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07/19/2005 Entry: "Restaurant Review: Johnny Carino's, Dubai"

Rating= 4 out of 5 Stars

Johnny Carinos is by far the best Italian dining experience in Dubai. Located directly across from the City Centre, Deira near the Dubai Shopping Center, Johnny Carinos offers an extremely good Italian menu. In fact, this is about as good as it gets without using wine and other alcohol bases for sauces (an unfortunate side-effect of living in the Middle-East). Myself and 5 other diners arrived in late afternoon and settled in with the starter combination platter. The calamari were very nice and the fried mozzarella and artichoke definitely hit the spot. We followed this up with the main courses. The veal scallopini was tasty with an interesting combination of mushrooms and tomatoes in a cream sauce. I had the chicken porto fino which contained nicely blackened strips of grilled chicken on a bed of wonderful fettucine and a nice cream sauce as well. The service was fantastic and the food was prepared quickly (much above the average wait in Dubai). Combined with the nice 'homey' atmosphere, this restaurant has the total package. While not the 'best' Italian food by American standards, Carinos is the best Dubai has to offer in this category.