It’s been almost a year since decorated Spanish chef Dani Garcia brought two of his most popular culinary brands to Dubai, opening <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/lifestyle/food/2023/12/17/dani-garcia-opens-lena-and-omakase-restaurant-smoked-room-in-dubai/">Lena and Smoked Room</a> at St Regis Gardens on Palm Jumeirah. Lena is a chic spacious dining room, with an inviting bar and welcoming terrace. But today, we’re here to talk about Smoked Room. Tucked away inside Lena, and accessed via low-lit corridors and inconspicuous sliding doors, lies an intimate 14-seat omakase venue, which was <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/lifestyle/food/2024/07/04/michelin-starred-restaurants-dubai-2024/">lauded with one Michelin star</a> in July, a mere six months after opening. Entering Smoked Room, you feel like you’re being let in on a secret or, at least, into an ultra-exclusive club. My evening began at the Lena bar, but it wasn’t long before the team whisked me away to Smoked Room, the entrance to which has something of a James Bond lair feel, with walls fittingly the colour and texture of charcoal, and automatic doors that are opened by touch. If it weren't a Michelin-starred restaurant, I’d be worried that I wouldn’t be able to find my way out. As it stands, I know I’ll be doing anything I can to stay put. The mini maze of corridors open to a small semicircle-shaped room, filled with a single crescent table with 14 seats, all of which face the main event – a live kitchen with an open-fire cooking station. Above the chefs is a row of mirrors, a detail I love as it allows you to watch exactly what the chefs are working on. I feel like I am in the audience of the most elite of cooking shows. The namesake scent of smoked fare greets you as you walk in, as do smoking cabinets filled with meat and fish, which flank the kitchen. It’s very clear that it’s not just a smoke room by name. There is also a dessert room, which I'm shown into for the final two courses of the meal. Another atmospheric and moody space, it’s decorated with amber touches and <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/lifestyle/home-garden/2024/12/05/pantone-colour-2025-mocha-mousse/" target="_blank">earthy shades of brown</a>. There are two set menus, Kosei no Hi (Dh600 per person for 10 courses) and Matsuri (Dh950 for 12 to 14 courses); I try the Kosei no Hi menu, but currently only the Matsuri menu is available. Although it’s an omakase experience, the dishes are by no means limited to Japanese cuisine. The focus is on smoking techniques and cooking with fire, with fish, seafood and poultry all appearing on the menu. My meal begins with a triple-fermented brioche roll served with red miso butter, which is prepared tableside. Amaebi from Hokkaido served with brown butter and smoked black pepper follows. The amaebi, a variety of sweet pink Japanese shrimp, is silky smooth, with a fiery kick care of peppercorns and fermented chilli, with fresh yuzo giving the dish a citric lightness. Next up is one of chef Garcia’s signatures – the sturgeon nitro tomato. A feat of molecular gastronomy, the tomato-shaped dish comprises creamy smoked sturgeon mousse, served with caviar atop a bed of almond pearls. It is finished with an almond and horseradish soup, which gives the dish warm depth. It is a complex medley of flavours, but the creamy soup – an element of the dish that nods to the culinary styles of chef Garcia’s native Andalusia – is a highlight. A palate cleanser in the form of tomato snow with smoked mackerel and chipotle follows. It is not my favourite dish on the menu, but the icy tomatoes and smoked fish make for an intriguing combination. I also love the attention to detail, which extends to the presentation of chilled cutlery to eat the dish. From here, we move on to the warm dishes, starting with charbroiled hokkigai clam. I am a proud lover of Italian vongole, but this was my first introduction to this ingredient, which is essentially a giant clam – each can deliver up to 400g of meat, our server tells me. The shellfish is served with creamy beurre blanc and fresh wasabi. The combination of creamy ingredients with a dash of heat is a culinary theme throughout. A single smoked mushroom stuffed anolini served in broth follows. An earthy but light dish, it is incredibly warming and uses both raw and cooked mushrooms. It is around about here that I start to feel very full, but press on in the interest of culinary journalism and, realistically, greed. The only meat dishes on the menu follow, in the form of dry-aged duck, served with a black mole and corn risotto. The duck’s crispy layer of fat is extraordinary – if it were available in bags of crisps, I’d be teetering into dangerous addiction territory. The final savoury dish is a duck, foie gras and mushroom croquette – a single bite that melds foie gras with the rich meat. Despite being fried, it maintains a pillowy texture – had I not just eaten so many courses beforehand, I could easily have tucked into a plate of four or five of the indulgent croquettes. From there, we move into the speakeasy-style dessert room, making space for the evening’s second wave of diners in the 14-seat dining space. Dessert begins with a seasonal nod, in the form of autumnal roasted butternut squash puree, mandarin sorbet and caramelised pumpkin seeds. A clash of textures and temperatures, the dessert isn’t overwhelmingly sweet; in fact, the puree tips the scale on to the savoury side, levelled out by the sorbet. The meal finishes with a chocolate dish, with shards of dark chocolate layered on a miso and whiskey gel, built like a fire in a fitting nod to the eatery’s name. Smoked Room is open for two seatings, at 6pm and 9pm, from Tuesday to Saturday. As a set menu experience, the meal takes between two and three hours. The restaurant is located at St Regis Gardens on Palm Jumeirah, and can be accessed via the main St Regis Dubai entrance. Call 04 453 7548 to book. <i>This review was conducted at the invitation of the restaurant</i>
