Balance Café, Review

Hidden away in a community mall in Al Quoz is little known Dubai eatery with a unique positioning attempting to plug a gap in the city’s healthy eating market.

Balance Café only serves a healthy Ayurvedic menu. That means each dish has been created to nourish the body by delivering vitality through a wide variety of fresh ingredients for optimum nutritional benefits. A balanced Ayurvedic diet aims to include all six Ayurvedic tastes in each meal, these are sweet, salty, sour, pungent, bitter and astringentThis ensures all major food groups and nutrients are covered which in turn satisfies more and decreases the need to snack.

It is an interesting concept that most will be unfamiliar with. Ultimately, any restaurant needs to deliver consistent quality and value for money that customers want to return for. I am a regular here due to its proximity to work and I often find myself having more than one meal a day here mainly because of the healthiness of the menu, value for money as well as convenience.

The décor and atmosphere is pleasant with a choice of booth, sofa or standard dining areas. Serving staff are quick to greet and seat you, making the effort to try and remember your name, if you are regular this recognition is a nice touch.

The menu is varied with a good variety of western and eastern dishes. Eating in, the service can sometimes be a little slow, however, they do get extremely busy during lunchtimes and a simple request to speed up is usually enough to do the trick.

The nutritional value of each dish is listed on the menu so you can clearly see what you are eating. What I like the most about the level of service at Balance is that they are happy to accommodate for dietary preferences switching rice with vegetables or offering a gluten free alternative. Also the food is always very well presented.

My top five dishes are the Hot and Sour Soup, Poached Salmon Salad, Baked Chicken Breast in Thyme, Lamb Bhuna Gosht and the Teppan Grilled Beef Fillet. The quality of the ingredients is consistently fresh and good quality. With main dishes priced between around 25 AED and 45 AED, it is often cheaper than buying the ingredients and preparing the meal at home. Most days I also order the Ginger, Lemon and Honey Tea, which is simply delicious. Spicy, tangy and sweet at the same time it’s health benefits are impressive.

Balance Café is generally popular with the local office workers and they seem to be able to cater for the regular lunch crowd with relative ease. If you are visiting for the first time, I would recommend you avoid the busy 12 to 2pm window and try them in the evening when they are quiet so that you can enjoy a more attentive service.

Balance Café is located on level 3 of the Oasis Centre on Sheikh Zayed Road in Al Quoz.