Located in Dubai’s DIFC, BOCA is a modern Spanish restaurant with Levantine influences focussed on sustainability. It serves a lively smart-casual after-work crowd, relaxing at the end of a long day of financing.

The surrounding financial area is a mixture of tall office buildings and other commercial towers, modern and elegant. The ground level however, is a rare open pedestrian area in this city, an experiment in itself. It is a strange, manufactured array of backstreets, like Seville made of Lego, or Beirut redesigned by AI for the metaverse.

It’s not unpleasant at all, but it feels artificial. SaltBae has a restaurant here.

Nonetheless, it feels no less clinical than other world financial centres. The area is also a short distance from the beautiful mathaf al-mustaqbal (Museum of the Future) which ties in nicely with BOCA’s theme of sustainable produce.

The venue is a gentle, welcoming place, contrasting nicely with the surrounds. It also has good service and a female leadership team. It’s very convenient if you’re working in the area and looking for somewhere close when you clock off.

It has a relaxed tapas style but with a detailed menu, Dubai-enhanced with plenty of Instagram opportunities. Dishes include a ravenously good beef tartare with radish and pickle, plus a grilled octopus tentacle with foam, truffle and edible flowers.

Unlike many other residents of this image-conscious city, we were too busy eating, talking and laughing to take many pictures of the meal, so you’ll have to visit yourself.

The drinks menu included an eye-catching martini which I obviously had to try out.

The menu changes on a seasonal basis so this may not be available right now. If you are particularly keen you could try contacting them ahead of your visit but bear in mind that some of the ingredients, which are gathered by hand in the mountains and dunes, may not be available when you visit.

Nonetheless the cocktail menu is wide and I have no doubt of their ability to serve you a good, reliable, off-the-books classic martini as well.

The Foragers martini is served in a beautiful cut glass goblet, that has been chilled to the extent that the base was still encased in ice. A very reassuring sign!

It is made with Botanist gin, which, like myself, hails from the Hebrides and is made with hand-foraged botanicals from the Island of Islay.

The martini also includes bitters from the desert plant Shih, which you and I obviously know as Artemisia absinthium – and yes it’s the same ‘absinthium‘ from that drink. You might also know it by its common European name of Wormwood, which, checking in with those at the back, is indeed the traditional main flavour of vermouth, from which the drink gets its name (via the German wermut). What a journey!

The other ingredient is extract from the desert plant Khansour, a member of the Caralluma family which grows in the Emirates and is traditionally used in cooking and as medicine for certain conditions. It has a bitter flavour and is used sparingly in the drink.

The martini came with no garnish, but a tiny drop of oil floating on the surface – a decorative garnish in itself. Otherwise, the beauty of the glass sufficed from an aesthetic perspective.

From a flavour point of view it was very delicate and the absence of a garnish allowed for this profile to develop undistracted and without being overpowered. It was tasty and interesting and is very much recommended.

BOCA Dubai has been added to the Michelin guide, offers happy hour and brunch deals and is located in Gate Village 6 in the Dubai International Financial Centre. Give it a try!