REVIEW: Claw
In the largely refined milieu that was Dubai’s international restaurant scene a few years ago, the arrival of American BBQ shack Claw was something of a revelation to the city’s diners. Benefiting from a prime location in Souk Al Bahar’s bustling restaurant quarter, it offered a rare brand of unfussy eating in a place where loosening your tie was encouraged, with eating bibs and sticky fingers intertwined with live sports, eating challenges and comically oversized drinks. Claw proved that tasty food at a reasonable price point, an unpretentious setting and a consistently ‘good vibe’ was precisely the social tonic the city’s young and the restless were after.
Indeed, Claw’s unmitigated popularity has prompted an apparently endless number of follow up acts, (some proving young pretenders, others coming a lot closer to the mark) all determined to replicate the ‘casual eating’ alchemy of success.
Not that that this has fazed Claw though, its special brand of Southern American hospitality still sees its tables and bar stools packed across the week, particularly now with its Friday brunch offering and specialist themed evenings; the most recent of which is ‘My Cowboy’s Outta Town’ ladies night, boasting the requisite free cocktails and discounted dining for the girls.
