Food Blog | Nonya Dubai Set Lunch | JLT | Dubai
Nonya Dubai is a very neat restaurant located at Taj Jumeirah JLT serving up delicious Malaysian / Singaporean food from the 44th floor (although the view could probably be helped by some cleaner windows). Here’s what I thought of their set lunch offering!
Nonya Dubai’s fantastic new business lunch offering
Context: Came here with my parents. (3 pax) The new set lunch offering is a fantastic chance to try out their delicious food at reasonable prices. For example, their beef rendang is AED145 on their a-la-carte menu. However, for the price of AED99, you get a soup, an appetizer, beef rendang, and even a dessert, so I would say it is very worth it, even if it is just for you to try.
Where it Is
It is located in the Taj Jumeirah hotel at Jumeirah Lake Towers - I would recommend just putting it on your GPS because the turning can be a bit tricky if you aren’t familiar with the area. You can valet your car here - I think that’s the easiest option.
Address: Nonya - 44th Floor, Taj Jumeirah Lake Towers - DMCC Plot No. 2-27, Al Thanyah - Jumeirah Lake Towers - Dubai
Operating Hours:
Monday - Thursday : 12pm - 1am
Friday : 12pm - 3am
Saturday : 1pm - 2:30am
Sunday : 5pm - 1am
What it Costs
I will only be covering the lunch offerings because that’s what I had. There are actually 2 main pages on their lunch set menu. The next part I write will be very important to what you order (and isn’t very clearly explained in the restaurant itself).
The big difference between the left page and the right page on the menu (I have an image of both pages below) is that on the left page, you get less ‘extra’ dishes to accompany your mains. For example, on the right page you will get an appetizer (turnip pohpia) and you will get keropok. For the menu on the right, you will get an appetizer (truffle lotus stem) and the rice is switched to a blue pea rice. The benefit from ordering on the left page of the menu is that you can choose what appetizer to get. So basically, you are choosing between having the ability to choose (left side) and a more complete meal selected by the chef (right side).
At the end of the day, I think they come up to roughly the same value. Just for reference sake, if you order a beef rendang a-la-carte, it is AED145, and curry chicken is AED120.
I think overall, if you want to try delicious Malaysian/Singaporean food, this is a good chance to try it - especially when you compare it to the a-la-carte price. The business lunch menu can be seen below:
Nonya Business Lunch Menu (Left Page)
Nonya Business Lunch Menu (Right Page)
How it Tastes
Honestly, pretty darn good. A short summary of my review of the food is that this is probably the best Malaysian / Singaporean food that I’ve had in Dubai - and I’ve had my fair share.
Nonya Corn Soup
Starting off with the soup. The soup of the day was a simple corn soup and it’s a tasty soup to get things going. Not too much to talk about regarding the soup, but it’s a good soup to start the meal.
Wagyu Beef Rendang + Chicken Satay from Nonya Dubai
Then, I went with the satay ayam for my appetizer. I would say the satay ayam is probably one of the most value for money dishes you can order for your appetizer. The satay definitely feels on the more luxurious end - the chicken is really tender, and the marinade for the chicken satay was good. The satay sauce on top makes the appetizer really yummy altogether as well. I highly recommend ordering the satay!
My mum ordered a pohpia and my dad actually went for the chef’s choice for the appetizer (right option on the menu). The chef’s choice turned out to be the pohpia as well. We had initially thought that this would be like the popiah pictured below:
What we thought the popiah would be like. Source: https://www.cookist.com/popiah-malaysian-spring-rolls/
Instead, it was probably more like a spring roll. I was looking on Google for the word pohpia itself and it kinda refers to both - although the spring roll did come up a bit more on Google itself, so I guess that’s just about my family’s personal misunderstanding. The pohpia is pictured together with the curry chicken in the picture below.
But overall, I still think it’s much more value for money to go for chicken satay as your appetizer of choice for your business lunch set if you select the left menu.
Next up, the mains!
I had the wagyu beef rendang (pictured above). Best beef rendang I’ve had in Dubai so far - and I’ve really been trying to find a good beef rendang in Dubai. The flavours are all there, the beef is tender and almost melt in your mouth (I say almost because I’ve had more melt in your mouth beef rendangs). I would say the only small shortcoming is that it is definitely on the thinner side of beef rendang - I don’t mean it to be diluted, just that normally the consistency of the beef rendang sauce I’m more familiar with is a bit thicker than this particular beef rendang dish. But that’s not even a complaint on my part, because this is a damn good beef rendang.
Nonya Dubai Curry Chicken Rice + Pohpia
The curry chicken is really good too! I would probably describe it as more akin to a Singaporean chicken curry. I think the consistency of this particular dish is nailed and the flavours are fantastic - so I think this is a pretty good option for you to order as well.
Buttermilk Prawns
The third main we had was the buttermilk prawns. Overall, a really nice main! No complaints really, a really well balanced dish and the prawns are cooked off really well.
Kuih Bingka Ubi (or a tapioca cake) from Nonya Dubai
For dessert, they had a tapioca cake (or a kuih bingka ubi) and this is just so good. Especially for Malaysians, I cannot tell you how good this kuih is. Lots of flavour and sweetness that really just makes you think of home. There’s a story about this when I talk about the tea as well.
There’s also a tea/coffee that comes with the business lunch as well. The tea offered was some form of vanilla tea and I it actually is pretty fragrant.
Initially, my mum ordered a latte and they ran out of milk, so they couldn’t serve her latte. My mum decided to be a bit cheeky and ask for another bingka ubi and lo and behold, they actually got her another serving of dessert! Not to mention they also offered her the latte she ordered because the milk had arrived at the same time. Have to shoutout to the service here because this is definitely on the higher end of service that I have experienced - and something they should be commended for.
Star Rating
8/10. Probably around 7.5 or 8, but I can give them an 8 (which is pretty darn high for the blog). The reason is simple, the set lunch is definitely worth at least a try for Malaysians/Singaporeans. The food is great - from starter all the way to the tea at the end, and the service is fantastic as well. Sorry I didn’t catch the name of the server, but just a shoutout to her if this does catch the attention of anybody over at Nonya.