Member of The Guild of Food Writers
Member of The Guild of Food Writers

New deli in new Dubai

Market & Platters - Dubai MarinaA new standalone deli and gourmet grocer has just docked into new Dubai, Dubai Marina to be exact – Market & Platters – brought to us by the owners of Fresh Express, the long-standing suppliers to the UAE hotel trade and royalty. Occupying a corner shop just across the road from Citibank and a wee walk, temperature-permitting from Spinneys, you couldn’t ask for a better location.

Fresh fish counterCheese counterFruit & veg

The fresh seafood counter is the first to greet you, and certainly beats queuing at Carrefour – the Maldivian Grade A yellow fin tuna loin was my dinner buy (AED48 for two steaks). Sadly FooDiva spotted local hammour, and you know how I feel about overfished species. The European cheese counter is pretty substantial including real fetta, i.e Greek (the owners’ origins, so they should know a thing or two) – but the antipasti selection is a bigger differentiator with the likes of a crayfish, tomato and dill salad, and a rich cod bacalao spread luring me in (AED35 for 200g). Fruit and veg is the central focal point – all decked out market-style on white wooden craters. Sadly all is imported, but on the other hand it does give us access to hard-to-find zucchini flowers, yellow courgettes and shiso cress. The Spanish Ortiz brand of anchovies, sardines and tuna-stuffed piquilo peppers are aplenty – similar to Finer Things. There’s also a small selection of freshly baked bread, fougasse included.

Seafood plattersThe biggest USP of all are the take-away platters of carpaccio, tartares and sashimi. The Australian yellowtail hamachi carpaccio (AED38) was simply sublime – hence the ‘Platters’ branding where the owners are keen to cater for supper soirées. The seafood salads and sandwiches looked impressive, but the Nicoise would have benefited from freshly seared tuna not the tinned variety.

Above all though, from the moment FooDiva walked in, the service from senior management and ‘real’ chefs behind the counter was second-to-none with knowledgeable, professional advice. Let’s hope this is not just an opening trend and they’re here to stay. Prices are very reasonable for a gourmet deli – but a slightly higher price point than online retailer Chez Charles. Market & Platters makes a wonderful quality addition to your weekly shop, especially when you’re after that certain ‘je ne sais quoi‘. Great to see a home-grown consumer brand take shape here in Dubai competing with the likes of gourmet imports, Lafayette Gourmet, and to an extent Jones The Grocer and Milk & Honey. Pop across this weekend.

Market & Platters is located at Tiger Tower, Dubai Marina – opposite Citibank. T; +971 4 4504466. E; info@marketandplatters.com  Open daily from 9am to 10pm. Free parking next door.

Where do you find yourself shopping for groceries – both daily staples and gourmet products?

A bientôt.

FooDiva. x

  • Posted under
    Deli, Dubai, Food Features

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24 Responses to “New deli in new Dubai”

  1. kelly September 4, 2012 at 9:53 pm

    You are spoiled for choice in Dubai….

    • FooDiva September 5, 2012 at 11:42 am

      No harm in that! x

  2. Katie Foster September 5, 2012 at 9:12 am

    Just discovered Markets and Platters on Monday . . and right in my back yard! The fish and produce were supremely fresh and such flavor!! Oh my!! I just may start cooking again!

    • FooDiva September 5, 2012 at 11:43 am

      Lucky you Katie! If it was in my back yard, I’d live off their seafood platters 🙂

  3. Sukaina September 5, 2012 at 11:52 am

    You didn’t happen to spot any micro herbs did you?

    • FooDiva September 5, 2012 at 12:38 pm

      Yes they do Sukaina – shiso cress included!

  4. Mj@cardamomhills September 6, 2012 at 7:09 am

    Lucky u dubaites…for us in abu dhabi….we still have to come all the way there to actually even look at all those stuff!! 🙁

    • FooDiva September 6, 2012 at 9:59 am

      Very true – is there really no where in Abu Dhabi? Hopefully some of the delis here will expand…

  5. Dima's Kitchen September 6, 2012 at 8:35 am

    I did enjoy finding out about this deli. It is always great to have choice and for the market to have more choices. I think the city is on the right track and you know more than one outlet always means better standards, better offerings and more variety across the board…
    Enjoyed reading your post 🙂

    • FooDiva September 6, 2012 at 10:01 am

      Thanks Dima. Very true. Competition in this field is good and helps create demand – the more the merrier. Now for Abu Dhabi 🙂

  6. Maryams Pastry September 7, 2012 at 4:59 am

    Why don’t we have those good stuff in Sharjah :(?
    Why do i have to rush to Dubai for good meals on weekends :(?

    Market & platters, next on my dining list 🙂

    • FooDiva September 8, 2012 at 7:28 pm

      Indeed Maryam – hopefully we will see some of these companies expand into the other emirates. Perhaps they don’t see enough demand though?

  7. rebecca September 9, 2012 at 10:21 am

    cant wait to see this in reality!! its like a mirage right now 🙂

    • FooDiva September 9, 2012 at 11:56 am

      Would welcome your professional opinion Rebecca!

  8. Expat08 September 11, 2012 at 9:01 am

    Finally the Selfridges Food Hall has arrived in Dubai! What a great place. The sashimi was incredibly fresh. Thank you for mentioning this place. I was desperate to buy sashimi grade fish in Dubai.

    • FooDiva September 12, 2012 at 9:46 am

      Ha ha – not quite Selfridges but on it’s way! I’ll try the sashimi next time. Appreciate the feedback.

  9. dave reeder September 16, 2012 at 2:16 pm

    Popped in today after lack of Internet in the office meant afternoon work at home. Parking a pain and the road system is bizarre, but it’s work persevering. Extremely impressive displays and the first time in Dubai I’ve seen things like fresh anchovies. courgettes flowers, baccala or some of speciality French cheeses. Would benefit from simpler packaging – I was the only customer and it took five minutes to wrap a paper strap round my nicoise salad and measure out a small bottle of dressing. cheese counter equally slow. But a stunning selection and very conveniently on the way from from my Media City office to the flat in the gardens. This area becoming well swerved -= apart from Spinneys there’s also a small Carrefour just round the corner. And is the deli still open in Harbour Hotel?

    • FooDiva September 16, 2012 at 9:38 pm

      I think Counter Culture (if that’s what it’s still called) at the Marriott Harbour is still open, but the selection wasn’t very good to start with so I can’t imagine it’s any better now.

  10. Jay September 21, 2012 at 2:20 am

    Based on your reccomendation, I went there over last weekend.

    Parking is a nightmare specially if you don’t have a 4×4.

    Upon entering, we chocked with the smell of fish. Although the fish did look nice but the smell was overpowering.

    You cannot have such strong smell in the same vicinity as cheese.

    Speaking of which, we picked up 2 Burrata and one was chewy i.e. not fresh and the other was just on the limits.

    We had to wait at the cash counter although we were the only customers as someone in the big design of things decided it was a perfect time to balance the cash in the till.

    We were just about to leave without the purchase when one of them realized how ridiculous they were.

    It does not abode well. And as usual, all shops start well and fall down in a couple of month!

    Oh well, the search still goes on.

    Carefour, Geant, Choitram….all is forgiven.

    • FooDiva September 21, 2012 at 3:50 pm

      Oh no Jay sounds awful 🙁 I didn’t experience any of this, but consistency is an issue in this town. M&P is monitoring the feedback on this post, so let’s hope they can address these issues. Thanks for dropping by.

      • Market & Platters November 19, 2012 at 10:08 pm

        Hey Jay,

        It looks that you were around on a bad day of us”We are really sorry that we didn’t meet your expectations”, I thank you for the honest feedback, these feedback are the only thing that keep us moving forward.

        As you had noticed the area traffic is increasing daily, we had now a dedicated area for parking in front of the shop “No 4X4 is required”, and YES we had arranged with the building management so our visitors can park inside the building parking, now any guest can go directly to the parking, tell the security that you are visiting and you will have FREE access to the 5 floors parking lot.

        Coming back to Burrata topic you had experienced, this topic “Quality” is something that we don’t take easy at all and is always a serious matter for us.Market & Platters is an expansion business for a heritage of dealing with Quality products. We would love to make it up with you. if you pass by any time.

        We had added a new POS machine, and as I can see you had visited on Sep 21, so we were still newbies. Now I believe that we are offering a faster service at check out.

        Thank you,

  11. Expat08 October 14, 2012 at 12:17 pm

    Just a quick update – I bought three blocks of sashimi yesterday (salmon, tuna and yellow tail) and a box of sea bass carpaccio. All were incredibly fresh and good value. They had nice truffle products and say they might even be able to get a fresh white truffle ordered. Roll on white truffle season…

    • FooDiva October 15, 2012 at 6:50 pm

      Great feedback thank you! White truffle season is round the corner…I believe Giorgio Locatelli is in town again for it.

  12. Annie March 17, 2014 at 10:21 am

    Where in Dubai i can buy Sashimi Grade Fish? Address pls?

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