Little Italy | Karama

Among all other things, we Indians are really good at one thing – sprucing up international dishes with an Indianized twist. That’s exactly what we experienced at Little Italy. Thanks to the invite by Xpress Socially, we got to experience a plethora of fusion rich Italian and Mexican food at this pretty restaurant located in Karama. While the seating options are not too many, nor too little, what I really liked about this restaurant is how they have used really large mirrors to create an illusion of space. My plus one almost kept wondering if we could seat ourselves on the other side until I had to point out to him that it was just a mirror.

I don’t usually start a review with a negative comment, but the start of our experience was unfortunately slightly bumpy. I found the service to be quite low compared to the normal standards. We were initially told we would be given a set menu, which I obviously wanted more clarifications on, since it is totally unfair to expect bloggers to eat anything and everything what the restaurant thinks is right. The server told us he would be back after checking on the details of what was included in our meal, and well, 20 minutes passed without any update.

He finally came back, and to our surprise, he asked if we had placed our order, to which we had to remind him that we were waiting for him to give us more details! The miscommunication and delay in serving our food put me off a little, but that was balanced out by the food, which was fairly good in taste and presentation.

We started with their house mocktails, where I chose a passion fruit based drink and my plus one went with an apple based fruit punch. Both were pretty refreshing, but the temperatures inside the restaurant were quite low, which made it slightly difficult to sip on the chilled drinks.

For food, we were first presented with a very creamy and comforting Tomato Soup, dotted with croutons, which really helped combat the chilly interiors of the restaurant. Next we were brought Masala Garlic Bread and Bruschetta. Although the masala garlic bread felt pretty much like normal cheese garlic bread, I loved the fact that it was soft and crispy in the right places. The bruschetta topped with the freshest diced tomatoes was quite good too.

Then came in the Mexican side of things in the form of Nachos and Corn Cheese Balls. From everything we tried, the nachos had the maximum element of fusion. The tortilla chips were replaced by khakda which made the refried beans almost look like rajma. Moreover the cheese sauce was strikingly bright yellow – giving it a very haldi look. The corn cheese balls on the other hand were quite soft and gooey, but the corn was pretty sparse inside.

For mains, we went with the usual combination of pasta and pizza. Both these dishes were remarkably good and we even got them packed for next day. The creamy Barbaresca pasta came with penne tossed in cheese sauce with lots of herbs and veggies. We initially wanted something with mushrooms (and truffle oil), so the server offered to replace the broccoli in this pasta with mushrooms for us. The pizza was a total Indian styled flatbread. Named The Indian, this one came topped with lots of capsicums and onions on a tomato and mozzarella base and was really light too.

For desserts, we wanted to go with their Tres Leches cake, but due to its unavailability, we went with the Sizzling Brownie. The combination of hot brownie with sizzling chocolate sauce and cold vanilla ice cream was great. Although the brownie could’ve been slightly dense in terms of crumbiness, overall it fared well.

Little Italy

Location: Shop 2, Ground Floor, Al Hubbai Building, Zaa’beel Street, Al Karama, Dubai
Contact: 04 3852445

View this restaurant on Zomatohttps://www.zomato.com/dubai/little-italy-al-karama