I can’t believe it has now been a month at the time of writing since we were in Dubai. It is so cold and miserable here in England right now. But I will now cast back to one of the coolest things we did whilst we were out there in the UAE, which was dine at the famous Ossiano seafood restaurant, located in the complex of Atlantis, the Palm.

Why is Ossiano so famous, you may say. Well you probably know it as the underwater restaurant in Dubai…

Atlantis

As you may know, this resort complex is located right at the end of the palm and is famous for its large arabian tower styled cut out in the middle, which features in many an instagram shot.

We got a taxi here and spent the morning in the waterpark, Aquaventure, which was a great deal of fun, and I will talk about that in a separate post – click here to read it!

The complex is massive, I can see why some people don’t leave the resort, it had loads of restaurants, bowling, shops, all sorts of entertainment. There in the middle is the crowning jewell, the aquarium.

Visitors can go to the aquarium, called the lost chamber of Atlantis. Guests of the hotel can walk around the massive main tank, as can those who are dining in the restaurants within the hotel area, such as Ossiano. That is where you see all the instagrammer’s taking their photos on the marble floor in front of the huge tank, where admittedly the lighting is much better for photos than in the restaurant itself.

But we wanted to do the full thing for a fancy 30th meal for Craig.

Ossiano

We decided to do the lunch menu, which was £80 a head for three courses. Dinner was £200… so we booked the latest possible lunch sitting at 3pm. This gave us plenty of time in the waterpark before hand.

We were shown down the grand staircase past all the shelves of wine to our table, which was in the middle of the restaurant – the tables closest had gone at the earlier lunch bookings sadly it seemed. However, there are very few tables, 22 altogether I think I counted, so it is fairly intimate and everyone has a great view of the tank.

The wine list was super pricey, with the cheapest bottle working out at around £110. We still got one, and it was very nice, but we weren’t expecting it to be quite that high, so do bare in mind if you plan to go. Wine is all imported so much pricier than elsewhere in the world, which we should have considered following previous trips in Asia.

The food

First we were brought out some fresh hot bread and butter, which was really tasty. We enjoyed this whilst watching the fishes and rays glide past the floor to ceiling tank windows which stretch the length of the restaurant. It was very soothing and a little mesmerising to watch.

For starters we both ordered the burata. This came with a sweet crunchy wafer of pomegranate flavour on top and was extremely good. It was also a fairly small size, which was good with another two courses to go.

The for the main event, Craig went for the tiger prawns, whilst I got the salmon. The salmon came with a pot of the creamiest risotto which was lovely, and the best tasting basil sauce I have ever had, on a bed of asparagus. It was flaky and delicious and was a decent sized piece.

Then came a palette cleanser, which was a very lemony tasting sorbet, before the dessert.

Craig had a chocolate shuffle and I went for the cheese plate. We both think we made good decisions there.

Having been the last sitting, we had already watched a few other diners get their birthday chocolates with candles brought out to them, as the price tag makes it more of a special occasion place than a casual Saturday dining experience, so was hardly surprising, but it was still very cool and very tasty indeed.

The Ossiano experience

It was a really unique experience, and the food, wine and service were all incredible.

Being the last ones at the end was cool too, had the whole place to ourselves and could take lots of photos with the fishes, which made me happy as I wanted that perfect shot with the ray and had plenty of time not being rushed or annoying other diners, which was ideal.

I would definitely recommend going and trying it if you like fish and fancy splashing out (see what I did there). But it is definitely a special occasion kind of a place! Not sure I need to go back having done it, but I am certainly glad to have ticked that one off the travel bucket list. I really enjoyed watching the sharks and shoals weave and dive with my best friend and some excellent cuisine.