Pai Thai, Dubai

Pai Thai is a Thai restaurant located in the Hotel Jumeirah Al Qasr. After watching Brogan Tate go there with her partner Benji, I knew I wanted to do this with my own partner. Social media showed me people’s experiences, but it didn’t go as I imagined it. Here’s our experience and why…

We made our way to the hotel entrance, and upon entry, we asked for the Pai Thai Restaurant. I thought we would get this boat to the hotel restaurant. It wasn’t the case, as we walked through the grounds. It was nice to see the grounds, the camels, but I imagined arriving by boat. I gave us plenty of time to do this, so arriving early and with no boat, we entered the restaurant. 

The restaurant is situated on the waterside and has views of the hotel. At our table, you cannot see this until it got later in the meal due to the condensation on the windows. We were given our menus and we chose to have the set menu asking for the main curry to be mild. We ordered our drinks and Thai Green crackers and sweet chill arrived at our table. 

I sat at the table, trying to take in the views thinking to myself am I here or is this just a dream? He commented to say, it was a nice restaurant, but didn’t understand why I had been eager to come.

Our starters came out, vegetable spring rolls, chicken satay, and pomelo salad amused our sense of smell. The taste of the chicken satay and vegetable spring rolls was nothing different from what you could buy in a UK Supermarket or make at home. The pomelo salad is made from a citrus fruit found in southeast Asia. I have never come across this before and have been trying to find one in the UK to remake this salad at home, as it was my favourite dish of the night.

After a short whilst we finished our starters, and they asked if they could make our main course. Sat there I was thinking more about my expectations, I wanted to see the view, have a waiter offering us ideas for dishes to try and have a fabulous date night.

The main course arrived, the green curry, the wok-fried beef, steamed seabass and jasmine rice. We tucked into the dishes and my partner’s first comment was “Be careful of the curry it’s not mild.” I started with the seabass and wok-fried beef. The seabass had an aroma which smelt amazing and fish which was delicate to pick up. The wok-fried beef was tender, and I was loving the oyster sauce. I moved on to the curry as agreed with my partner was spicy. He said he now couldn’t taste the flavour of the fish. No server at this point came to us to ask us how we were getting on. Finally, when one came, we asked to say if this was mild, and he agreed it was when we explained it wasn’t to us. 

We finished as much as we could with the dishes, and they asked us if they could bring dessert. I opted for some coconut ice cream, as I don’t eat bananas and didn’t fancy more rice with a mango flavour. They brought us a dessert which said happy anniversary, which I forgot about. As the curry was settling on my partner’s stomach it was clear he was becoming more unwell. He went to use the facilities and I got the bill and we paid for the meal.

During the meal, I persuaded him to get the boat back to the main reception. It was nice being on the boat, but not as how I imagined it to be being dark for photos. With a large group talking and a boyfriend feeling ill.

We made it back to the boat deck and into the hotel in time for my partner to go to the toilet to throw up the entire meal. He was quite unwell, for the rest of the day… and the trip! 

Not sure if it was something in the dish which made him unwell, or the heat as we just landed the day before and were trying to climatised or from travelling. This once-in-a-lifetime date night ended up badly, and it was memorable for other reasons. My expectation/dreams of the night just didn’t match what I saw others experience.