Talking Fork

If you've been to the Mall of The Emirates there's no doubt that you've walked past Omnia Baharat at one point or another. You know the one - it's that really bright and colorful place just near the cinemas.

Omnia is a bit of an enigma as it seems to have a headline chef and a very attractive interior style that features a wonderful street art mural courtesy of Ruben Shanchez, yet it doesn't seem to have the same heaving crowd like the place next door.

To get the low down we joined Chef Silevena Rowe for an evening of food talk, laughs and tasty treats from her recently unveiled Indian Menu.

Dining with Chef Rowe left us with two key impressions - firstly, she's very passionate about healthy living and quality ingredients. Secondly, she's very personable and down to earth for a celebrity chef with multiple books and television shows under her belt. In London, she's cooked for British Rock, Pop and actual Royalty, while here in her relatively new home, she's whipped a few things up here and there for the Dubai Royal Family too, so she knows her way around the kitchen.

For Omnia Baharat, the new menu focuses on putting a health driven spin on some of the Chef's Indian favorites.

So how was it?

We went though a range of dishes and overall the food was colorful, clean and flavorful but to a certain degree was missing an intensity in the overall sensation that you get with your favorite cheap thrills Indian outlet . This isn't a criticism but more an observation that sometimes with big flavors comes big calories and perhaps a few cheap tricks that for the most part we all turn a blind eye to.

There's no doubt that adding butter, oil and ghee to everything makes it taste better but hey it's not exactly the most health conscious thing to add to every dish now is it? So in line with Omnia's mission things like heavy, processed proteins and saturated fats are out. The result is a notable lightness in the overall mouth feel and taste of the food. The classic Indian flavors are there but the stodginess isn't.

How many times have you chowed down on a beautiful curry and stuffed yourself with a couple of cheese naans and then felt bloated and like garlic and oil is seeping out of your pores for hours afterwards? Bottom line - if you were about to go out on a date you probably wouldn't consider ripping into a prawn curry just before hand but at Omnia you probably could.

It's like that.

The starters of Gol Gappa and the Papdi Chaat (both AED 19) were light and refreshing and presented with a little extra flair in the form of some dry ice. The Gol Gappa also provided a bit of a novelty factor by allowing you to sauce them up with sweet and spicy waters with plastic pipettes. Both dishes packed plenty of flavor (the Gol Gappa was particularly zesty) and left us keen to explore more of the menu.

We made our way on to the Vegetable and Chicken Samosas (AED 19) which were nice but best described as being on the mild-er side of things in the spice stakes and were probably the least successful of the dishes on the night. Maybe there's some things that just shouldn't be healthafied?

First Date Prawn Masala - a definite highlight. This is not Muma's curry. Indian food to many is comfort food and a lot of that comfort comes from a little naughtiness thrown in a long the way. We all know the story, real Indians won't ever dare to eat Indian out should they admit it and incur the wrath of their beloved Mother, not mention that nothing's beats Moms' cooking. Well fear not! Omnia isn't trying to replace your Mom but just reinterpret what she does in a refined, fresh, healthy and holistic way.

The notion is pure and execution outstanding, still it remains to be seen despite the lofty intentions that the masses will get it.

Take the Paneer Tikka (AED 19) for example. This was a masterpiece in Paneerism (is that a term?) It was firm, fresh and tasty. The outer orange coating of rich Indian spices and the inner white cheesy goodness were clearly segmented and with out a hint of oil. This was no regular Paneer, it was super clean and had a great bite to it. It was in a word - superb.

Heavenly hummus. Do you love Hummus like I do? Well you might be pleased to know that at Omnia they have a dedicated Hummus Chef, yep you read that right. That's all he does - make Hummus and it showed. It was light, flavorful and well balanced. You could probably eat a bucket of it and not be worse off for it.

By now, anyone would be deservedly filled to the brim but the mains hadn't even arrived, so it was at this point that we felt that the general approach to keeping things light really paid dividends on the belly, leaving us with that extra bit of room to sample the King Grill (AED 109) - a Chef's Recommendation that offers mix of paneer, lamb kebab, chicken tikka and vegetables served with biryani rice. This is definitely one to share.

Along with this was the Masala Prawn Curry (AED 43), which was flavorsome and thoroughly enjoyable, so too the Laham Dum Biryani (AED 53) another star performer, offering delightful, fluffy rice and some nicely slow cooked lamb pieces. The accompanying Raitas (Mint & Plain) were great too. As far a the menu pricing goes, for the quality and attention to detail it represents pretty good value for money. Sure, it's not priced like your local Indian take away is but this ins't your typical Indian takeaway!

Rounding out the mains was a playful take on the humble slider, in this case of the Chicken Tikka variety. They were a bit of fun and would make for a nice party snack.

For sweets there was a Trio of Falooda Shots that were mouth popping fun and of course the obligatory platter of Gulab Jamoon, Burfi and other sugary things guaranteed to make you go hmmmm.

Throughout the courses, Chef Rowe offered us some thoughtful insights into her approach in the kitchen, her life in general and on her desire to raise the bar when it comes to using high quality, free range and hormone free ingredients across her restaurants. She was candid and passionate but overall very honest in her appraisal of her successes and failures in Dubai so far which was extremely refreshing.

As for Omnia Baharat, its an ambitious and interesting interpretation of Indian cuisine that might not be for everyone, but once you get it, it all makes sense.