Grub Shack is a causal dining restaurant located in Healthcare City in Dubai. When I first saw the food photos from this outlet, a few years back, it was in Sharjah. And I kept telling mu hubby that we need to visit this place, the pics were that tempting. And one fine day, I heard that it had relocated to Dubai. This made me very happy, but little did I know that I would still have to wait longer to taste the food. Grub Shack was a dream and it came true a few days back when I got the opportunity to visit this quaint restaurant with my friends for dinner.
Grub Shack is indeed like a shack, a modernized shack, with indoor and outdoor seating areas and live music. It’s a family-run restaurant, run by a husband-wife duo Mario & Gemma, that serves food found on the streets from Bombay to Goa. There is a vibrant feel to this place and the food most often makes a dramatic entrance 😊 Keep reading to know more.
The first appetizer that we tried was the Firecracker Shrimps. It is difficult to put into words how delicious it was… Each mouthful was bursting with flavours!!! Another amazing dish was Gemma’s Double Decker King Prawns, the presentation was dramatic with smoke all around and it was lip-smackingly delish. Since there was a vegetarian amongst us, we were served Potato Chops, two huge fried balls of tasty mashed potato filling. Also, tried the non-veg. version of this but the vegetarian version stood out!!
Then came the highlight of the evening – Gemma’s Chilli Crab. I love crab but I’m not too fond of dirtying my hands to get the meat out. I usually get my hubby to do the dirty work 😉 But sans hubby, I set out on this task equipped with all the gear; gloves, apron and tools; and I must say I truly enjoyed the experience. The sauce was balanced in terms of flavour and the spice level was well suited to my palate. If you must try one dish from here, let it be this one!!!
Tawa Chicken Tandoori was looked bright and scrumptious. The chicken was cooked perfectly but the gravy was slighly sour due to the lemon which my friends enjoyed but I felt it was a little too sour. Another chicken dish that was well-appreciated was the Chicken Cafreal. The earthy flavours of mint and coriander made this a delicious one.
Grub Shack is well known for their seafood so we also ordered a plate Fried Rechado King Prawns and it was finger-licking good!!! Another seafood dish that we tried was Gemma’s Mango Fish Curry. Mango fish curries are famous in my hometown and I love a good fish curry with mango. The gravy was really yum but the fish had a very fishy taste to it. Hope you get what I mean.
We had these with a GS Special Chicken Fried Rice and some freshly baked Portuguese Bread.
The vegetarian amongst us had ordered Burnt Garlic Paneer along with a Veg. Fried Rice. Both these were truly delicious. The flavour of burnt garlic took that dish to a higher level altogether.
We ordered a variety of drinks like Thunder Thai Cooler, which has spicy and coconuty notes; Jack Frost, truly instagrammable (watch the videoat the top); Kata Khat on the Road, Strawberry Margherita, Yuzu Lemon and Mint, Choco Popcorn, & Nutella Fantasy.
This restaurant doesn’t have a dessert menu; instead they have a Kulfilicious truck parked inside which caters to those who want something sweet after their meal. I tried the Lahore Kulfi which wasn’t too bad but wasn’t too great either.
To wrap up, we ordered Karak Chai which made a grand entry with all the theatrics but unfortunately, was a huge let-down in terms of flavour. How can an Indian restaurant go wrong with Chai…??
Overall, Grub Shack is a wonderful restaurant with great vibes, live music and some amazing prawn and crab dishes. I would have given them a rating of 5, if it weren’t for the minor mishaps with the fish curry and kadak chai.
Lizbethology 