Soy, Dubai - Classy Place, Shame About The Food

Szechuan 'Hot and Sour' Soup..... Apparently

Every town on Earth has a Chinese restaurant. It could be because 'Chinese Food' has been successfully adopted and reinterpreted by pretty much every country to suite the local palate.

Dubai has it's fair share of Chinese places to choose from. Our recently reviewed visit to Little Lamb was very positive, so we were motivated to find another decent spot.

Soy, located on the plaza level of the Jumeirah Beach Residence is a bit hidden away. There is a small entrance, which is tucked away to the side of the main walking area, which makes it easy to miss. Despite the outside not being exactly eye-catching, the inside is decorated very nicely. Everything was clean, straight, shiny and adequately lit. The space that the restaurant occupies is an odd shape and quite small, but they have arranged the tables well enough to avoid it feeling cramped.

After choosing a table, we were given a complimentary bowl of freshly prepared prawn crackers, to be dipped into three sauces; shrimp and chilli paste, sweet chilli sauce and a mixture of coriander, green chilli, sugar and vinegar. The coriander-chilli was fresh and lively, and hopefully a sign of good things to come.

We ordered a wonton soup with chicken, and a Szechuan style 'hot and sour' soup with tofu and chicken.

According to the menu, the Szechuan soup was supposed to be the spicy option. Unfortunately it turned out to be as bland as a tin of spaghetti, and with almost the exact same consistency. The occasional shreds of chicken were cooked to the point of almost being liquified, and the tofu had all but melted into the rest of the soup, which gave the whole dish a gelatinous texture. There was no spice to the dish whatsoever.

The wonton soup was marginally less terrible, since the wontons themselves at least had a good texture. Sadly though, the vegetables in the dish had also been overcooked so much that they had lost any flavour or firmness. The broth was the colour of soapy water, and with less flavour. Wonton broth should be simple and clean, to allow the chunky contents of the soup to really shine. It was a shame that no part of the dish was tasty, which made the whole experience quite bland and unsatisfying.

Wonton Soup. Looks good at least.

Between the two dishes, it gave us the impression that all elements had been prepared at least the day before, and reheated or thawed when ordered. I can't confirm that was the case, but there was no other explanation for all the flavours to be so dull and mixed together.

NOT RECOMMENDED

In conclusion, not every Chinese restaurant is going to be amazing. For every good restaurant, there is a bad one. If there wasn't then all the good restaurants would just be average. The world needs bad restaurants if only to help us appreciate when we find a decent place to eat; Just remember which of them aren't worth your time so you don't make the same mistake again.

The bill (for 2):
1 x Hot and Sour Szechuan Soup with Chicken - 29 Dhs
1 x Wonton Soup with Chicken - 31 Dhs
1 x Bottle of still water - 5 Dhs
TOTAL: 65 Dhs (Approx. US$18)

Restaurant address: Jumeirah Beach Residence, Plaza Level.

for exact locations of all reviewed restaurants, take a look at our map.