On a recent connection through Dubai airport, I had grand plans to explore all the hot chocolate offerings. Lack of sleep during a 12+ hour flight can kill the desire to do anything, even drinking hot chocolate for me. But I was committed. The aim was to find Butlers Chocolate Café. The problem was that the café is in concourse D and they wouldn’t let me into Concourse D. Seems I could travel through any Concourse except D. Butlers isn’t actually a local brand but a family owned chocolate making company founded in 1932 in Dublin. They offer a lot of hot chocolates (made with what they call a “secret recipe” which actually scares me more than it excites me…I’m not big on wanting secrets in my foods and drinks). Think praline hot chocolate, honeycomb hot chocolate, even cookie hot chocolate.
Disappointed, I made my way to my gate and decided to grab a last-minute bite to eat at Comptoir Libanais instead, another restaurant that isn’t actually from Dubai but from London, although it celebrates Middle Eastern flavours. I perked up when I saw they had a hot chocolate on offer.
The hot chocolate is what tasted like a milk chocolate (it doesn’t specify) infused with cinnamon and tahini. Tahini is a paste that is made from sesame seeds that tastes slightly nutty. It is used to make hummus and many other middle eastern dishes and dips. The hot chocolate is sprinkled with halva, a middle eastern confectionery made from tahini that is like fudge. I had this with a mezze platter for one which included hummous, baba ghanuj, tabbouleh, falafel, labne, cheese samboussek, flabread and pickles.
Now it may be that it was 5 am and I had just gotten off a 12-hour flight. It could also be that I was mentally preparing to sit on another 12-hour flight, but whatever it was, this hot chocolate and this mezze platter were amazing, so amazing that I texted my husband to say that we should fly to Dubai airport to have this meal all together…which is crazy really.
Comptoir Dubai Concourse A Terminal 3 Dubai DXB Airport Dubai is open all the time.
I reviewed another café several years ago now in Dubai (Café Chocolate) which you can read here.
