Food Blog | Reif Kushiyaki Buranchi | Dar Wasl Mall | Dubai
I really love writing about brunch offerings because there’s so much to talk about! This post will go into the brunch offering (or “Buranchi”) of Reif Kushiyaki! This is a multi-award-winning restaurant by Chef Reif Othman (a Singaporean). This restaurant is a recipient of the Michelin Bib Gourmand in Dubai for 2022, so I’m super excited to share their brunch offering with you guys!
Context: I came here with my family of 4. I’ve previously eaten their set lunch offer here, but this post will talk exclusively about the brunch menu.
Where It Is
The one thing that I don’t particularly like is the location. It’s located at Dar Wasl Mall - which is a bit out of the way and doesn’t have much else to do but eat. This is one of those places you go explicitly to eat (because I normally like to walk about a bit after stuffing myself with a big brunch).
There’s parking on the road right in front of the restaurant - you just have to pay attention to how to get to that road. Normally you have to circle around the building before entering that small road with parking slots. Parking can be paid for using SMS, as is around many other places in Dubai.
Address: Reif Kushiyaki - Dar Wasl Mall - Al Wasl Rd - Al Wasl - Dubai
Operating Hours:
Sunday - Thursday : 12pm - 11pm
Friday & Saturday : 12pm - 12 midnight
Brunch is only available on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The last seating is 3.45 pm and I highly recommend calling/reserving ahead of time because it’s a small space and can be full. You can book a table using the link below:
https://www.sevenrooms.com/reservations/reifkushiyakidubai/
What It Costs
The brunch is AED 238 net per person - and there are absolutely no additional charges. The bill for my family totaled AED 952.
The menu for their brunch can be seen here:
You can get refills of everything in the Sunakku, Zensai, and Nigiri Sashimi Moriawase sections. Then, you will have a choice of 1 main per person and then there will be a dessert platter. I would say that this place is a bit different from most brunches in the fact that I don’t think the mains are necessarily the most expensive types of dishes - so if you want, you can go for a lot more of the all-you-can-eat dishes.
An important thing to note is that this brunch covers soft drinks as well (which makes a pretty big difference in Dubai). You can get bottomless soft drinks or teas available on the day. They had a rather refreshing iced tea when I was here, so that’s a nice drink to go with your meal. It doesn’t include any alcoholic beverages.
How it Tastes
Now, the part you guys have been waiting for: all the food! So I’ll just be going in the order that they served the dishes. I think a suitable comparison for this brunch offer is the business lunch from 99 Sushi Bar. I recognize that this might not be an entirely fair comparison because of the all-you-can-eat component of Reif Kushiyaki and the fact that there is more variety at Reif Kushiyaki with the dishes, as well as the fact that I’m comparing a weekend offer (Reif Kushiyaki) against a weekday offer (99 Sushi). But I think that it is a quantity vs quality debate. I think the sushi quality and overall taste (even things like the edamame - which I LOVED at 99 Sushi) is better at 99 Sushi for a decent price of AED149 net (when I visited a few months back).
The good point of Reif is very clearly the variety. The food’s pretty good as well, and the fact remains that this is still a fairly reasonable price for brunch on the weekend.
Starting off with the Sunakku (snack), they started off with the edamame and an assortment of Angus beef tartar and spicy salmon tartar with assorted chips. There was also a bowl of miso soup for us to indulge in.
I won’t say anything too much about the edamame/miso soup because I don’t really have too much to say about it. The spicy salmon tartar is probably the one I liked the most among the Sunakku. The beef tartar is so-so for me, and it’s just a nice piece of finger food to get you going. Light and tasty to start the meal.
The next part is the Zensai (Japanese starter course of small dishes). What I’ll say is that if you want full value from the meal, you might want to ask for a smaller portion of their salads to share (their tomato & peach salad, as well as their green bowl salad). I think they’re actually really nice and their apple miso dressing is delicious - but I think that you might want to save your stomach for the more expensive things you can refill on - whether it be the sushi/sashimi /carpaccio (their raw salmon/seabass) or even the salmon/beef tartar.
I’m not too big of a fan of salads but I think their salads are actually delicious and well-balanced. The tomato and peach salad is very flavor packed and works very well with the dressing with I mentioned earlier. The green bowl salad has a lot of little elements - from the choice of vegetables to the dressing and dry elements. For the 4 of us, they gave us 2 bowls of each salad on our table to share, so you could technically tell them and halve the amount they give.
Their raw salmon and seabass is basically a salmon and seabass carpaccio. Actually one of my favorite dishes - lots of flavors! I particularly liked the raw salmon dish - it is actually one of the dishes that my family ordered additional portions of! The seabass is pretty delicious too, just that I preferred the salmon overall.
Next comes the sushi and platter.
Overall, I would say that the quality of the sashimi was a bit underwhelming. The sushi served here also doesn’t quite match with other Japanese restaurants - a la 3 Fils, Roka, Zuma, 99 Sushi. This is probably why I would say that although it is all-you-can-eat sushi, we didn’t really go for a second helping of any of their sushi.
I think the 3 that I personally liked more were the salmon skin maki, spicy hamachi maki, and the unagi + Tamago hako sushi. But I think that the sushi is a bit so-so as well.
The rock-shrimp tempura + chipotle mayo is one of those very classic dishes that I have no complaints about. Really nice finger food that tastes great.
The crispy fried drummet + spicy lemon dressing is probably one of my favorites because a) I love fried chicken and b) It is really yummy! Seasoned really well, tasty skin, crispy exterior, I actually really liked the dish. It’s almost like an elevated chicken lollipop.
I’ve tried their chicken breast kushiyaki previously, and yet again, I think it’s great here. Lots of flavors, moist chicken, and you have a fantastic piece of chicken. Has a really lovely saltiness combined with the citrus mayo.
The gyoza is so-so. It’s good, but nothing for you to get TOO excited over. A small chili component to this dish (although it’s not that spicy).
We chose the following 4 mains:
Ebi Katsu Sando
Braised Angus Beef Claypot
Omurice + Miso Glaze Sauce
Nasi Lemak + Fried chicken wing
For me personally, my favorite was the braised Angus beef clay pot. Bursting with flavor, absolutely delicious - and it feels like a fantastic dish for a colder winter’s day in Dubai. Super delicious.
I feel as though the other dishes were so-so. The Nasi Lemak has a few nice components - the fried chicken is really yummy, but I feel it falls a bit flat on the rice and the sambal. The sambal just doesn’t have the same rich flavor that you get from sambal in Malaysia. The rice feels a bit as though they tried to serve an elevated version of the dish, but I feel a bit let down by the level of “Lemak” or fattiness of the rice. Usually, it’s more fragrant.
The Ebi Katsu Sando is probably the most neutral dish. What I mean when I say this is that it is probably the safest to order for picky eaters. Although, I do think that the Wagyu / Chicken Katsu Sando is a bit better (from previous experiences with Reif).
I would probably recommend not ordering the Omurice. I think the omurice and miso glaze sauce were so-so for me. I’m a bit fan of Omurice, and this one fell a bit flat for me in terms of the flavors.
The dessert platter is a combination of fruits, cakes, sorbet, and a cheese dessert (that cheese haters should probably steer clear of). Nice, clean desserts to finish off your meal (not too heavy). But if you’re interested in even more desserts, you can head on over to the dessert counter to see what they have available. They have some pretty desserts (like the passionfruit dressed as a slightly bruised banana - it really looks quite cute!).
Star Rating
7.5/10. A good option for weekend brunch. Cheaper than most of the popular all-you-can-eat brunches in Dubai on the weekend, and there’s actually a lot of variety. I feel as though the quality of certain components is so-so, but the variety and the all-you-can-eat component more than makeup for it! I would say the things I liked the most were the braised Angus beef clay pot, carpaccio (raw salmon), fried components, and the chicken kushiyaki!