Estrellas Rooftop | Canvas Hotel

by rashida · Published January 16, 2020 · Updated February 4, 2020

What’s better than a lounge that serves great cocktails and a variety of sheesha flavors with really good music? I’ll tell you – it’s a lounge that serves all this in addition to really good food. Estrellas, located at the rooftop level of Canvas Hotel in Mankhool (previously Melia Hotel), has been commonly mistaken for being a good place for drinks and music with some light bites on the side. But our visit to this resto-lounge proved it is worth so much more.

Flaunting uninterrupted views of the Bur Dubai area with a light peek at the famous Dubai skyline, Estrellas offers both open air as well as covered seating, making it perfect all year round. We obviously chose to sit outdoors to enjoy the short lived Dubai winter, but also made sure we were seated next to a patio heater so we could stay warm.

My plus one started with a grape mint sheesha (her favorite) and we chose to go with the cocktails recommended by the bartender. I tried a floral rose and peach drink flavored with kaffir lime, while my friend went with a fruity concoction of orange, pineapple and grapefruit served in a tiki glass. For starters, we opted for their nachos that were served baked with cheese in a skillet, topped with generous dollops of salsa, sour cream and guac + refried beans on the side. These were better eaten with hands. The next starter was Tandoori Chicken Momos, which as the name suggests, came filled with hot tandoori chicken stuffing with a spicy sauce on the side. I loved how tender, juicy, hot and spicy these were – all at the same time. Another starter which the chef insisted we try was Jalapeno cheese poppers. My friend is anti-jalapenos (she gives me all the jalapenos in the cinema), but surprisingly she loved these. The poppers came paired with potato wedges in a cone with ketchup and mayo dipping sauces on the side.

Since the starters were quite filling, we couldn’t really do justice to our mains, but still ended up trying at least one piece of each meat in our mixed grill which came with chicken pieces, fish tikka, grilled prawns, seekh kebab and lamb chops. My favorites in these were the seekh kebabs, fish tikka and prawns. For desserts we were quite surprised to receive two portions of the same dish. The date and toffee pudding was quite fair, but one portion would’ve definitely sufficed the two of us, and we would’ve rather tried something else for the second dessert.