Food Review: Andiamo!

The newly-opened - and very chic - restaurant at the Grand Hyatt, Dubai, sets a new high for Italian food around town

According to Google, andiamo is Italian for "let's go". or, "hurry up (and let's go)". Having said that, dinner at Andiamo! (including exclamation), the newly-opened Italian restaurant at the Grand Hyatt, Dubai, was anything but hurried. It turned out to be a leisurely, slow-mo, luxuriating foodie feed.
My guess is it could stand for "Hurry, let's go!" - to Andiamo! There's a lot brewing out there, but more on that in a bit.
Italian food has swamped Dubai. Everywhere you go, anywhere you go, it's conspicuous by its sheer spread of presence - whether it's fine dining, casual osteria-themed, mall food court-type or even takeaway-style. That makes it one of the toughest cuisines to review. There's almost no room for surprise, because everything's been accounted for.
So, how does yet another Italian eatery fare in our (esteemed) gastronomic stakes?
Very well, it turned out.
But I have to state at the outset that my heart was won the moment I espied the red Vespa parked outside the entrance to Andiamo!. Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn on the Vespa, in Roman Holiday - rings a bell? I was already half in love.
The interiors are chic and sleek, and more French than Italian - setting a very different bar from that of an osteria or even a trattoria. It's nicely spatial, boasting a huge floor area, with a significant portion of the restaurant pouring into an outdoor setting. Seating is a mix of formal, loungy, woody (long wooden tables)
and al fresco. Quirky chandeliers have overturned bottles as light-holders.
Pizzas get made in front of you, and the pizza-maker (helpfully) gets acrobatic every once in a while with his rolled out dough, coming up with some incredible twists and twirls. Crusty, warm bread pops out of the oven. And a DJ keeps you entertained with recorded music (no, the tunes played were not strictly Andrea Bocelli, I overheard Village People's Y.M.C.A. and resisted an urge to break into a jig).
We started out with a (largish) pat of Burrata (250 gm to be precise), cherry tomatoes and a figs reduction. You usually can't go off-kilter with Burrata - unless there's something wrong with the quality of the cheese itself; here, the Burrata was as fresh as they get, and it managed extra brownie points thanks to the excellent figs reduction. Next on the table was the Bresaola e Philadelphia - small bresaola rolls filled with Philadelphia cheese, chopped black olives served with crunchy sesame flat bread and garden salad. The cheese dominated the taste somewhat, but the texture was so perfect I wasn't complaining.
On to the salads. The Avocado Insalata (salad) was refreshing and nice enough with its added line-up of Roma tomatoes, red onion, cucumber, fennel, orange wedges and, of course, rocket leaves. Not stand-outish, but a hearty (and very healthy) palate cleanser. The other insalata was the Polpo e Peperoni. Now, polpo, in case you didn't know, is Italian for octopus. That's right. Squeamish me tried to bite into a tiny bit of the octopus, telling myself that the piece "looks a lot like chicken"; unfortunately, it didn't taste quite like it, so I withdrew immediately. My dining companion, however, was game enough. "Chewy, and a tad rubbery - but that's octopus for you!" The sidelights of capsicum, pickled cucumber, green olives and a capers-parsley-lemon emulsion gave it a lovely zest, she added. Thumbs up.
I absolutely loved the Pizza Rustica - with a tomato sauce base, mozzarella, fried eggplant, grilled onion rings, baby spinach, with lashings of Pecorino Romano cheese. While hitting all the right spots, it also hit home the point, yet again, how close to the soil (read: rustic) Italian food can be. No flourishes whatsoever, just wholesome to the core. Ditto, the Alberto's Sicilia in Bocca - Mezzi rigatoni pasta, Sicilian pesto (made with ricotta cheese, basil leaves, pine seeds, Parmigiano Reggiano), cherry tomatoes and crushed pistachio nuts. The combination of the ingredients reminds one of the best of Italy; and the flavourful concoction seems deceptively light, so you may tend to overdose on it without realising the fulsomeness (in your tummy) you will subsequently invite.   
I was a bit alarmed to learn that the hits would keep on coming. The mains. "We'll have just little bits and pieces please," my friend and I professed. Didn't happen, as the Branzino al Limone put paid to all our plans. The wonderful tasting seabass - one of my fave fish - really requires no added flavours (it's such a star!), so imagine it delicately baked with lemon infusion, served with pan-fried zucchini and pine seeds. Total winner. Between us, we polished off the entire portion.
Agnello Alla Scottadito - grilled lamb racks with lemon-flavoured string beans, doused in balsamic fig vinegar - was up for grabs next. The meat was cooked beautifully, with just the tiniest bit of crunch, the vinegar giving it a softer, sweeter complement.
It was finally time for desserts. The Ricotta Cheesecake (with strawberry maraschino) was tart and sweet, the Blueberry Panna Cotta more rounded - but they were the ultimate awesome twosome while being texturally fairly similar. The Tiramisu, very good by itself, somehow was reduced to an also-ran. But the showstopper was the Nutella Pizza with mixed berries, meringues and salty caramel - try it for the novelty, if nothing else.
While exiting Andiamo!, after thanking our wonder-fully gracious server profusely, I bumped into the
Vespa again.
And, for the rest of evening, it felt like a gourmet Roman Holiday had come to an end.
sushmita@khaleejtimes.com