Food: Per Te – a hidden gem behind Jumeira Plaza

Per Te meaning ‘for you’ in Italian is you guessed it an Italian joint located in a villa behind Jumeira Plaza.

The restaurant itself is quite large with 2 dining areas, a second floor, open kitchen and a store where you can purchase a little bit of Italy.

For drinks I went with a strawberry mojito which was energetic and sweet, mom’s customary pineapple juice was refreshing. The in house made foccacia is highly addictive and comes with 3 great dips: sundried tomato, arrabbiata, basil pesto.

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The antipasto verdure was our huge starter sampler and boy was it good. The mini bruschetta was crispy, mushroom fregola was warm and cheesy, grilled artichoke was a surprise favorite, grilled zucchini was paper thin and crisp, grilled eggplant was mushy but had this crisp caviar-esque topping, grilled capsicum was silky, sundried tomato pesto was apparently so good mom had all three 😦 , buffalo mozzarella was creamy and flavorful, olives were slightly spicy and rocket leaf salad with parmesan cheese was simplistic! I know it seems like a lot but we gobbled this up almost immediately and relished every bite.

We also tried the insalata di formaggio di capra. This salad was another favorite, slices of beetroot topped with mixed lettuce, sweet figs, luscious goats cheese, capsicum finished with tangy balsamic vinegar.

Pizza alle verdure was crispy and flavorful, loved seeing broccoli done right on a pizza. It wasn’t your run of the mill vegetarian pizza either!

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Mom’s main course was the mushroom risotto with some truffle flavoring. Velvety rice and an explosion of flavors due to more than one kind of mushroom used, one of the most loved dishes of the night; highly recommended!

My main course was the massive salmon on a bed of spinach with some mango salsa and pine nuts. The salmon was perfectly cooked ‘per te style’ the spinach with pine nuts wasn’t too salty and the mango salsa and balsamic glaze brought a hint of sweetness to the dish.
Side not since it’s summer I’m glad to see mango salsa incorporated into different dishes surprising you each time.

The manager brought us a sample portion of the spinach and ricotta ravioli in sage butter sauce. Usually I’m not a big fan of spinach ravioli since it’s overstuffed and the spinach is waaay to overpowering, Per Te’s version was a pleasant surprise. I think this was the first time I’ve enjoyed spinach ravioli. Kudos to Chef Glady!

Since we were rapidly filling up, the manager brought out a small beautifully presented dessert platter (we almost said no to dessert).

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This mind blowing dessert is the semi freddo which is a half baked gelato dessert and is heavenly, you cannot leave Per Te without trying this. The silky smooth gelato meets the fresh berries and crispy topping putting your tastebuds into overdrive.

In the midst of finishing the dessert that melts, the ricotta cheesecake was almost forgotten but then mom noticed the raspberry coulis and was impressed. The cheesecake on the other hand isn’t sweet enough, but works well with the coulis.

I mentioned earlier as to how beautifully presented the platter was, glad to see a meticulous effort from Chef Galdy and his team. Don’t those meringues look delicious? They were XD