Dampa Seafood Grill, the newest fancy restaurant many Filipinos in Dubai will love

Is it a franchise of ‘Dampa‘ in the Philippines? I asked one of the owners.

No.

Dampa in Filipino refers to a small hut or “kubo” mostly made of dried coconut leaves, which until today, many houses by the seashore are built of. The popular Dampa in Manila actually refers to the place where customers choose and buy live or raw seafoods and bring them to a dampa to be cooked.

So the restaurant here has no relation to that area in Manila. In fact, Zomato defined Dampa as one of its food collection categories in the Philippines.

View from the second level

Dubai’s Dampa Seafood Grill is a casual, semi-industrial, fashionable restaurant with a very inviting ambiance that appeals to massive diners and seafood devotees.  

It is located at Centurion Star Building, behind Day to Day in Deira City Centre Metro Station.

This slightly dim-lit restaurant has two floor levels, the second having fewer tables though.  There are wax papers on top of wooden tables, and a recycled oats tin can as container for seafood utensils like hammers, crackers and forks. Cool concept!

Appetizing mildy spiced prawn crackers

I allowed our server to recommend the best of the best items on their enticing menu, as he served crunchy prawn crackers to munch on while we wait.

Fish Bowl Mocktails
Lindsay Lohan came with Sex Appeal. Wait, those are just names of the mocktails. We also had Incredible Hulk and Amaretto Sunset. Oh yeah, 1 liter of mocktails on fish bowl! FISH BOWL! How cool is that… (2 liters also available)

Lindsay Lohan‘s flavor suits me – it’s a good blend of passion fruit, pineapple and soda. I had a little Sex Appeal too – brewed iced tea with peach, fresh lemon and grenadine syrup – the peach is kinda strong on this one. Incredible Hulk is a cucumber and mint mojito – good green combo. Amaretto Sunset has a traditional amaretto flavor (apricot-ty) with mango, cranberry and fresh lemon.

Dump-a-seafeast
Freshly-cooked seafood jumped their way from a huge bowl to the table. Juicy crabs, good-sized shrimps, mussels and little clams with corn on cobs in savory Chipotle butter sauce was literally dumped into our table. That signals us to put our gloves on. What happened next was not just a feast… it’s a seafood festival!

The unlimited rice started.

The combination of sweet and mild spicy flavor is perfect with the rice. “Sarap magkamay!” as they say when you’re totally enjoying the food – in English, it’s best to eat with bare hands.

Big pieces of tasty, mouthwatering Baked Mussels covered with cheeeeeese and butter was served on a mini wok. The size is perfect for four since we’re still on the seafeast when this came to the table.

Rice pa please!

Then the Cajun Shrimps. Twelve pieces of good-sized mildly spicy, buttery and succulent shrimps. The amount of sauce in it was very favorable as we love to dip the shrimps into it even more. My mom said it’s like a posh-version of Halabos – cajun flavored.

Rice pa please!

I’m not really a fan of squids, except deep fried Calamares. But Dampa’s Grilled Squid changed that. See the photo above? How can I refuse a dish that’s seriously inviting? True enough, it was so good, really good. The meat is tender and There’s no stench taste in it. The way it was subtly grilled have probably helped it. The soy with onions dip matches well.

Rice pa please!

If it smells like fish, eat it. Nice!

We’re very much delighted on all the flavors we’ve tried. Rich in taste, plus the presentation is quite unique. Great service, everybody happy.

There’s really a lot more to try. Next time I’ll make sure not to pass on the mango bravo.

Have a look at the other tempting items on their menu (from their Facebook Page). You can call 04 299 0884 for bookings or more inquiry. They currently operate from 1:00pm to 10:00pm seven days a week.

I think I just found one of the fast-becoming most loved restaurants of the year.