When you’re in Dubai, chances are that you want a fine dining experience, understandably with some sort of wow factor. Ossiano at Atlantis The Palm offers an under-the-sea ambience with its floor to ceiling aquarium that spans one entire wall of the restaurant.
Ossiano is located within Atlantis The Palm. Your reservation is one of the ways to gain access to the grounds of Atlantis if you’re not a hotel guest. See my post on Nasimi Beach at Atlantis the Palm. Ossiano reservations can be made online or in my case, via my credit card concierge. Our reservation was for 9:30pm. Locals in Dubai have dinner late and the restaurant was fully booked when we arrived at that time.
Food
We ordered the Chef’s menu, and the kitchen was able to accommodate my request to have the foie gras parfait (served raw) substituted for crab. An interesting part of our meal was when the main was served – it was presented to us as sea bass. This was contrary to what was written on the menu, which was olive oil poached salmon. This suited us just fine, as we much preferred sea bass over salmon! This discrepancy in the menu was surprising for a restaurant like Ossiano.
Dessert was a treat though. There was a selection of sweets including macarons and chocolates. Although one member of our party opted out of the Chef’s menu and ordered à la carte, the kitchen still served all of us the Chef’s dessert of lemon sorbet and petit fours.
Service
The service was team-based so we didn’t have a designated waiter. This wasn’t a problem until I had to repeat a specific request to a waitress because the first waiter didn’t communicate my request to the rest of the team. The waitstaffs were attentive in that they were always present, however, unlike other fine dining restaurants, they did not always explain what was being served.
Place
Upon entering Ossiano, we were escorted to the lower level to enter the dining area. Silver, gold and mother of pearl inlay dotted every wall, pillar and bar counter. It was like stepping into Ariel’s underwater cavern! There really isn’t a bad view in the house, unless you’re looking to sit right up to the glass. We dined at one of the middle tables for 4, but for desert, we switched tables to sit closer to the aquarium.
Ossiano, Atlantis
Dinner per person (Chef’s menu with cocktail): 821 AED ($225 USD)
Location: Atlantis,The Palm Jumeira, United Arab Emirates
Planning tip: There is a Smart Casual dress code
OperalPhotography says
Thank you for this article!
I have been in the United Arab Emirates (Dubai and Abu Dhabi and it was an amazing experience! I visited a lot of places and did a website about it with some articles 🙂