Cucina Mia – Nice italian neighborhood restaurant

Poul’s brother and his family are visiting in Dubai, and yesterday was their first day down here. They were still a bit jet-lagged,  so they wanted to go somewhere casual but nice. I suggested that we went to Cucina Mia, which is an Italian restaurant on the other side of the marina. Poul and I used to live over there during our first years in Dubai, and Cucina Mia was our go-to place, whenever we didn’t want to cook dinner ourselves.

The food is nice and the staff are always friendly. The chef sometimes comes out from the kitchen to chat with the (Italian) regulars, and he also did so yesterday. It gives the restaurant an almost homey touch, which you don’t find at many places in this part of the city. At Cucina Mia the pizza is served by the meter (each pizza measures 25×25 cm), and we decided on 4 different flavors we wanted to try. One of them was with beef salami, which is  definitely my new favorite.

Poul’s niece is 7 years old, and she speaks just as much Danish as I speak Faroese (that is, not much). Though that doesn’t stop her, and she’s always eager to talk to me. I try keeping up with her, but sometimes it all goes haywire, such as yesterday, when I thought we were talking about a camel on the beach. Turned out she was telling me about an alien from a tv show. Or the time she was telling me something about yogurt, and I thought she was talking about her friend. We’ll be spending Christmas in the Faroe Islands, so hopefully I get the chance to pick up more Faroese phrases. Or at least learn how to distinguish between camels and aliens..

Cucina Mia, Trident Grand Residence (opposite Le Royal Meridien), JBR, Dubai, Tel: +971 4 425 9696

> Visit Cucina Mia’s website