; cradled from Jumeirah to the arms of the Marriott. The award-winning Terra Secca survived the toss.
Truth be told, this Terra Secca review stems from my second attempted visit but my third visit overall.
You see, the night before, I booked a table for one with the full intention to privately gorg– I mean – judiciously cherry-pick a representative selection of Terra Secca’s menu.
Yet, Al Wathba’s crack reception team actually booked me into Bait Al Hanine, the resort’s all-day dining buffet. Friends and acquaintances will know there are but a few words in the culinary world that drive fear through this black heart. They are “child-friendly”, “families welcome” and “all-day dining”. Those institutions have their place, but I have no place in them.
Terra Secca is an Italian restaurant within the Al Wathba Luxury Collection Desert Resort and Spa.
Truth be told, this Terra Secca review stems from my second attempted visit but my third visit overall.
You see, the night before, I booked a table for one with the full intention to privately gorg– I mean – judiciously cherry-pick a representative selection of Terra Secca’s menu.
Yet, Al Wathba’s crack reception team actually booked me into Bait Al Hanine, the resort’s all-day dining buffet. Friends and acquaintances will know there are but a few words in the culinary world that drive fear through this black heart. They are “child-friendly”, “families welcome” and “all-day dining”. Those institutions have their place, but I have no place in them.
Terra Secca is an Italian restaurant within the Al Wathba Luxury Collection Desert Resort and Spa.
Terra Secca should hit the right notes, but falls short
Terra Secca bathed me with a profound empathy for the swarms of women I know on Bumble. The ones who endure the scant human remains of disingenuous men. I now know how it feels to have all my optimism and hope blithely betrayed. To be left asking ‘why is this happening to me again?’. Only a bottle of Dolcetto d’Alba nursed us through (400 dhs).
Terra Secca’s open plan kitchen includes a pizza over and these striking brass lamps as a design feature.
Terra Secca’s open plan kitchen includes a pizza over and these striking brass lamps as a design feature.
Terra Secca bathed me with a profound empathy for the swarms of women I know on Bumble. The ones who endure the scant human remains of disingenuous men. I now know how it feels to have all my optimism and hope blithely betrayed. To be left asking ‘why is this happening to me again?’.
Terra Secca’s outside dining is the better option, especially in ‘winter’
The decor? If I were released into this dining space after a blindfolded abduction, I would, first, thank you for letting me go then quickly surmise I am in a hotel restaurant. Dark, businesslike furniture that only satisfies a cost-focused procurement officer. Yes there are thoughtful touches like well-fitted mid-century furniture and metal-accented light fittings dangling before an open-plan kitchen. Yet, the Arabesque partitions leave a lot to be desired. Dim lighting warms the ivory cream walls that stretch towards a spacious, dining room designed to allow plenty of room between diners murmuring in hushed tones while swirling cherry-rich Franz Haas Pinot Nero (450 dhs) long before we called such arrangements social distancing. Terra Secca may mean ‘dry land’ but, mercifully, it is very licensed.
You want to sit outside. The pastoral, alfresco dining is a welcomed departure from Terra Secca’s beige interior. The patio dining under flickering candlelight affords front row seats to a bucolic scene of inquisitive horses roaming freely in a small paddock.
Terra Secca’s dining room is nicely executed but does feel a little paint by numbers.
Mercifully, the Marriott team ejected the cold seafood salad smothered in a blush, tooth-itchingly sweet raspberry dressing. Goodbye to the grilled veal chop-interpretation of vitello tonnato that, like a marshmallow car key, just did not work.
The current menu reads as a congregation of the UAE stalwarts. Predictably, there is burrata campana (95 dhs, really?!), sauteed shrimp with garlic and olive oil (85 dhs), tagliatelle with porcini mushrooms and black truffle (as if by protocol, 155 dhs) and a 1300g wagyu tomahawk steak that would make Fred Flintstone blush (550 dhs). The house tiramisu sold out before we arrived (70 dhs).
Terra Secca’s parmigiana di melanzane was the best dishes of the night; the Dolcetto red wine inspired Piedmont memories.
Terra Secca peaked at a high average. An eggplant parmigiana crusted in a love triangle of parmesan, mozzarella and tomato was the only high (75 dhs). Alici still makes the UAE’s parmigiani di melanzane IMHO. Mrs EatGoSee enjoyed her burrata but, at 95 dhs, we mostly paid for its long-haul flight from Bologna (source assumed).
My main course of braised beef cheek was an unmitigated disaster (155 dhs); a dish single-handedly fighting a bare-knuckle, cage match of shame. A cheek crowned as The Worst Dish to pass these lips in 2021. Like the Macarena, Terra Secca’s beef cheek is memorable for all the wrong reasons. The braised beef cheek with polenta arrived inside a copper pot making it nearly impossible to eat. This high-sided crockery fortress failed to protect me from what lay inside. The polenta is surreptitiously replaced with mashed potato that buttresses a beef cheek fetid with a gagging taste of sardines. And I like sardines. I nibbled at it a few times bewitched in a purgatory of confusion, disbelief and abuse.
There are only two reasons why this dish left the kitchen. One, the chef failed to taste it and failed to notice the polenta was missing. They let the dish leave the pass. We call this negligence where I am from. Alternatively, the chef tasted the dish and found it acceptable. Where I am from, we have no words for this.
Terra Secca’s braised beef cheek was one of the worst dishes I’ve eaten this year; the burrata campana is paint by numbers.
We shrug at Mrs EatGoSee’s homemade pappardelle in beef ragu that zips, tellingly, of uncooked tomato paste’s metallic sharpness. Oddly, homemade pappardelle (read: fresh?) lacks the luxurious bounciness of fresh pasta and wants a few more moments lingering in hot water. Oh well Terra Secca, even the masters get that wrong, isn’t that right, L’Atelier?
The pineapple carpaccio with passion fruit caviar and coconut foam is form over substance (55 dhs) and the chocolate gelato and passion fruit sorbet succeeds in passing a trade description test (45 dhs).
Terra Secca’s pappardelle is perfunctory lacking depth of flavour; thankfully bread and olives are served.
Terra Secca’s pineapple carpaccio did not deliver compared to similar dishes enjoyed elsewhere; the gelato and sorbet were not more than fine.
I cannot imagine a scenario where I return to Terra Secca, other than being a guest at Al Wathba. A destination restaurant opportunity is squandered. I encourage Al Wathba to elevate Terra Secca as a showpiece restaurant for the benefit of a captive audience. The inaugural 50 Best MENA list is due to be debuted next year IN ADU DHABI. This confirms global interest in the UAE’s superb dining scene; wouldn’t you like to be a part of it, Terra Secca?
Al Wathba guests seeking refuge from all-day dining. Steak lovers and pizza eaters (they looked happier). Equestrian enthusiasts. Italian wine lovers. People who got the tiramisu early.
You want to sit outside. The pastoral, alfresco dining is a welcomed departure from Terra Secca’s beige interior. The patio dining under flickering candlelight affords front row seats to a bucolic scene of inquisitive horses roaming freely in a small paddock.
Terra Secca’s dining room is nicely executed but does feel a little paint by numbers.
Tecca Secca’s food: third time lucky?
Mercifully, the Marriott team ejected the cold seafood salad smothered in a blush, tooth-itchingly sweet raspberry dressing. Goodbye to the grilled veal chop-interpretation of vitello tonnato that, like a marshmallow car key, just did not work.
The current menu reads as a congregation of the UAE stalwarts. Predictably, there is burrata campana (95 dhs, really?!), sauteed shrimp with garlic and olive oil (85 dhs), tagliatelle with porcini mushrooms and black truffle (as if by protocol, 155 dhs) and a 1300g wagyu tomahawk steak that would make Fred Flintstone blush (550 dhs). The house tiramisu sold out before we arrived (70 dhs).
Terra Secca’s parmigiana di melanzane was the best dishes of the night; the Dolcetto red wine inspired Piedmont memories.
Terra Secca peaked at a high average. An eggplant parmigiana crusted in a love triangle of parmesan, mozzarella and tomato was the only high (75 dhs). Alici still makes the UAE’s parmigiani di melanzane IMHO. Mrs EatGoSee enjoyed her burrata but, at 95 dhs, we mostly paid for its long-haul flight from Bologna (source assumed).
My main course of braised beef cheek was an unmitigated disaster (155 dhs); a dish single-handedly fighting a bare-knuckle, cage match of shame. A cheek crowned as The Worst Dish to pass these lips in 2021. Like the Macarena, Terra Secca’s beef cheek is memorable for all the wrong reasons. The braised beef cheek with polenta arrived inside a copper pot making it nearly impossible to eat. This high-sided crockery fortress failed to protect me from what lay inside. The polenta is surreptitiously replaced with mashed potato that buttresses a beef cheek fetid with a gagging taste of sardines. And I like sardines. I nibbled at it a few times bewitched in a purgatory of confusion, disbelief and abuse.
There are only two reasons why this dish left the kitchen. One, the chef failed to taste it and failed to notice the polenta was missing. They let the dish leave the pass. We call this negligence where I am from. Alternatively, the chef tasted the dish and found it acceptable. Where I am from, we have no words for this.
Terra Secca’s braised beef cheek was one of the worst dishes I’ve eaten this year; the burrata campana is paint by numbers.
We shrug at Mrs EatGoSee’s homemade pappardelle in beef ragu that zips, tellingly, of uncooked tomato paste’s metallic sharpness. Oddly, homemade pappardelle (read: fresh?) lacks the luxurious bounciness of fresh pasta and wants a few more moments lingering in hot water. Oh well Terra Secca, even the masters get that wrong, isn’t that right, L’Atelier?
The pineapple carpaccio with passion fruit caviar and coconut foam is form over substance (55 dhs) and the chocolate gelato and passion fruit sorbet succeeds in passing a trade description test (45 dhs).
Terra Secca’s pappardelle is perfunctory lacking depth of flavour; thankfully bread and olives are served.
Terra Secca’s pineapple carpaccio did not deliver compared to similar dishes enjoyed elsewhere; the gelato and sorbet were not more than fine.
Would I Go Back to Terra Secca?
I cannot imagine a scenario where I return to Terra Secca, other than being a guest at Al Wathba. A destination restaurant opportunity is squandered. I encourage Al Wathba to elevate Terra Secca as a showpiece restaurant for the benefit of a captive audience. The inaugural 50 Best MENA list is due to be debuted next year IN ADU DHABI. This confirms global interest in the UAE’s superb dining scene; wouldn’t you like to be a part of it, Terra Secca?
Who Should Go to Terra Secca?
Al Wathba guests seeking refuge from all-day dining. Steak lovers and pizza eaters (they looked happier). Equestrian enthusiasts. Italian wine lovers. People who got the tiramisu early.
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