Tresind Studio Season 5 Le Jardind, Dubai: Tresind Studio’s Best Yet?

Le Jardind is very reminiscent of Sasya Season 3 with some dishes making a re-appearance such as the wagyu beef korma with truffle and potato. Even this dish benefits from a facelift. The dishes are a study of beauty, meticulously curated and primped with enough micro herbs and edible flowers to make even a West London florist blush.

I love a bit of chaat, and our chaat starter courses are some of the most charming courses all evening. A crisp pani puri filled with cucumber gazpacho is a dramatic start to proceedings. The fragrant cucumber gazpacho awakens the senses cooled by a rim of greek yoghurt and fresh dill sprigs. A slight carbonation in the gazpacho (from the dry ice?) is not unpleasant. This starter and standout dish doubles as an amuse-bouche. This is a star dish.



Our trio of chaat is rounded off with malay khakra with a raw mango pesto, Indian ricotta and garden herbs and a chaat of courgette blossom and pumpkin mash, tamarind, chutney and yoghurt. The malay khakra picks up where the pani puri left off with a herbaceous, grassy punch as spice unfolds soothed by a smear of soft ricotta that wraps around the mouth. Our last courgette blossom chaat is a spectacle of colour and emblematic of the Le Jardind proposition. At first, spice rolls forward with the contrast of a crunchy crust that collapses to reveal a sweet, soft pumpkin mash amplified by the brightness of tamarind and fresh coriander herb.

These chaat starters underscore both the beauty of modern Indian food and the sheer joy of plant-based eating.



The kitchen introduces another trio of courses after our chaat starters. These are some of the most visually striking courses but leans towards restraint and subtlety vs the chaat courses’ thud Previous Seasons confirmed that Tresind Studio dances nimbly in areas of excess: big flavours, spice and presentation. Subtlety and restraint requires different footwork.

These courses are those carrier courses in the overall arch of the menu. “Carrier courses” is not a pejorative smear. You need these courses to chaperone the diner between peaks while being enjoyable.

A soft corn waffle is toasty, pillowy, sweet and creeps in with a lick of heat (but, perhaps, underseasoned). The corn waffle is the first sign of comfort food and feels warmer, more autumnal than previous courses. Step forward the turnip galoti tart equally autumnal purring with a subtle, woody clove and star anise and impossibly beautifully anointed with marigold and nasturtium leaf. The toasty achappam is a latticed tapioca rice flour cookie that breaks away from its more modest predecessors tilting slightly sweet supported with drips of parmesan ice cream and beads of fig.

Tresind Studio Le Jardind turns towards the main courses

The Jardind menu starts to show the differences between the vegetarian and non-vegetarian menu from this point on. Our non-vegetarian consommé course leans into comfort food with a deeply rich butter chicken broth that tastes like the cure to the common cold. This consommé is paired with a glistening butter chicken kebab rich with a satisfying charred depth of flavour. The chicken consommé is an elevated version of the butter chicken from Season Four’s butter chicken. This is a standout course evolving from its comfort food origins towards a refined version that still consoles the soul. The vegetarian consommé with a grilled king oyster skewer is light and fragrant with a mushroom tea that stirs fond memories of Tresind’s legendary mushroom chai latte.



The wagyu beef korma returns renovated and invigorated. A modest slab of wagyu beef is dusted with black truffle encircled by a potato crisp in a puddle of fork-lickingly good mustard korma sauce. This is a standout dish, earthy depth from the truffle and crunchy potato. The spice long stays like a welcomed guest. The vegetarian course replaces the wagyu beef with a hearty potato dauphinoise.





The main course, sadly, does not land favourably and breaks an otherwise successful chain of courses. The braised lamb with chickpea, daikon and balloon breads is a divisive course that lacks the fastidious attention to detail demonstrated in earlier courses. The paratha bread is brittle, dry and lacks the buttery moorish unctuousness you long for between flaky layers. One person in the group noted the lamb was oversalted. I marginally prefer the pickled chickpea with cauliflower to its meaty braised lamb counterpart, although the spice levels will be divisive for some.

Tresind Studio desserts

Tresind’s three sweet dessert courses feature two dishes from previous menus including the playful cold coffee pebble and the honey truffle cake served over the glowing moon with a hot Kanchenjunga tea as an aside. These familiar friends are welcomed but do not benefit from a second-generation development like butter chicken or wagyu beef korma. A trick is missed.

A chilled, refreshing tender coconut with pink peppercorn ice cream arrives with a side of banana choux. The milky cooling ice cream builds a tongue-pleasing spice but the choux is dry and too sweet to pair with the more perfumed tender coconut and peppercorn ice cream.



I like the desserts, but I do not love them. I firmly believe dessert is the last act of kindness that a kitchen sends out to its guests. Joy is so intrinsically coupled with dessert that one is not successful without the other. Le Jardind’s desserts lack that toe-curling, bow your head in disbelief joy. I encourage the kitchen to return. Indian food is spoiled for notable sweet treats made from pistachio, kulfi, dum phukt-style cooking, mango, cardamom and hearty North Indian puddings. There is plenty of fertile ground for a truly Tresind-class finish to their tasting menu.

Would I Go Back To Tresind Studio?

A rhetorical question: this is my fourth out of the five seasons at Tresind Studio. I am already booked to go back with a friend for Round 2.

Diners should ask whether there are enough good-to-great courses to justify coming for a tasting menu that will set you back AED350. The first nine of thirteen courses are good-to-great with standout dishes and a reappearance of future classic dishes. I encourage Tresind Studio innovating on a big and small scale. I want to see new dishes appear on the menu but the evolution of old favourites like the wagyu beef korma is heartening and I enjoy this journey. I encourage Tresind to lean forward, boldly.



You could finish at the wagyu beef korma, put down your napkin, pay the bill and walk away, pleased. The latter third of Season Five lacks the strength of the previous courses. The punch of the chaat starters is not replicated. The menu experience starts with exuberance and slows to a middling. Tresind Studio should continue to refine Season Five. The braised lamb dish should be re-imagined especially the desserts and re-imagine the braised lamb dish.

Who Should Go To Tresind Studio Season 5 Le Jardind?

Diners who enjoy modern dining, Indian food and/or enjoy concept dining should consider coming. It is suitable for solo diners, couples and small groups (subject to COVID19 dining restriction numbers). Regular Trésind Studio patrons will recognise the spirit and style of Le Jardind and should be pleased.