21grams Urban Balkan Bistro — Restaurant in Dubai

Hungry again...

My girlfriend treated me to lunch - and she suggested 21 grams Urban Balkan Bistro.

Overall I love the cuisine - especially in a Middle Eastern setting, where pork is usually replaced with other things (beef, chicken, lamb).

The menu looks intriguing. The very friendly server suggested the “mezze” - you can choose 3 dishes out of the starter. We had marinated chiles, chicken paté, and ayvar which came with bread. The bread was one freshly baked (?) roll, cut in 4 pieces. We ordered more bread... The mezze came on a vertical stand on plates, and ayvar and chicken paté were spread on the plate with a bit of “onion ash”(?) as garnish. Ayvar was nice. I mean - it didn’t tasted particularly different than out of the jar from the ethnic isle of the supermarket. But definitely nice. Chicken paté - really the same. I really like the Russian chicken pate which comes in the sealed aluminum containers (Carrefour and other supermarkets have them) - this was on the same level. The chilis were 5 pieces of medium sized chiles in olive oil and with a small garnish of “green granules”. The first chili was very spicy (despite that the server told us, that they are not spicy). It went unfortunately to my girlfriend (absolutely not the fault of the waiters - chilis are like that - even mild chilis can turn out occasionally spicy). We had then a goat cheese phyllo pie. This turned out to be a pastry with a very little drizzle of honey.

Let me say, that I overall very much liked the vibe and the food. It was nothing to write home about. And nothing which tasted especially out of the ordinary. But it was comforting and a reasonable quality. However the pricing in my eyes is totally off. I mean the mezze platter was AED 78 - but the food (also the other dishes we didn’t choose) was basically condiments. Clean presentation, but no particular additional garnishes (like veggies etc.). And this also applied to the phyllo pie. In my eyes a pie is a pie and pastry is pastry - and this was definitely pastry - and for pastry I don’t pay as much. We had also 2 drinks: homemade sodas. I think this was also a misnomer - especially for the restaurateurs, it is kinda unfortunately: because people who like sodas (soda pops, like sprite, fanta, coke, ginger ale etc.) would not be satisfied - because these drinks were basically some fruit puree mixed with soda water - I don’t even think, that they added any sweetener (or sour agent). And yes - some people would feel very happy about them - because these drinks are healthy and less sweet - but they probably wouldn’t buy them as “sodas”.

I do think so, that the restaurant should think about doing some fermented drinks like water kefir and/or kombucha - it would brilliantly fit into their whole concept.

At the end, I don’t dislike it, but there is a big question about value for money. With a bit of a tweak they could definitely do far better. It is for me a 3.4 (but unfortunately there are no half “stars” here! The whole ambience would lift it probably for most people. We paid around AED 200 - but I could directly think about a purchase of about AED 30 - which would enable me to cook exactly the same - and all in less than 30 min (but a portion size which is at least 3 times as much). And this isn’t really whatI expect...

There is a 1907 theory that says that a person's soul weighs 21 Grams and this is a Balkan soul food restaurant. Did you connect the dots? Now you know where the name of this restaurant is coming from 🙂

This was my third visit to 21 Grams. The first visit was in their old venue and the second visit was in May 2022 during the Dubai Restaurant Week part of Dubai Food Festival. This visit was during the Summer Restaurant Week. Lunch is a set 2 course menu for 95AED.

We were a party of 8 so I ended up tasting many dishes.

During my last visit in May I tried the Summer zucchini moussaka with lentil and chickpea ragout, tomato sauce and Kashkaval cheese. Well let us say that I am not a big fan, I will stick with the regular Moussaka.

This is why this time I ordered a starer and a main dish that I didn’t try before.

Burnt Eggplant Hummus (10/10) with olive oil and walnuts Beef and Quail Ragout (8/10) pappardelle pasta and Kashkaval cheese. It was a bit on the dry side, the beef was perfectly cooked and tender, I could see or taste the Quails 🙂 It was very tasty though, I would definitely order it again.

I shared with a friend: Baked Beetroot Carpaccio (10/10) with blackberry dressing, brown butter, almonds and tarragon Ćevapi I Wagyu kebabs (8/10) with pickled onion, and chili. Again a little bit dry. It says on the menu with beef jus but it is not enough. Last visit it was the same. So we had to order a side of Ajvar / red pepper relish 26.66 AED and this makes the kebab complete. I wonder why they don’t serve them together. It is annoying when I paid 95AEd for the lunch and 27AEd for a tiny side dish.

Pickled Sardines I am not a big fan of sardines so I didn’t try them but my friends who did loved them. I have to say they looked really good too. It was served on a homemade buhtla bread with a spread of tomato relish and basil.

On my last visit The Phyllo Pie spinach was sold out so they offered us a Beef Phyllo pie and a cheese one as a replacement. We order one each and we shared they were both extremely delicious (10/10). Those pies were so good so even though they were not on the summer set menu, we ordered the Goat Cheese Pie and the Spinach…AMAZING!!!

For a drink I recommend the Latte and after the meal you should try their Affogato double espresso with vanilla ice cream 28AED. Also the house still water infused with berries, oranges and rosemary 18AED is highly recommended.

I would go back to 21 Grams at anytime just for the Spinach Pie or the Goat Cheese pie or both of them at the same time 🙂

If you never tried 21 Grams, it...

I was quite disappointed with 21grams today. I’ve heard so many good things about this place.

We went here for breakfast and ordered the Balkan Benedict, the dish with egg/sausages/bread (komplet egg?). We also had a mocha.

Starting off with the mocha (30aed), it was quite bitter because of the coffee and the dark chocolate. We wished it could have been a bit warmer. I can say that Arabica Dark Latte is way better than this one.

Balkan Benedict (70+ aed) was a disappointment. It was almost cold — obviously made before the other dish. (I’m not one to send food back as long as edible). Also, I was craving for a side salad with some vinaigrette to balance out richness of the dish. Instead, I got one leaf — like, what was that about?! It was also not seasoned well and I had to keep putting in some pepper and salt on it. The creamed spinach didn’t help much as well. Honestly, the whole time I was eating the dish, I kept thinking about the eggs Benedict from Artisan Bakers just a block away from this place and wished we had gone there instead. I think the only saving grace of this dish was that the bread had good texture.

The other dish (Komplet Egg? Not sure with the name) was definitely better. Sausage had a bit of kick in it which made it interesting. It was at least warm.

Overall verdict was that it’s a disappointment. But Service was great — staff were nice and pleasant. Ambiance was nice as well — but we noticed some condensation dripping from the AC grills on the ceiling and felt bad for those people seated there.

Parking can be on-street RTA parking or in the basement which can be tight...