Authentic Italian fare in a cosy setting – Red Tomato Pizza

This is one you possibly can’t miss. Located at the main junction in Barsha, Red Tomato Pizza Restaurant is one of the oldest eateries in that area (almost 9 years old) and prudes in delivering consistent quality and taste throughout. Step in and you won’t feel you’re in Dubai anymore. The dim lit, rustic ambience, open pizzeria, wood fired oven and textured walls exude vibes of a small Italian town, tucked away in the countryside, away from the city lights.

What starts with the interiors, is carried forward with the food – right from traditional recipes to authentic food preparation styles, Red Tomato quite literally is a slice of Italy in Dubai. Read on for more on this restaurant.

Passion Fruit Mojito & Forest Berry Smoothie

Pizza

What’s better than a pizza? It’s a pizza that’s made right in front of you!

The best part about eating a pizza at Red Tomato Pizza Restaurant is being able to customize it with your preferred toppings and watch the chef roll out the dough, deck it up and pop it in their wood fired oven – all in an open pizzeria. Instead of customizing our pizza, we chose to go with one of the restaurant’s spicy meaty options – Bouquet Carne Con Olio Di Peperoncino.

Right from turkey bacon to beef pepperoni to grilled chicken chunks, this one had the best of both turf and poultry toppings. Set on a tomato base, other toppings on this pizza included olives, mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, basil and my fav red chilli pieces.
This was finished with lots of Italian mozzarella and a drizzle of chilli oil.

Another good thing about their pizzas is that all the dough portions are weighed before rolling out to ensure even cooking inside the wood fired oven. Moreover they are baked to a thin crust so you won’t really feel all that heavy after finishing up a slice or two, or three! What are your favorite pizza toppings?

Pasta

Classics can never go wrong. It is known. Which is why, when my dinner date suggested “Pasta with white sauce”, I instantly knew it had to be Alfredo.
The Alfredo al Pollo e Funghi came in a creamy mushroom sauce with chicken and our choice of penne pasta. It was generously topped with parmesan which gave it just the right cheese kick we were hoping for.

Honestly this was our favorite dish of the evening. We literally licked the plate clean. All their pasta dishes come with a side of either roasted potatoes, fresh bread or steamed veggies. Since we were feeling a little starchy and we’d already had our bread basket at the start, we went ahead with roasted potatoes. These honestly are brilliant. I wouldn’t really mind having them as is, even without the pasta. What side would you choose?

Lava Cake

I love lava cakes. Love. And if I see one on the menu, I have to order it.

But then I’m also very particular about these. To start off with, the texture of the cake has to be perfectly scrumptious from outside. It has to be dense with a little fluff, but not too fluffy either. And then comes the main part – the molten chocolate lava inside. One stroke on the cake and melted chocolate should gradually make its way onto the plate. Not too soon, or else it would be too liquidy, and not too slow either, or else it hasn’t melted right.

This chef’s special Black Lava came quite close to perfect. Made from dark chocolate, the cake had just the right density. The molten ganache kept me wanting to have one bite after another. Topped with a scoop of vanilla, and garnished with salted caramel and roasted nuts, there couldn’t be a better way to end an authentic Italian meal.

Red Tomato Pizza

Location: 7, Saleh Bin Lahej Building, Al Barsha, Dubai
Contact: 04 4470497 | 800866286

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