Dahab, Apart Las Nubes Restó

The green hills, the pastel color twilight, the quietness and the micro climate of a village that originated to pamper visitors and the comments by word of mouth led us to visit a cute place to have dinner.

A few blocks from the downtown, in a residential neighborhood, we opened the door of Apart Las Nubes Restó and our sense of smell gave us a preview of a delicious taste while Ricardo Archimaut’s smile welcomed us. A small living-room was the anteroom of what was to come.

Pots and pans were surely working. In the meantime, we had a nice chat with the owner of the house who told us about his big city dreams of moving to this corner of the world leaving behind the rush, the bad humor and the tie and suit. The climate, the mountain and nature convinced him that it was good to project something different.

’Merlo is a healing place. My project has a philosophy of life as a background: no stress, no running after money, yes to living a simple life while doing what I like and yes to enjoying with the family and giving my son a ride to school.’

The restaurant is part of a bigger project that includes cabins and a spa which work in the same place. In love with the culinary art and knowing how to combine taste with spices, he learned to cook healthy but tasty exquisite dishes.

He goes to the local market daily to choose the ingredients for his preparations and with the fresher items he prepares the menu for the night. Spicy food is not an option because it is not everyone’s cup of tea.

There is no doubt that if we had continued talking we could have tasted wine and remembered flavors from the world all night long. From his personal experience he remembered what he liked as a tourist and now as a host he makes that available for visitors.

’Cooking is something natural for me. Perhaps, it is true. My family has had an impact on me because my grandfather was a cook on a farm. The rest was the result of trial and error’, says the self-taught chef. The people who stay in his cabins have dinner guaranteed since it is included in the service.

Guests can also book in advance like us, so as not to be left out. ’What is there for dinner today?’ It is the typical phone conversation. The answer to our question was: to start, four different Arab dishes, main course, chicken with herbs and for dessert apple pie topped with ice-cream. We were not disappointed: the starter was an excellent presentation with reminiscent Arab style: melfuf or vine leaves with rice and spicy meat; a dip of eggplant over home-made bread; falafel, which is a garbanzo bean croquette and green salad.

While we waited for the main course, we enjoyed the setting of the restó with outstanding colors complemented with dim lights and soft trendy music. The night was warm and the huge windows stayed open overlooking the garden with scent of jasmine in the air.

Our chicken arrived from the Chinese kitchen with ginger, honey and soy sauce which turned out to be delicious. Then, we had the simple apple pie dessert with ice-cream, which gave a sweet touch to our menu. As you can imagine, the wine list was great. Well-known labels and some surprise “boutique” labels accompanied every dish.

We said goodbye to Richard and assured him that it would not be our last time at the restó. We would recommend it by word of mouth so as not to feel selfish.