Finding Jones the Grocer

It took me almost two (2) years to finally find this shop.  I was still in Davao and preparing for my weddin and I wanted to buy some pecorino cheese as my wedding token.  I found some shops in Davao that sells gourmet cheese unfortunately they don’t sell whole rings.  They sell it by grams.  So I asked my husband, fiancé back then to check the market in Abu Dhabi and that’s the first time I encountered this shop was when I was scouring the internet for cheese sellers in Abu Dhabi.   My husband, fiancé back then, had a hard time looking for the shop, I didn’t believe him the, because knowing men.  When I finally got here, my search for this shop continued.  Still it was difficult to find unless you have your own car to leisurely scour the area.  And recently before Christmas, we finally did found this shop.  Though not the first shop but the shop located here in Khalidiya area, still it is Jones the Grocer.

Here is a quick direction.  If you are traversing along Sheik Zayed First Road heading towards First Gulf Bank of Khalidiya you will see the Khalidiya Garden Park on the left side and you will come across an intersection.  After the intersection you will a small road on the ride side before the old Adnoc Petrol Station.  Take that road and head straight, you will see Oryx Hotel on the corner, turn left then take another sharp right turn then you would see a shop with bluish glass windows and doors.  That’s Jones the Grocer.  It can easily be missed because the signage is quite small.

Now on to what is inside.  If you are into organic products, cheese and wine this is definitely the place to be.  Maybe this is the reason why the location is somewhat hidden because they serve wines and other meat that is not usually serve in restaurants in the city.  The ambiance has the feel of friendly charm of a high end diner.   The staff are all friendly and accommodating.  You don’t have to wait and wave for somebody to take your order.  Once we got inside, a friendly staff ushered us on the seat we find comfortable.  We were informed that the right wing of the restaurant is colder while the left wing is warmer.  Since it was 72 degrees F outside, we chose the warmer side.  We were given the menu and left us to study it.  After some time the very accommodating manager went to our table to take our order. 

 I got the pastrami panino and my husband ordered the char-grilled chicken with couscous.  We also ordered iced tea and homemade lemonade, which is their house specialty, and mash potato.  Our drinks arrived within 5 minutes of ordering it.  The lemonade I must say is good.  It has the right amount of tanginess and sweetness.  Just perfect for my palate.  Then our order came.  I dig into my salad and enjoyed it.  The mashed potato was served last because it was just an additional order.  The chicken was good, it tasted a bit like curry chicken but grilled.  The couscous was a bit dry and bland for my taste.  The sandwich was not as warm as I have expected.  The meal was good.  They cleared our table once they saw that we have already polished everything. 

My husband wanted to order some sweet.  A lot of pastries were displayed and you would definitely drool over each of them.  It all looked so delectable.  It took us sometime to finalize our order for desserts.  And decided on moist chocolate cake for husband and homemade ice cream for me – vanilla and pistachio. 

The cake, sad to say has the texture of a one day old cake.  The icing is gummy and the cake is dry.  Not at all what we have expected.  But the ice cream gets 2 thumbs up.  The vanila was incredibly creamy and the pistachio is yummy.  Our total bill for that night was AED 163.00. 

Reasonable price.  You would think with all the glass exterior and modern interior design that the price would be a bit stiff, but no, it was ok.  Asked if I would recommend this place?  Yes, definitely.  Next time I’d try the Wagyu Burger next time.