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Trèsind Studio

Dubai

• The Best Restaurant in Middle East & Africa 2023

A beautifully choreographed journey through Indian cuisine

On the Pass

Himanshu Saini

Pastry Chef

Love Gupta

What’s the story? Trèsind Studio found its genesis in 2018 as an experimental chef’s table-style concept in a room adjacent to high-quality, high-volume modern Indian restaurant Trèsind in the One&Only Royal Mirage hotel. Such was Studio’s success that the team sought a bespoke space to highlight breakaway talent Chef Himanshu Saini’s cuisine. May 2022 saw the standalone, 20-cover Trèsind Studio open atop the Nakheel Mall in The Palm area of Dubai, which this year takes home the trophy for The Best Restaurant in Middle East & Africa for the first time.

On the menu: The current ‘Tasting India’ menu begins with a beautifully curated map of India presented tableside. The courses arrive as a journey around the sub-continent, with three dishes each from north, south, east and west, highlighting each region’s idiosyncratic dishes and styles of eating. The west’s vegetable-growing belt is highlighted with a vibrant chaat, zingy with tamarind and yoghurt, with pumpkin taking the place of chickpea. The south’s standout dish references the coastline, with a crab curry laced with cinnamon and heavy with black pepper spice. All dishes arrive with true theatre, be it dry ice to emphasise fragrance, a personal hob burner to ensure a curry arrives at just the right temperature, or crockery with its colour matched to complement what’s on the plate.

Drinks pairing: The team has recruited one of the world’s foremost experts on matching liquid flavours with food in Italian Dom Carella, owner of Carico Bar in Milan. He has put together an innovative pairings book that combines fresh-and-fragrant cocktails with natural wines and house-made sodas and kombuchas that work brilliantly with the cuisine.

Acts of service: Using the Indian phrase “atithi devo bhava” – directly translated as “the guest is god” – as a guide, astute hospitality is at the heart of Trèsind Studio, led by the restaurant’s hyper-talented GM, Vipin Panwar. The hospitality structure is completely inobtrusive, with a savvy understanding of how diners want to eat, minimum intervention and perfect explanation of each course from the kitchen.

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