Once you taste the first dish at Moksh, you know that a virtuoso chef is behind it – there’s no doubt about it.

A masterful performance – no matter if it is in a chef the kitchens, a solo violinist on a symphony stage, or a world champion winning his boxing title – is awesome to experience.

And the fab Chef Abs Patil has really developed exceptional fine-dining dishes for service at Moksh!

And as a gourmet diner knows, the dishes themselves are part of a total, curated feeling: from entrance, to decor, to atmosphere, to service, to presentation, to eventual, fully-satisfied, exit.

Moksh is above all an exceptional restaurant and lounge, and even bar – in fact, it is designed to be flexible in arrangement of its spaces, ultimately aiming to meet its dignified guests’ needs.

The entrance is pure red carpet – you drive up to the impressive foyer of the Conrad Abu Dhabi Etihad Towers, where the valet collects your car, and where the five-star hotel meets the elegant shopping mall.

You feel special right away – and you know you are entering a dream space, where not only dreams become reality, and lifetime memories are created, but also new dreams are formed into the future.

Impeccably elegant, but also lively and exquisitely sophisticated – and incredibly also light-hearted in touches of mischievious fun.

Delightful nooks of privacy,

solidly stocked bar,

powerful business tables,

and whichever seating area you choose,

you will find the perfect nook for you and your party of guests.

Oh, but you want to know about the food?

Well, let me set the scene…

You see, fine-dining is theater, and a little pre-culinary tease was in order.

Indeed, the food is magnificent.

Simply magnificent

And not only in the delicately curated presentation, but the actual combination of superlative ingredients, masterful preparation in the pan, and the complete depth of flavors on the palate.

A masterpiece of a scallop molee – roots firmly secured in the culinary spice heritage of southern India, yet sprouting into the fresh modern breeze of modernity.

This is a dish I will never forget, and which will serve as benchmark for molees going forwards – a dish that melted in my mouth as my eyes were closed: and when I arose from the ecstasy of epicurean rapture, I realized that at the table there was complete silence, except for a communal humming of pleasure and many gentle nodding of heads.

I could imagine the cheeky smile of Chef Abs, who knows full well the effects of his sorcery!

And this ritual degustation of succulent marvels was repeated at each serving.

Below, black cod wrapped in banana leaves, prepared with a magical concoction of coconut, coriander, chili, and tomato pickle chutney:

Tasty, yet not over-powering – and again an interpretation of a timeless Indian classic, particularly in its traditional wrap, assuring that the moisture content is maintained.

The mains were just as amazing; and, by now, we knew we could have simply pointed blind-folded to any item on the menu – and we would be floored by the exceptional result on the plate.

And the service was stellar – as would be expected for this caliber of fine-dining, but also that same ethos of understating the sophistication so that it is not a stilted, stuck-up sort of finesse – rather, the connection with our hosts was organic, based on their confidence in knowing that what they were presenting was outstanding, and therefore removing any artificial attempts to imply luxury – in fact, the luxuriousness of the experience was obvious to all from the source, and that released natural smiles and a genuine feeling of happiness in delivering that experience for us.

It’s hard to define effortless stellar restaurant service in words – it has to be experienced in nuances. But once it’s there, you sure know it.

Tandoori-style prawns, in a gravy with lemongrass, kaffir lime, and roasted red chili, was presented alongside a delicate Ossobuco Kundan, composed of milk-fed veal slow-cooked on-the-bone and served with 22-carat gold leaf.

An excellent selection of wines are available, with appropriate pairing advice, and the desserts crowned the meal with fanfare.

Look closer

And so Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the UAE, once again exceeds its goal of presenting the world with exceptional restaurants; and nowhere is a better venue for Moksh Restaurant & Lounge than the city’s western-most head of the corniche, nestled in the Conrad Abu Dhabi Etihad Towers.

For an outstanding fine-dining experience of progressive Indian cuisine – magical cuisine, I may add, curated by the fab chief sorcerer, Chef Abs Patil himself – at the highest level possible, Moksh Restaurant & Lounge proves that in Abu Dhabi, impossible is nothing.