In a restaurant that carries the name of the National Graphic TV series that made her famous, Ariana Bundy has created a unique restaurant concept where she serves Persian traditional dishes with a contemporary twist in a gorgeous setting inside the opulent Atlantis The Royal hotel in Dubai. The best products from her home country Iran are turned into true Persian delights full of complex and comforting flavours which you can enjoy in a stunning setting that breathes the atmosphere of a beautiful Iranian retreat.
Location
Once you walk in via the huge, red door, you discover a beautiful, pastel-coloured restaurant, modelled after a culinary retreat the chef created in her home country Iran. On the right side, you will find a bar. If you walk further into the restaurant, you cannot avoid noticing the large, open kitchen which has a massive charcoal grill and a fire pit tandoor to bake fresh breads. The elegant, light yet relaxed and intimate setting also offers superb sea views of Palm Jumeirah and the Dubai skyline from the garden terrace.
The concept of the restaurant is all around sharing traditional Persian dishes with each other. Bundy gets her inspiration from food that has been handed over generation to generation. Iranian products are prepared in such a way that they are strong and bold in taste, and strongly emphasize the original taste of the products. Ariana’s Persian Kitchen can be found on the ground floor of Atlantis The Royal. The hotel is located on the Palm island and is a 35-minute drive away from Dubai International Airport (DXB), a 40-minute drive from Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC), and 1 hour 30 minutes from Abu Dhabi International Airport (AUH).
The Chef & the team
As the name of the restaurant already partly discloses, is the chef of Ariana’s Persian Kitchen Iranian born celebrity chef Ariana Bundy. Even though she might not have the profile of a typical chef, already at a very young age the seeds were planted for what would lead later to a successful career in the food and beverage industry. She grew up in the neighbourhood of her grandparents who were land owners in Iran and who were growing their own grapes and beets. The family also had sheep and horses. Father Bundy was a restaurateur, even though that was not his initial career choice. He studied engineering in San Francisco but he was passionate about French fine dining and the hospitality industry. His passion brought him to become the manager of the famous Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills. Learning everything about hospitality there, one day he decided to open the very first French fine dining restaurant in Iran. He brought chefs and a maître D from Paris to Iran and opened a beautiful restaurant with wooden walls where he was serving very classic French food to local Iranian celebrities and politicians. Ariana was always around and was exposed at very young age to what hospitality is about. When the revolution happened in Iran, father Bundy decided to open a French Californian restaurant in Beverly Hills. People were really feasting in that restaurant. Bundy who was a teen at that time, lived with her mother in London but would visit her father every summer. The whole stay she would sit at a table in the restaurant and look at everything which was happening. One day she decided she wanted to enter the kitchen. But her father said that a proper young lady is not supposed to walk into a professional kitchen. It was a cultural thing. Being in the food industry, in the Middle Eastern society at that time, especially for a woman, was not easy. Her father knew that and wanted to prevent her from making the wrong decision.
Ariana got a business degree in London and started to work with her mother who was active in the fashion industry. But Bundy felt it was not really what she wanted to do with her life. In search of advice, she flew to Los Angeles for a good talk with her uncle, who was considered the patriarch of the family. He was aware of her true love for food and for the hospitality industry and recommended her to register in the best cooking school in the world, with the promise that he would pay for it. Bundy did not hesitate and registered at Le Cordon Blue in Paris, to become a pastry chef. This degree enabled her to work at Le Nôtre and Fauchon Patisserie. Later she would become the Head Pastry Chef for the Mondrian Hotel in Los Angeles. The uncle who encouraged her to go to Le Cordon Blue had also promised her to open a pastry shop for her in Los Angeles once she would be experienced enough for it. But Bundy got exhausted from the tough work in the kitchen and wanted to get out of the rat race.
At that time, one of her friends was publishing a cook book. This inspired Ariana. She discovered a way to be able to still focus on her passion, without the need to be confronted with the stress of a professional kitchen every day. Bundy’s friend introduced her to the agent she was working with and Ariana got the chance to pitch a book idea. The agent liked it and sometime later, she would publish her first book ‘Sweet Alternative’, at that time the first gluten, dairy and soy free dessert cookbook. Later ‘Pomegranates & Roses: my Persian family recipes’ would follow.
But Bundy wanted more. She decided to make a TV show for National Geographic. She saw this as a way that would enable her to bring the Persian cuisine to a wider audience. She found several parties who were interested in making the TV show with her, but nobody dared to go to Iran. As a consequence, she decided to produce it herself. In the end, she wrote, directed, presented and produced the show herself. The show got the name Ariana’s Persian Kitchen, the name that she would later use for her restaurant in Dubai. It took her two years with a lot of trial and error in which she learned a lot. The eight-part TV show launched on National Geographic and has aired in over 40 countries. In the meanwhile, she also bought a historic house in Iran which she renovated. She turned it into a culinary retreat where you can immerse yourself in Persian food and learn about it. Unfortunately, due to the situation in Iran, the retreat is closed at this moment.
At the time Bundy’s TV show was airing in Dubai, it was seen by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai. He was impressed by the series and instructed protocol to contact Ariana and to invite her for the iftar. They met and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum indicated to her that he really adored her food and that he wanted to invite her to his house. However, nothing happened afterwards. Two weeks after the meeting, Bundy moved from Dubai to San Francisco. She never heard anything anymore till three months later. Ariana’s got a phone call from the protocol indicating that the Sheikh wanted to offer Ariana a Persian restaurant in the Royal Atlantis Dubai hotel. Hesitant at first, she accepted to fly back to Dubai to do a test lunch. She cooked fifty dishes and the rest is history. Shortly later, the family moved back to Dubai as the restaurant was planned to open. But the building project of Atlantis The Royal was delayed for a long time.
Bundy can count on a very professional team of twenty chefs, which are managed on a daily base by her Turkish head chef. The sous chefs are Iranian and also the rest of the team consists mainly out of people who have their roots in the birth country of Ariana. Together, they cater for up to 150 guests per service.
Gastronomy
During a meal at Ariana’s Persian Kitchen, expect to discover a unique take on the classic Persian cuisine. Dishes are inspired by family recipes handed down between generations. You will taste complex, but comforting flavours that work alongside a unique combination of textures, spices and tastes. In line with the tradition, it is a sharing concept where the whole family around the table can enjoy the dishes.
The menu consists of four sections : cold mezze, hot mezze, mains and grills. Fruits, nuts and floral fragrances merge with meats, grains and vegetables to lead to wonderful dishes. Bundy considers her cooking style as a natural marriage between French cuisine and the food of her origins. She is using fresh products and finishes them in a way where she remains light on the spices. This is on purpose. She believes that the combination of flavors makes her food unique and for the rest she wants to keep the tastes fresh while respecting the products. An approach that we recognized during our visit and in this case can absolutely support. Of course, this requires the use of good products. Bundy would love to import them herself from Iran, but due to the sanctions, that is challenging at this moment. Still she succeeds in cooking with mostly Iranian products thanks to the fact that she got in touch with an Indian gentleman who is able to buy in the country. Bundy really wants to get products directly from the local farmers because she strongly believes in the farm to table concept, but at this moment that is not possible.
Some of the dishes we tried :
Even though her contract with Atlantis The Royal only requires her to be a few times per year in the restaurant, if she is not traveling Bundy can be easily found three to four times per week in her restaurant. She prefers to remain very involved in the project.
Service & Wine
The ambition of Bundy is to give guests who visit her restaurant the feeling that they are walking into her home. You are walking into a Persian home with the sights and the smell but especially the hospitality of an Iranian house. In Iran, there is very warm and kind hospitality but with a bit of reservation. And this can also be felt in Ariana’s Persian Kitchen. The staff is very friendly but keeps a professional distance and behaves rather formal. However, not in a stiff or distant manner but more in a way of wanting to be polite. As a guest you feel comfortable, get the necessary attention and receive a flawless service. Being a rather large operation, the service team consists out of 37 people.
Bundy is not involved in the wine selection of the restaurant but has a Lebanese sommelier who makes sure to pair the right wine with the food selection of the guests. The restaurant is also serving some amazing cocktails and mocktails and obviously authentic Persian tea.
Why go?
We believe it is not necessary to convince you that a visit to Dubai is a must do. As also seen in many other publications on wbpstars.com, alone the food offering makes it absolutely worth a trip. Being able to spend some time in the mesmerising Atlantis The Royal hotel while in the city is fantastic. Ariana’s Persian Kitchen is very conveniently located close to the lobby of the hotel. The bright colours and vibrant atmosphere and the amazing interior design catapults you straight to the retreat of Bundy in Iran. The restaurant also offers superb sea views of Palm Jumeirah and the Dubai skyline from the garden terrace. Once the food appears on the table, a true culinary feast starts with mouth-watering dishes that are authentic and strong in flavour. It might be the closest you can get to a fabulous, authentic Iranian family feast.
