Book a table at Teible
Homegrown. Chef-led. Unlicensed (without booze). Local, seasonal produce, protein included. Fermentation. Pickling. Ageing. A new Dubai restaurant at Jameel Arts Centre by the name of Teible. Pronounced ‘table’, with ‘Tei’ a reference to the owner and restaurant-cum-design entrepreneur Peter Ahn’s daughter. The chef Carlos Frunze Turgaev Garza who moved across from 3 Fils, another homegrown gem, calls his cuisine ‘renegade’. He also loves to tell a story through engaging descriptors on mini cards placed on the table by the waiter to accompany each dish. A novel touch to perhaps replace a chef explaining the food in person. Even though the latter would be appreciated, especially as Carlos is spotted on the pass. But you can’t take a chef home, like you can do with these cards. Well at least in my book you can’t. I am sure Mr S wouldn’t be too pleased.
Teible wears three hats – a bakery, a seasonal breakfast and lunch menu, and a dinner tasting concept. Open daily except Tuesdays. I visit twice, incognito, paying the bill in full, as always.
The Welsh rarebit for a weekend breakfast is no ordinary open toasted cheese sandwich. In fact, with the addition of an onsen egg, it borders on a Croque Madame. Sourdough toast baked in-house by pastry chef Sheerin Ghaffar. Layered with an abundance of umami flavours – honey mustard, mozzarella, Gruyère, chilli sauerkraut – mostly locally sourced and made in Teible’s kitchen. Despite the generous portion, I could have demolished two, or maybe even three. AED56, plus another AED8 for the onsen egg.
But as delicious as this brekkie is, the differentiator with Teible is the tasting menu dinner concept. Three courses for AED199, and if you’re hungry like I always am, five courses for AED330. Each course offers three choices, one of which is veggie, and the best bit? You and your dining companion/s can each select different dishes, so in our case, we taste ten. To avoid reading until tomorrow, I will highlight the five most intriguing dishes, whilst the photos paint a picture of all ten. The menu changes every four months, with a new season launching in May. Bar some imported cheeses, all ingredients, meat and seafood included, appear to be locally sourced.
Let’s start with the bread. Complimentary, as the menu stipulates. So it should be. In every restaurant. The same sourdough as brekkie. Charred, a fanciful name for toasted. The home-made butter is infused with date kefir and sprinkled with Parmesan. And there’s a mango jam too with an Arab desert herb ‘shih’ that translates to wormwood. I slather both on – butter first, of course. Addictive stuff.
The steak tartare from the ‘land’ section showcases local veal from a Jersey Cow breed here (who knew?), but to boost the flavour, Carlos adds his own garum, a fermented fish sauce, before fermenting further for 60 days. And in homage to Anthony Bourdain, he hand-chops the beef à la minute, but not table-side as Tony recommends. With an egg yolk ‘jam’ and crisp-like sour dough slivers, this is one of two favourite dishes of the night.
Next up from the ‘chef’s bites’ is a dish developed by Carlos’ head chef Danuka inspired by his homeland Sri Lanka’s street food of short eats – a croquette of fish and confit curry potato on a bed of coconut velouté and curry leaf oil. Firstly, should be renamed ‘curry in a bite’ and, secondly, this exquisite morsel should come in pairs.
The ‘local farm’ plate is a nod to the chicken and waffles of the Deep South with crisp, succulent fried chicken glazed with maple vinegar, and a heart-shaped fermented carrot waffle. Another stand-out, umami-laden textural dish.
To elevate the delicate flavour of local lamb, Carlos ferments it with garum, his favourite ingredient by the looks of it, and serves the charred saddle cut with Swiss chard, corn mash and a kimchi pesto. A potent mix of flavours that don’t disguise the chewy meat though.
And for the ‘sugar’ finale, there are in fact five choices. The ‘trust the chef’ is a surprise dessert that I shall leave as just that. The deconstructed strawberries and cream see the berries pickled, layered with crème fraiche and strawberry fennel granita – light, and the savoury notes speak to my non-existent sweet tooth.
On the non-boozy drinks front, Teible provides complimentary filtered still and sparkling water, something we’re only offered once we’ve ordered the bottled stuff – a faux pas. I always steer away from calorific fruity mocktails – and sadly, the kombucha is not available, whilst the tea selection is minimal (unlike the coffee).
The service differs drastically across both visits. Erratic over a busy weekend breakfast service, when I have to chase staff to both place an order and get the bill. A weekday dinner with only a dozen covers is pretty quiet and the staff attentive, cleaning the table and replacing tableware with every course. Two and a half hours for a five-course menu is arduous (as is the journey from the other side of town), in particular given the lack of vino to bide the time between courses.
The minimalist décor is slightly Scandic in keeping with the contemporary art gallery location – and the view across the creek makes for a pretty window setting. In our winter months, it would be lovely to see some al fresco seating. We have to ask the waiter to lower the near-freezing air-conditioning, so come prepared with pashmina in tow.
I applaud the owner and the chef for taking a gamble with both the location and the innovative, thoughtful cooking direction. We need more chef-led concepts like these that go out of their way to not just play lip service to the local supply chain as most Dubai restaurants do, but to make sure that pretty much every single ingredient on every plate wholeheartedly celebrates our native bounty. If techniques like fermenting, pickling and ageing are required to make the protein on our doorstep tasty, then that’s where a chef’s skills can shine – like they do here. Service at times needs addressing, as does the odd dish, however Teibel rebels against tradition with a truly renegade concept and a mighty story to tell – all at a reasonable price point. Here’s to a four out of five FooDiva knife rating.
Any more new chef-led concepts worth checking out?
A bientôt.
FooDiva. x
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