One of Dubai’s most high-profile and respected chefs, Akmal Anuar, has opened his first restaurant in Abu Dhabi.
Otoro is open at the UAE capital’s new Al Qana district in Al Maqta area, with the outlet near the National Aquarium. Anuar opened the award-winning three Fils in Dubai before leaving to launch his own White Rice Consultancy firm. Since then he’s opened Chie in Sharjah, Goldfish in Dubai’s Galleria Mall and, more recently, 11Woodfire.
Opened with a silent partner, his latest venue is a 260sq m space with room for 60 people indoors and 40 outside. The menu is unique to the restaurant, offering the likes of Korean barbecue lamb chops and Japanese curries, as well as a full sushi menu using fish imported from Japan.
Anuar said: “I was approached a while ago about this, but then the pandemic came and everything as we know it went out of the window. It gave me and my partner time to work out what we wanted to do. I wanted to make sure any new partner I worked with was going to be right, if I was going to do it, I didn’t want it to end badly. It turned out really well, my partner is fantastic and we agreed on what we wanted to do.”
