Can this seafood spot break the Al Fattan Currency House dining curse?

Al Fattan Currency House. It hardly rolls off the tongue as a dining destination, does it? It’s also not fared well with the restaurants who’ve taken up residence inside it. Both Greg Malouf’s Cle restaurant and R Trader couldn’t get enough bums on seats.

But if anyone can draw a crowd, surely Flavio Briatore is the man to do it. The F1 businessman-turned-restauranteur has brought over Crazy Fish from Monte Carlo. He’s also bought next door and opened Beefbar.

Crazy Fish is the smaller of the two spaces, and another high-end seafood restaurant hoping to make waves in the city.

Crazy Fish is an intimate space that’s laid out like a formal fine dining room with white tablecloths and cabinets of crystal cut glass, but with a contemporary twist thanks to the colourful artworks, blue leathers, and the addition of a fresh fish bar where you can select your catch, which is brought fresh to the restaurant.

We start with tarburish oysters (Dhs30 per piece). They’re fresh and supersized and we delight in drizzling them in lemon, savouring the simple flavours.

Continuing the theme of raw eats, we order the red king prawn tartare (Dhs60) and seabass tartare with avocado and lime (Dhs70). The prawn tartare is thin slithers of king prawn that similarly goes down the throat with delicious ease, while the diced tuna tartare and avocado is a combination we’re sure we’ll never tire of.

The meal arguably peaked there, as our mains slightly divided opinion: the gnocchetti with red king prawns, cherry tomatoes and pecorino cheese (Dhs120) was hearty and the pasta perfectly cooked, but tasted too salty for some and we were craving the sweetness of the cherry tomatoes to come through.

Similarly, the spaghetti with clams (Dhs110) clearly used the freshest of ingredients, but it felt a tad over-seasoned.

Despite its fine-dining feel, Crazy Fish isn’t overcomplicated – and that’s a good thing. Instead, it favours simple flavours and lets the quality of its ingredients do the talking.

Al Fattan Currency House, DIFC, Dubai, Sun to Wed 6pm to 1am, Thur and Fri 6pm to 2am. Tel: (04) 352 9429. facebook.com/crazyfishdubai

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