There was a time when I would raise an eyebrow and wrinkle my nose at the word "sushi". Raw fish? No way. Seaweed? Forget it. Tofu? You have to be kidding me. I have been saying "no" to sushi for a long time, long after my friends got hooked on it and needed their "fix" on a weekly basis. 

 

I remember exactly my first sushi adventure. It was the winter of 2009, in Amsterdam. After a long Saturday night, spent on the cold streets of Amsterdam, hopping from one brown bar to another, my flat mates and I woke up in the afternoon, starving. No one wanted to cook or even stay in, so we decided to eat out. Unfortunately for me (at the time), their passion for sushi came together and my suggestion of going to eat Italian was overruled. 2 against 1. "It's time to try it, you'll love it, come on", they said. I couldn't fight the raw fish, the seaweed, the wasabi any longer. I was on my own and that was a battle I could have never won.

 

Now, looking back, I cannot understand how I managed to stay away from sushi for that long. If I were to choose 5 food items to eat on a deserted island (no foodie could survive with only one choice!) for the rest of my existence, nigiri or california rolls would most definetely make the cut. Yes, most definetely.

 

Finding good and affordable sushi in Dubai proved to be a challenge for me. Coming from a city like Amsterdam where sushi became a staple food and restaurants had deals of amazing "all you can eat" sushi for only 20 Euros, I found it difficult to find the same thing here. Maybe it was because I was looking for "the same" in a completely "different" location and that never works.

 

A few weeks back I saw a Groupon voucher for unlimited sushi at Le Gourmet. Usually reluctant in buying Groupon vouchers for dining out, but persuaded by good reviews and an increasing hunger for sushi, I did it. And it was good.

 

Le Gourmet is located on Jumeirah Road, close to Spinneys and opposite Palm Strip. Walking in, the venue is airy, breezy. Decorated in white and light brown - white chairs, light brown tables, white table runners, and some white and brown "Emmental-looking" decorations - you would expect the place to give you a warm, Mediteranean feel. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The place feels a tad cold and lacks spirit, soul. It is just another restaurant, with a fish counter, a desserts and pastry counter and a retail wall. 

 

If you walk all the way to the end of Le Gourmet, you will run into the sushi counter, where 2 chefs "keep rollin', rollin', rollin', rollin' (yeah). The first time I visited (I actually bought two vouchers and I went twice. Correction: four times now), the restaurant manager welcomed me and walked me to the counter, but there was little to no explanation regarding the ordering process. We sat down and we waited. Not long after that, we placed our drinks order, but the food ordering process was still surrounded by confusion. More waiting.

 

Eventually, we received the miso soup (shiro/white miso). It arrived pipping hot, with enough seaweed, tofu and spring onion. The tofu was soft, the broth was salty and full of flavour, the spring onion added freshness. I found it good and promising and I could not wait a minute longer to dig into the rolls.  

 

Because the ordering process was not explained, my friend and I didn't really know what to do and how to do it. So we patiently waited. You know how it felt? Like a kid at Christmas or in kinder garden celebrations, waiting for your present. You keep hoping you will be next, but no. And with each name called, you lose a bit of hope that you will actually receive a present.

 

After 15 minutes of waiting, we received the first plate of mixed rolls: salmon and avocado topped with tobiko or green roe, crispy california, spicy tuna and cucumber rolls. The plate looked polished and the rolls clean, "together" (not falling apart) and of the ideal size.