A visit to Dubai is not complete without a trip to the famous Dubai Mall which is the largest shopping mall in the world! Located in the heart of Downtown Dubai, it has a total internal floor area of 5.9 million square feet (50 football fields) with over 1200 shops of which 120 are restaurants and cafes, 95 elevators and 150 escalators! There's even Laduree and Galeries Lafayette. In addition, there's a five star hotel, Olympic-size Ice Rink, Oasis Fountain Waterfall, WaterFront Atrium, 22-screen Cinema, SEGA Republic (indoor theme park), Dubai Aquarium and Under Water Zoo in the mall! The locals have said that if you really want to explore and shop here, you would required 3 days to explore the mall.
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| Clockwise from bottom left: Dubai Directory, Oasis Fountain Waterfall, different themes of the mall. |
We got lost several times in the mall as it was huge and were so tired that we had to sit down to rest. The mall had many Concierge counters to help direct tourist and locals.
Ok, back to the food. The prices at Dubai Mall seemed to be steeper compared to Deira City Centre mall. If only we had changed more Dirhams. We walked around and in the end settled our dinner in a food court as we all wanted to try different cuisines. The food court was huge with many different cuisines. There were fast food (e.g. Mc Donald's, Burger King, KFC), a restaurant and even a kids playground in the food court!
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I walked one round around the food court before deciding to settle for Italian food at Cafe Italia Express. Cafe Italia Express was the first to introduce traditional Neapolitan pizza in the gulf region. It first started making its presence felt in Bahrain in 2000. As the name suggests, Cafe Italia Express specialises in Italian cuisines such as pizza and pasta. The pizzas are baked in ovens that are fueled by wood.
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I ordered the Pizza Barbecue Combo 35 AED (S$11.97). After ordering, the chef went about his task of preparing a pizza.
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| buzz |
As the pizza had to be prepared and baked, issued a buzz that would activate (shake) to inform customers that their orders were ready. First time seeing a razor shaped buzzer. The more common ones I had seen in Singapore were round shaped like a land mine.
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| Pizza Barbecue Combo 35 AED (S$11.97) |
The Pizza Barbecue Combo 35 AED (S$11.97) consisted of a 10 Inch BBQ Chicken Pizza, choice of Soup or Salad and a Soft Drink.
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| Minestrone |
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| Minestrone |
For soup, I chose Minestrone. Although there were lots of small chunks of vegetables in it, the soup was a tad too sour for me.
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| BBQ Chicken Pizza |
The BBQ Chicken Pizza was just average. Thin crisp crust with chicken, onion, BBQ sauce, cilantro and mozzarella. At 35 AED, this was relatively cheap.
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| Dubai Fountain |
A must do when visiting the Dubai Mall is to watch the Dubai Fountain performance. It is the world largest dancing fountain. The fountain is 275 metres long and can shoot water jets up as high as 150 metres (50 storey high). With Burj Khalifal at its background, the performance was captivating! You can watch the show at half hour intervals from 6pm to 11pm from Sun to Wed and 6pm to 1130pm from Thu to Sat. The fountain is located just outside the Dubai Mall on Lower Ground Waterfront Promenade.
Cafe Italia Express (UAE, Dubai)
D-5, Level 2, Food Court Area
Dubai Mall
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Tel: 04 3253629
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