Day Adventures - Jones the Grocer Al Ain

Jones the Grocer: the name alone makes you think of the local shop around the corner. The store launched in 1996 in Woollhara, Sydney, Australia with an emphasis on gourmet food for every day living. The store recently opened its doors in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi and I had the opportunity to go for a visit.

A quick photo before we head out to dinner. 

Al Ain is small, (if I haven’t mentioned it before) and finding new and interesting places to eat and hang out becomes difficult after you’ve been here a while. Most nice places to eat are either bars, clubs or in hotels or malls. Jones the Grocer doesn’t fit that mould. It’s situated at the Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium and along with a handful of other gourmet restaurants, offer a different atmosphere that is hard to find anywhere else in Al Ain. ‘You almost feel like you’re at the beach,’ a friend said when I bumped into them having a bite to eat.

The view from the entrance

The décor offers a light, fresh café-like vibe with spacious seating area, and a counter full of baked goodies, cold-meats and cheeses. From any angle you face this bountiful counter that simply invites you to take a peek at what’s to offer. Surrounded by windows you get to take in the outside vibe as you dine. Towards the back of the restaurant there’s a little shop with gourmets oils, sorbets and treats to make any mouth water. It also sports their signature walk-in cheese ‘closet’ (not room in this case), where they have gourmet matured cheeses on offer and they also have a wonderful selection of cold meats available. I can easily see someone stopping by here every day to pick up this or that for dinner. Something to add just that little bit of ‘I love you’ to the meal.

The amount of electronics on this table is not a surprise. 

Sorbets in the fridge

Roland found something with coconut and goji berries. 

How about some honey, honey? We just had to explore the little stall. 

Signature walk-in cheese room. 

We had a late family dinner scheduled and as we walked in we were welcomed with a hearty greeting. The waiter we had for the evening seemed to be new and was extremely nervous and lacked a bit in her service.  She did have the right attitude though to speak to the manager when she wasn’t sure. The manager was a lovely gentleman, from India named Jadin. He made sure we had everything we needed and made up for the waiters inexperience. The chef, Desmond, also introduced himself and we had a lovely chat about the restaurant and himself. Overall, the staff were very friendly and helpful. It just so happened that they had a new Iftar meal on offer that evening and we gave it a try on recommendation of the chef.

Clearly enjoying this salad.

The Iftar meal consisted of welcome dates and laban, a salad and soup of your choice. You could also choose a main meal from the menu (excluding the very pricey lamb chops), a dessert along with a juice and coffee. We paid AED 120 for the set meal. For our salad we chose the eggplant salad with labna dressing, and then we enjoyed a slightly spicy lentil soup with bread. Eggplant is not for everyone but I enjoyed mine thoroughly. Our main meal was the best of the lot: wagu burger with what seemed to be beet greens. Oh my word, it was delicious. Good size bun with a thick patty in the middle. Out of this world. Probably the best burger I’ve eaten in a while. The burger on its own cost AED 83 so the set meal was perfectly priced. A lovely white chocolate cheese cake and a cup of coffee rounded of the meal.

Roasted eggplant with Labna.

Lentil soup served with bread. 

He ate this whole thing, greens and all. 

Delicious thick burger patty

White chocolate cheesecake. The flakes fell off as you ate. 

Chocolate brownie

The meal was great and with a few changes it would be even better. Portion size is one critique I read over and over and I must agree, for the price you pay the portions could be a little bigger. Even simple things like more bread and fries or side-dishes would improve perceptions. The other would be the price. I would say it is slightly over-priced for Al Ain; in Dubai it might not raise so many eyebrows but living in a small town certainly highlights the price. 

The staff were eager to show us around the store and to inform us about promotions and services, like booking for parties. They have an upstairs seating area that could easily seat 25-30 people (or more) and they have packages available for events.

#Together time

It was a lovely evening with good food and we spent the whole evening laughing and enjoying each other’s company. I would certainly go back again; maybe check out their breakfast after Ramadan. I believe it’s the best. 

💖Always

Leazille

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Once again, thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts with you today.