Exploring the Best Indian Fine Dining Restaurant in Dubai (2 Michelin Star)

Today we are exploring incredible India, the customs, the culture and of course the cuisine. This is going to be quite a trip, but luckily I don't even need to pack a bag, because we will do all this from the comfort of a rooftop restaurant in Dubai. This is the world's largest man-made island, Palm Jumeirah, started in 2001 and finished in 2007. This construction project added 56 km to Dubai's coastline at a cost of 11 billion euros. It is so big, you can see it from space. It's peppered with luxury hotels, seaside apartments and beachfront villas. It's also where you can find our restaurant for today, Fresind Studio. In the kitchen is chef Himanshu Saini. After culinary school, chef Saini trained at some of India's finest restaurants, including Indian accent in Delhi. Then, in 2014, he made the move to Dubai. He was a man with a mission, to prove there was a lot more to Indian cuisine than take-away curry. This led him to open the original Fresind restaurant. In 2018, he opened the second location and called it Fresind Studio. Similar name, but a different concept. Fresind Studio offers a 17-course tasting menu featuring the different regions of India. With a capacity of just 20 diners, the focus here is to make the Indian journey a memorable one. I have been here before and really enjoyed it. But since then, big things have happened. This year, Fresind Studio got number 11 on the world's 50 best restaurant list. When the Michelin guy debuted in Dubai last year, chef Saini got his first star. This year, he got the second. It makes him the world's only Indian workshop with two Michelin stars. I can't wait to see for myself how the food and service have evolved. We head to Palm Jumeirah and make our way to the Nakhi Shopping Centre, a luxury mall in St. Regis Gardens. And they receive me like royalty. There are only 20 chairs, the space is modern with a minimalist feel. Everything is on display, from the wine collection to the botanic bar and even the kitchen itself. Chef Saini appears and invites me onto the rooftop. Besides the breeze and the view, we get a look at some of his freshest ingredients. Even in the scorching desert heat, they are able to grow vegetables and herbs, edible flowers and even banana trees here. Unbelievable. The businessman side of me wakes up. Can you imagine the return of investment of this garden? Normally, I just go for a wine. I decide to let go of my wine obsession for now and order the Synergy Pairing for €130. Each drink is designed by Italian mixologist Dom Carella to complement the tasting menu. For food, choosing is easy. The tasting menu is the only choice. It's called Rising India and it goes for €175. It takes us around India and showcases the food of the four major areas. The magic of the menu begins with the help of liquid nitrogen. Then the cool mixture is poured into the first bite. The placement of the snack pinpoints our location in Palm Jumeirah. It's a Pani Puri, one of the most popular Indian street foods. These are one-bite wonders that sell like mad. It's a Halo Chip filled with spicy, savory or sweet water. This is the first drink from the pairing. It's red bell pepper, coconut water and the final single malt whiskey from India. I am instructed to drink it after the next snack. That would be a Shiso Papadum with yogurt chutney, mango and garden herbs. It's presented on white clay, found here in Dubai. Chef Saini presents snack number three. It's a savory donut made with fermented lentils, filled with a peanut butter sauce and kimchi on top. The next drink in the pairing is called Black Lime Gin Wine. It's fermented with Omani black lime, which is a popular spice here in the Middle East. The next snack is a tartlet of potato with scallops with miso mustard. Also in the mix are ripe bananas, smoked tomato chutney and balsamic on the top. I'm just blown away. Now that we are warmed up, it's time for the first leg of our journey around India. The tart desert is in the northwest and straddles the border of India and Pakistan. It's the most populated desert in the world, with over 30 million people living there. Because of the dry conditions, they don't use a lot of fresh produce. Instead, they rely on things like desert plants, dairy products and pickled vegetables. The traditional way of cooking is in a sand pit. We can expect the next three courses to have elements from here. As a reminder of where we are on the menu, we have a visual. I love the presentation here. It's a flatbread filled with cactus curry. We also have sweet mango pickle and on top is sliced cactus. The warm savory curry and the cool sweet and sour pickle go really well together. It's paired with a drink they call Desert Lassi. It's made with date, honey and vermouth. I just love this drink and this glass. Our next course is a new spin on a traditional dish cooked in a sand pit with hot coals. It's duck confit, ash-roasted artichokes and black lime chutney. Then they added garlic aioli and homemade sriracha. Just look at that. There is at least as much thought and work put into the presentation as the food itself. It's hard to describe the flavors, but there are practically fireworks in my mouth. From the pairing we have a vegan star with hibiscus, grapefruit and vodka. This really feels like an adventure. Our next course is pepper and ice cream. On the bowl literally a pickled pepper. It's fried and then stuffed with pickled emulsion. In the middle is ice cream made from buttermilk curry. The pickle is super acidic and absolutely perfect. The ice cream resets and restores my taste buds. It's like a light switch. Brilliant. My time in the desert was great, but it's time to pack up and move on. Next we move to the southern part of India known as the Deccan Plateau. It's a huge tropical area of 500 square kilometers and extends over eight Indian states. This part of the country is where most of the rice, sugarcane and aromatic spices come from. With the Deccan Plateau we get a new visual. Our first dish is tender coconut scooper marinated with smoked spices and dashi mayo with oxalis leaves. The broth on the side is made with regional spices and a bit of yuzu. Next to the synergy pairing is Jumai Ginjo Sake from Heaven Sake. This sake is versatile and pairs well with the meat, fish and pasta. This is pandanassa or a stew made with the first press of the coconut. It's made with aromatic spices like cardamom, cinnamon and cloves. In the center a tortellini filled with gorgonzola dolce. In this part of the menu we not only get to experience the flavors, temperatures and textures, but the ceremony itself. The ceremony is about the first harvest of the season and for the family lunch people they sit on the floor and they have a banana leaf in front of them and the whole meal is served on the leaf one by one. When people leave they use their hands and they end up mixing all the dishes together and that's the experience we want you to have, a combination of many flavors, temperatures, textures from the ceremony. To recreate the first harvest ceremony there is a line of people ready and waiting to build the next course before my eyes. Literally everyone who works in the restaurant is here. To perform this tradition as a course in the menu is heartwarming and powerful. So powerful that chef told me some even shed some tears over it. It is a touching moment, even I have goosebumps. I have never seen such a thing before. It really is a celebration and a strong cultural message at the same time. Our next region is the coastal plains and islands. India has more than 7 000 kilometers of coastline and over 1200 islands. Here the food is strongly influenced by other cultures that have been here over the centuries. The climate brings an abundance of tropical fruit and coconut and the proximity to the water means that seafood dominates. Reminding us of this fact is our hypnotic new visual. Our first dish is ghee roasted crab. It starts with crab cooked in clarified butter and sweet spices. Then it's placed on top of cinnamon bark and baked. It's topped with tempura and curry leaf crisp. I could have eaten 10 of these. The pairing is a champagne from Ruinart. Nice touch how they match the plate and the champagne flute. Both are made with mother of pearl. Stunning! Champagne in the drink pairing is usually something I love to see. But with this food it starts to cancel out the spicy flavors instead of enhancing them. Elegant wines would not pair well with these bold and spicy flavors. One thing I noticed is unchanged from a dressing studio is the level of service. This is Vipin the general manager. I asked him where he learned his profession. He tells me that he used to watch shows like Chef's Table on Netflix to learn moves. He was practicing them in front of the mirror. Today here he is in one of the world's top 50 restaurants. The next course is paired with a red cherry lentil kombucha made in-house and designed for the next dish. It's charred lobster tail in a base of pickled tomatoes with fermented chili and two types of curry. The lobster is great on its own but together with the kombucha it's phenomenal. For our next course we have dumplings filled with sweetened lentils alongside sauteed shrimp in a sour lentil broth. It's delicious and I really love this menu so far. Our final savory courses will come from the northern plains and Himalayan mountain region. From the north comes a lot of Persian influence with things like kebabs and naan bread. From the mountains they have more Chinese influence where we see a lot of noodles, broth and tea gardens. Our next drink is made with fig leaves, tea and gin. This is the sommelier's favorite of the pairing and I can't wait to try it. The next course comes from Kashmir. It's a kebab of minced lamb in a green plum curry. On the bottom is a yogurt chutney with pecans and pickled onions. On the top we have mountain leaves and a cucumber flower dusted with mint. Our next course takes us back to the street food stalls for kebab skarpela. It's a reduction found in kebab shops that is full of fat and flavor but is often burned or thrown away. Here they recreate and optimize it. On the side we have sordo toast for what the Italians call la skarpela. This is super rich and so so delicious. Our next course is inspired by the northest part of India near China. It looks like noodles but it's actually mushrooms. King oyster mushrooms are cut and prepared like pasta with pickled mushroom extra sauce and tiny hot pepper in a broth made of mushroom trimmings. Our next drink has apple, cucumber, roasted sesame and a little bit of smoky mescal. It's interesting and flavorful but doesn't grab my attention like some others today. Our last savory course of the day is this. It's called oyster pearl but there is actually no seafood in this dish. The sauce or seawater is made from vinegar, black tea, soy and ginger. Lychee is used to mimic the oyster. The bowl on the top is made of sour milk and lemongrass. I'm told to eat it just like an oyster in one go. Our first dessert is stagged. On top is cookie with cacao followed by cauliflower cremeux, toasted berry ice cream and a candy floss on the bottom. It's paired with a drink of mulled wine and masala chai. Again so many flavors it's hard to isolate any of them. Excellent! This is rhubarb and strawberry pan and nasturtium leaf. I'm told to fold it like a taco and eat it in one go. Unbelievable flavors! For the big finale the whole cast gets in on the action as fly me to the moon comes from the speakers. This course is called honeymoon. The dessert is made to mimic a honeycomb. It's made with white chocolate and cacao butter and topped with organic honey. It's paired with a light black tea. The idea is to have milk tea and honey all at the same time. The honeycomb melts on contact and has a nice smooth texture. It's a memorable way to bring the menu to a close. My total for the menu and the pairing is around 400 hryvnia. After the meal chef Sany sticks around to generously share his time and his cooking philosophy. He likes to learn about 50% of what's in a dish and then come up with the other half by himself. This way he can get inspired by others and then use his imagination to create something uniquely his own. Then the chef asked me for my feedback. I liked how he didn't ask what I liked but what I didn't. Honestly, it was hard to find anything here I didn't like. It was a delicious, educational and at times emotional journey and I wouldn't change a thing. I enjoyed it so much that I already have my next reservation. And that does it for this episode. Thank you for joining me. If you like this video, hit subscribe. See you next time! you