A few days back I was invited for Dinner to the newest healthy restaurant in town, Gourmet by Kcal as a part of a BME. As the name suggests, the restaurant is connected to the famous Kcal brand. The difference being that the restaurant is based in Le Meridien Mina Seyahi and the hotel itself is involved in bringing about the gourmet feel to the food. The menu is different from any other Kcal in town.

The decor of the restaurant is very close to what it stands for. This can be noticed through the tree in the middle of the restaurant, the coffee bean bags used as covers for the chairs and sofas. The menu is not something you see in regularly with every dish having the calorie count. Not just this, the dishes also mark what type of ingredients are used in order to highlight any products that people may be allergic to, or simply to highlight the non veg bits in dishes.

In addition to this, the kitchen is gluten free and boasts using organic ingredients in most cases. Incase you love wine, it would be worth noting that they are a fully licensed restaurant with plenty of wine options.

Our meal started with some Vietnamese styled spring rolls. We were served with 4 types of Spring rolls – Chicken, Prawns, Beef and Vegetables. For those who don’t know, Vietnamese spring rolls are not fried and are healthy. Vegetables and the meat is rolled in rice paper and the spring rolls look white or a bit transparent in colour. I preferred the Chicken one out of the lot.

The next starter we tried was Roasted Balsamic Onion and Carrot Cups. The dish consisted of Roast Balsamic Onion, fresh Thyme, sautéed Spinach, Carrot and Parmesan cup with mixed leaf salad. The dish not only looked amazing but tasted delicious too. I have a soft corner for Balsamic Vinegar and this was probably the reason that I simply loved it. The dish comes packed with 242 Kcal.

This was it for the starters, next on were the mains. We were served 3 mains and 2 types of Pizza. The 3 mains served were – Black Rice Biryani with smoked Chicken, Havanna Chicken and Chili Corn Carne. The Pizzas served were Prawn Pizza and Chicken Pizza.

The Black Rice Biryani was an interesting dish which combined traditional Biryani with a yoghurt marinated smoked Chicken served over black and brown rice, topped with Cashews, Raisins and Sautéed Onions.

Havanna chicken was decent too. The marinated chicken breast was cooked well. It was served with mango and strawberry salsa, black beans, quinoa and roasted Bananas.

Chili Corn Carne was my favourite main out of the three. The slow cooked Mexican beans, capsicum, zucchini, sweet potato, quinoa served with sour cream was just delicious. Everything healthy yet so delicious, the dish certainly ticked all the boxes for me.

The pizzas were light as compared to regular pizzas. This would have to be due to the carrot or zucchini bases used. The pizzas are made for those days that you want to enjoy your Pizza without putting on weight.

Moving on it was time for desserts. We tried the Coconut Caramel Cheesecake, Caramel Almond Tart and Dark Chocolate Mousse. My favourite out of the lot was the Caramel Almond Tart. The smooth dark chocolate was the plus point of the dessert. Not to forget that it was topped with fresh raspberries. Yummy!

The Coconut Caramel Cheesecake would be second on my list. The dessert was made of Coconut cashew cream with pecan while the crust was almond with organic maple syrup.

I have been informed that the restaurant will be starting breakfast from 10th June. Drop by and try it for a healthy breakfast.

Thank you Monica (Do in Dubai) for the invite to the BME. It was amazing to meet my fellow foodies as well. A special mention to the amazing company – Dubai Food Diaries,  What Nossy Ate, Megs Blogged, The Tezzy Files, Dine Out Dubai and The Vegetarian Soul.

Disclosure:

I was invited to the restaurant as a part of a blogger managed event hence I have not given any ratings for the food or the restaurant. The food was sponsored by the restaurant itself, however this does not impact any of my thoughts or views about the food I tried. This is a sponsored post but all opinions expressed are solely based on my experience and are not influenced by the restaurant or its management in any way.