Veggies before the main. December 2019
Meat! Aroos Damascus, Muraqqabat, Dubai. January 2019
A visit to Dubai for me includes a few things usually. One is a visit to the Marina [see: Dubai Marina], one more is Dubai Mall, and another is eating at Aroos Damascus. Such a part of visiting Dubai it has become, that if I somehow don't include it, MWK (who is generally with me on Dubai visits) will gently remind me that we haven't had lunch or dinner there yet. Of course, it being his favorite restaurant in Dubai (even over Chili's and Red Lobster) does not influence him in the least (wink, wink).
I have been eating there for well over a decade now on Dubai vacations and stopovers. I saw it get progressively more popular and expand over the years until it finally took up the entire space under a lowrise on Murraqabat Street not far from my usual hotel haunt on nearby Rigga Road. Service was white shirt and bow-tie, very old school. Servers I assume were Syrian - efficient and serious, none of this "oh hi, I am Tad and I'll be your server" stuff. You had better know Syrian/Lebanese food, too. Thankfully, it was all pretty obvious, so it wasn't that difficult to order. We usually got the same thing - mixed grill with some hummus. A huge plate of veggies always came free and an endless supply of fresh baked bread (yum!!) One waiter's job was just to go around and ensure a supply of hot bread on each table. He even replaced "cold" bread with "hot" bread! MWK was very vigilant about our bread being fresh.
The prices have crept up over the years, but the place remains a bargain in very expensive Dubai. Dubai CAN be quite cheap if you know where to eat. In addition to Aroos, we discovered places where expat Indians, Pakistanis, Indonesians, and Afghans ate - all tasty and all reasonable. Go to into any mall and suddenly the prices quadruple. That being said, even though overseas franchises of US chains can be very disappointing in either food or service, Dubai, for some reason, bucks this trend and maintains high quality service and "same as back home" taste. Perhaps because the locals don't insist that the food be "arabized"? At any rate, Chilis in Dubai is pretty much like Chilis in the USA and so is IHOP, Red Lobster, Cheese Cake Factory, Five Guys, and Shake Shack. Great franchise representation notwithstanding, we always ended up back at Aroos at least once.
Aroos Damascus means "Bride of Damascus", yet it is translated as "Beautiful Damascus", too. My Syrian Kurdish ex-student, Adel, translated it for me, so I am certain it is "bride"; however, AQ, Arabic-English translator supreme further adds that "The Bride of XX" in Arabic generally means "the most beautiful". Whatever the translation, the place routinely earns high marks on foodie blogs and in restaurant reviews. I turned all my Saudi friends onto it as well. They scarcely believed an American would know anything about Arab food (coming from "one dish wonders", the Saudis - that was quite rich), but one by one I convinced them to try it and they came back proclaiming they ate there daily after trying it because it was so good and so cheap!
I would dare to put it up there in my list of "favorite restaurants ever" along with No Signboard in Singapore, Tsurusen Bar in Sendai, Beit Betek in Abha, and Mel's Diner in Vienna. Alas, favorite restaurants usually end up being moments in time in the quantum physics of eating out. Few places last forever except in our memories.
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