A few years back, I was not a brunch person and the whole idea of brunch for me seemed to be out of proportion. After being a bit hesitant for the first few brunches, I finally managed to accept the entire idea of Brunching.

Fast forward to 2016, I became quite regular to brunches during the first few months of the year. All this means is that one can learn to accept new things in life only once you give it a try.

It was a few months back that my friend won a voucher for a Friday brunch for 4 and decided it was time that we had a guys brunch at Bice. Located at Hilton, Jumeirah Beach Residence, Bice is a Fine dining Italian restaurant. Over the years Bice has received plenty of awards from BBC Good Food Me, Time out Dubai Magazine and What’s On.

Even before at sat down at the table, my expectations had already been raised due to all the awards I saw. We sat down at our table and were briefly explained about the brunch and were informed that the brunch included juices along with the food.

Before bringing in the food, we were served some bread and breadsticks with condiments. I preferred the bread over the breadsticks.

The brunch started with some shared starters namely – Burratina with cherry tomato and pesto sauce, Thin sliced cured beef with cherry mozzarella, artichokes, wild rocket, Octopus carpaccio with lemon oil and crispy vegetable and Tricolore salad with endives and palm hearts.

Burratina with cherry tomato and pesto sauce. The Burrata was so good and fresh. Loved the use of pesto sauce as well.

Thin sliced cured beef with cherry mozzarella, artichokes, wild rocket. More cheese means for yumminess. Just loved the cherry mozzarella and the beef was pretty good too.

Octopus carpaccio with lemon oil and crispy vegetable. This was probably my favourite salad of the 4. It not only looked fresh but tasted delicious too.

Tricolore salad with endives and palm hearts. The healthiest out of the lot, the salad was fresh and tasted good.

There were 4 different choices of Pasta as well. These were – Pacchero with fresh seafood in AOP sauce, Calamarata served with tomato sauce, fresh ricotta and eggplant, Garganelli served with Bolognese sauce and mushrooms and a Vegetarian Ravioli Pasta for my veggie friend.

Calamarata served with tomato sauce, fresh ricotta and eggplant. To be honest Calamarata is not my favourite type of Pasta and I therefore found this Pasta to be average. I however liked the use of fresh Ricotta.

Pacchero with fresh seafood in AOP sauce. The Pasta was good and I loved the fresh seafood.

Garganelli served with Bolognese sauce and mushrooms. One can never go wrong with Bolognese sauce. The Pasta was one of the better ones from the lot.

When it comes to Pastas, nothing can beat a Ravioli Pasta if it is done right. The Vegetarian Ravioli Pasta was served specially to my friend since he is a vegetarian was the best Pasta we had. The creamy sauce, the pasta itself and the filling, everything was just perfect.

After getting through the Pastas, it was time for the shared mains which consisted of Spiced and herbed rock salt sea bass and a Mix platter that consisted of Jumbo Prawns, Baby Chicken, Salmon, Lamb chop and sea bream. There is a choice between the mains but since we were 4 people we could choose 1 of each.

The coolest thing about the brunch was the server going ahead to filled the sea bass right in front of our eyes.  The sea bass was so fresh and good.

The Mix platter was huge in size and we were already getting full from the Pastas. I liked the Jumbo prawns, Sea bream and the Lamb chops too. The Chicken was above average while the salmon was average.

Finally it was time for desserts. We were served 3 desserts – Cannoli with fresh ricotta cheese and chocolate chips, Fresh mix fruit platter and Italian Tiramisu. Being a big time foodie, I skipped the mix fruit platter and tried the other 2 desserts.

The Cannoli looked pretty good with the chocolate chips but it wasn’t my favourite dessert. The use of ricotta cheese with chocolate chips gave a unique taste but it was not too much of a dessert for me, even with the sugar powder. I would have preferred more chocolate in the filling itself to make the dessert sweeter.

The Italian Tiramisu was really good. I would have loved to have more of it but we were only served one each.

The Tiramisu brought us to a sweet ending to the amazing but really heavy brunch. What I loved about the experience was the service, the freshness of the salads and the sea food.

Is Bice a good place for brunch? It was probably one the better ones I have been to. Not all the dishes were wow and there is a room for improvement there but if you are looking for good food, a peaceful brunch and catching up with friends, Bice is a good place to be.

As per the details I have, the brunch does not come in cheap and costs AED 295 per person for the basic package which includes Soft drinks, juices, Non alcoholic beer, Still & Sparkling Water and Coffee while the Alcoholic package comes in at AED 395 per person. The cost for 7 – 12 years old children is AED 135. Do recheck the prices before visiting.

Details:

Restaurant: Bice

Location: Ground floor, The Hilton, Jumeirah Beach Residence

Contact: 04 3991111