Dubai's historical Old Town

Some of the few historic
buildings
 left 

Everything in Dubai is so new and shinny which is great in it's own way. 

The Old Fort - Now home to the Dubai Museum

However, when you've moved from history rich cities like London and Stockholm you kind of miss tripping up over really old stuff on every street corner. 
Even though we'd only been in Dubai a few days we were determined to seek out the historic heart of Dubai - the old bits so
we visited the Old town in Bur Dubai.

Sadly there's not that many historical buildings left in Dubai due a combination of factors like the materials historically used, coral and gypsum not being that durable when coupled with the extreme humid climate. Plus, the fact that much of what did remain was very derelict and needed restoring, so instead they bulldozed it in the 1980's to make way for new construction.

What is left has been restored and is very interesting and beautiful, but as it's a tourist attraction not very atmospheric, real local people don't actually live there any more.

Aside from this sad fact, we still had a lovely afternoon, wandering the tiny streets and the Textile Souk. 

We finished off the day with traditional Arabian food at Bastakiah Nights, which is a wonderfully atmospheric restaurant in one of the old buildings. You sit in the court yard under the stars, surrounded by antiques and flickering lanterns. 

Barley soup and mezze yum!

Now Time Out Dubai, gave the food and service an average rating and said the service was grumpy. In contrast both were excellent the night we visited with no grupmy-ness in site other than my own.
You have a set menu which is fine for us as we like trying new things. To drink you get freshly squeezed Lemon & Mint on arrival, then a choice of other fresh juices, we stuck to Lemon & Mint as it's so refreshing. 

The menu is presented as a string tied paper scroll that you have to unravel I love little details like this. To start we had Barley and lemon soup which was surprisingly delicious,i'm not a fan of a soup starter in general especially in a warm climate. Soup for me is best as a winter warmer on a cold day.    

However, I thoroughly enjoyed this hot soup, it came with a muslin covered lemon (genius way to ensure you don't get lemon pips in your soup) that you administer yourself to taste. What works brilliantly is how the creamy-ness from the barley is balanced by the tartness of the lemon, simple and not to stodgy or rich, yummy. 

For mains we had mixed cold mezze and you do have a choice of grilled meat options. We had the mixed kebab and the chicken, the kebabs were a bit much as we were getting full but we soldiered through to desert of fresh fruit and fresh mint tea, perfect end to a lovely day. 

Posted in: Barley and lemon soup,Bastakiah Nights,Bur Dubai,Duabi Old Fort,Dubai museum,Dubai Old Town,historical buildings,Lemon and Mint,mezze,Textile souk,Time Out Dubai