Dubai is full of boujee brunch spots and everyone probably has their own favourites, but for us the best one we’ve had is Stomping Grounds. In a place like Dubai with the amount of food options like it has, it is hard to truly stand out from the crowd, but this place does just that. With their eye-catching dishes, prime location, and most importantly the delicious high quality food, they’ve managed to grab the attention of Dubai foodies and impress them accordingly. In this post, we’ll talk a little about them, the food they offer and our experience.
Stomping Grounds
Stomping Grounds is owned by an Australian and that is no surprise really. Australians are known for their brunch in relaxing sunny surroundings. And this is exactly what they’ve achieved here. They offer breakfast, lunch, dinner and speciality coffee, but it is truly their breakfast and coffee that has made them famous and popular. In fact, they’ve won awards for these two! For example, they were awarded the best breakfast in Dubai by Timeout Dubai in 2020 and in the same year the best independent speciality cafe by MEA Markets. This is no small feat when you see how many awesome breakfast and coffee spots there are in Dubai. So, along with award winning breakfast and coffee, they’ve also got the decor to give it that Australian feel. There’s outdoor seating as well as indoor and the vibe is relaxed, comfortable, warm and welcoming. Exactly what they’re looking to achieve I’m sure. The other thing that is going for them and gives them that “Australian” feel is the location. They’re located in a prime location. It is a short walk from the beautiful Jumeirah 1 open beach, near La Mer South, so they’ve managed to settle in a sunny beach vibe area.
Read more about them here.
The Food and Coffee
Their menu is full of wonderful classics that have gone through a Stomping Grounds innovative process leading to wonderful innovative classics. Basically, creative takes on classics. And their menu is divided into two, with a few dishes being specifically until 1 pm only and the rest being available all day. Some stand out dishes from the breakfast menu are charcoal cilbir (Turkish eggs), three eggs croffle Benedict and bruschetta Benedict. And some of the standout dishes on the all day menu are lotus French toast, loaded waffles, load o’ croque, saganaki with avocado on toast, steak and eggs, and baked egg boat. And to be honest there’s a lot lot more on both menus, I’ve just handpicked some that stood out for me.
They are actually more famous and known for their speciality coffee. So, if you’re somewhat of a coffee connoisseur, then this is the spot for you to be. They really take their coffee seriously and if you do too, I think you’ll be able to appreciate this. I personally don’t, so maybe I’m not the right person to comment on or even try to describe their offerings.
Our experience
We came here after our Clear Kayak experience, which was about a 5 minute walk away. Perfect! The restaurant was buzzing and lively, but there were plenty of tables for us to choose from; inside or outside. We were sat inside in a nice little table and our order was taken promptly. We received information about their latest coffee offerings, which I understood to be seasonal. Showing their expertise here. Eventually the food came out too, not quick enough to make us wonder whether this was precooked, but not too slow either to make us feel annoyed. Somewhere in the middle. The dishes were definitely cooked to order.
We ordered the Lotus French Toast and the Bruschetta Benedict. We got a filter coffee and a beetroot drink too, but can’t remember the name nor find it on the menu now. Anyway, we’ll talk about the food here. Both dishes were insane! I cannot stress how good both of them were. Like seriously! There was a nice balance of sweet and savoury with our chosen dishes (FYI my choice was the sweet one). The Bruschetta Benedict came with two poached eggs with chunky avocado, cherry tomatoes, feta and sweet potato shavings on basil pesto sourdough garnished with cilantro, coconut and almond dukkah and silvers of fresh chilli. I mean come on! With so much goodness going on in one dish, it’s either going to crash and burn or be absolutely genius. And thankfully, it was the latter. We were really impressed how everything came together so beautifully. That was the savoury dish. The sweet one was the lotus French toast. And this was chunky round brioche French toast, topped with cotton candy, vanilla ice cream, chocolate and hazelnut pillows, lotus biscuit crumbs, raspberries and a sauce. This not only looked good (as you can see from the pictures), but it was equally delicious too. It had the right amount of sweetness and everything just married together well.
Which dish was the best? Honestly speaking, both were so good, I think it’s quite hard to choose from them. Our only regret is why we didn’t get more dishes to try! But then that could’ve been due to the price. It was quite expensive and I think it was the most we spent on this particular trip. Check their menu in the above link to see the exact prices. Nonetheless, when the food is that good, we did not complain one bit!
Getting there:
Google Maps Location link: click here
[…] read full review […]