One of the best restaurants in Dubai is having a shake-up…

It’s almost impossible to draw comparisons to the manner in which Dubai’s cuisine scene has grown over the past decade. It’s evolved from a gravitational mass, attracting talent and famous restaurant names from overseas – to an incubator and celebrant of homegrown culinary genius. If you need a yardstick, just check the globally recognised good food guides.

You can see it in every vein of the functioning body of work. From the grassroots supper clubs – right up to the headline acts dropping new restaurants. And amongst this new breed of UAE banner carrier, you’ll struggle to find one that wears the national colours as proudly and as loudly as Moonrise.

Full Moon

Found on the rooftop of Satwa’s secret leisure treasure, Eden House – Moonrise is the glittering opus of Chef Solemann Haddad. The 12-course menu is a sensorial hyperleap through a cosmos of 90s Dubai nostalgia. It’s an oft-booked-out, boutique operation with one table for 12 diners, operating across two seatings (6pm and 9.30pm) five nights (Tuesday to Saturday) a week.

The experience is operatic in scale, with a narrative building across 12 edible arias and featuring some of the most creative, sublimely beautiful, and – I’m going to say it because it really isn’t always the case with these sorts of molecularly-gastronomic top-tier tasting menus – spectacularly delicious, food you’ll find in Dubai.

Like the celestial body its nomenclature nods too, Moonrise has two sides – the light, where dishes are infused with an ego-divorced, childlike awe for fun and each course comes with its own illustrated postcard; and then there’s the dark, deep brooding side – the arcane arts and shadowy science that go into the preparation of the food.

Eclipse

So it’s big news when Chef Solemann announces a menu reshuffle, as he’s done this week. But what are this season’s new signings? Let’s take a look.

Arriving fresh off the boat for the 2024/25 campaign are the Market Prawns – a pedigree medley of oceanic gambero rosso, with a stat-enhancing sauce of toum-ranch, a dash of Pedro Ximenez vino tinto and a sprigged-sprinkling of aromatic dill. The collaborative result is an homage to the city’s traditional fish markets, combined with Chef Solemann’s mastery of the art of saucery.

Roots is a riot of locally-sourced produce – taking regional green tomato, zaatar (made by the hands of Leila, Moonrise’s accountant’s mom in Syria), nori furikake and house-made labnah.

Next up on the new plate pantheon, is a reworking of an established classic – Sarookh and Turbot takes aged Galician turbot and adorns it in a sarookh beurre blanc. For the sashimi fans, Shima aji and Tomato delivers on that signature acid-rich sucker punch favoured by the Moonrise maestro.

There are also some newly finessed desserts, but it’s worth leaving some surprises unspoilt. At Dhs950 for ‘food only’ (wine pairings from Dhs750) Moonrise’s menu isn’t going to feature in any ‘dining on a shoestring’ round-ups any time soon, but it was never intended to be. It’s master craft, built from an all star ensemble of ingredients, and one of the finest foodie stories you’ll find in Dubai at the moment. And an essential stamp in any wandering gastronaut’s culinary passport.

Eden House, Satwa, Tue to Sat seatings at 6pm and 9.30pm, Dhs950. @moonrise.xyz

Images: Provided