On the second night of our stay at Habtoor Grand Beach Resort and Spa, we dined at Fish Bazaar. The grounds of the hotel is quite large, especially considering that its in the Dubai Marina area, and the restaurants are dispersed throughout the whole property. Fish Bazaar is about a 5-minute walk from the main hotel building, in the garden area towards the beach. If you don’t feel like walking the distance, there are plenty of buggies to pick you up and drop you off at the restaurant (or wherever else you may be going around the resort).

The restaurant has many different areas of seating– you can sit outdoors and listen to the live band and also part take in the salsa dancing, sit indoors and enjoy a more quiet dinner, or sit upstairs.

We opted to sit indoors and once seated, our waiter came to us with the menus and offered to explain how the restaurant works. In keeping with its name, Fish Bazaar displays all kinds of quality fish and seafood, and some of them are still alive! From these, you can choose what you want and how you want it to be cooked. The restaurant also allows you the option of choosing straight from the menu, if you don’t feel like getting up to check out the fish.

After seeing all of the seafood, my husband decided he wanted to order fresh seafood from the display to be grilled, while I opted for sushi from the menu. There’s even a kid’s menu if you have little ones.

While we waited for our orders to be prepared, the waiter brought out prawn crackers, several different kinds of dips and our mocktail orders.

My husband’s starter soon came– he ordered the Plaa Goong, which is a Thai shrimp salad with herbs and lemon dressing. It has a bit of a kick from the chillies in it, but it was very delicious and you can really taste the freshness of the prawns.

I didn’t order an appetizer and decided to go straight for mains– I ordered three different kinds of sushis, and they were brought out soon after my husbands starters came. For my sushi, I decided to have the Tempura Maki, Dragon Maki and the Chef’s Special Batera Salmon. I’m very picky when it comes to sushi and I really loved that the freshness of the fish comes through very well.

My favorite roll is was the Tempura Maki, which has deep fried battered shrimp and a lovely Japanese mayo sauce that brings it all together. The dragon roll served here is quite different from the dragon rolls that I’ve tried before, which usually comprise of eel, avocado and tobiko, but the Fish Bazaar version is a bit more simplistic than that. Nonetheless, it was still delicious. The Chef’s Special Batera Salmon was so good and so filling!

There is a heavy ratio of rice, so don’t be fooled by what you may think is a small size. This sushi roll alone can fill you up! I loved the salmon on top and the crunch of the green tobiko on it was just the right texture to have in this roll.

My husbands mains soon came and he ordered the Red Snapper and Jumbo Prawns to be grilled in a traditional Thai garlic sauce. It was served with some brown fried rice. The snapper soaked up so much of the flavor of the sauce and it was so tender and scrumptious. I didn’t get a chance to have any of his prawns because I was so full off of my sushi, but he loved it so much that he finished it all.

After such a wonderful dinner, we had no room left for dessert, and by this time my 1-year-old Khalifa was getting quite sleepy so we headed back to our room at the hotel.

Ratings (0-5): 

• Staff/Service: 5
• Ambience: 4
• Food: 4
• Presentation: 4
• Cleanliness: 5
• Value for money: 3.5

Overall Rating: 4.25

Worth Trying?: Great for seafood with an Asian twist! The restaurant is also very family-friendly and good for a night out.

For more information, call Fish Bazaar at +971 4 408 4210.