The Real Choc and Nuts in Deira Dubai - Actual address and location map

Dubai being Dubai is difficult to navigate if you are looking for hole-in-the-wall shops/restaurants because their given address usually leave something to be desired and the pin-drop for the google maps are usually wrongly placed. Making it extra frustrating when trying to navigate to the said location.

Take for example Choc and Nuts which is located in Deira Dubai, recommended by fellow Singaporeans and Timeout Dubai.

Timeout Dubai's address says "Baniyas Road, Deira (04 221 2035). Open Sat-Thu 8am-2.30pm, 4pm-11pm; Fri 9am-11.30am, 4pm-11pm. No credit cards." Not helpful as there are numerous alleyways in that area.

Their own facebook page "Shop # 14, Ground Floor, Al Owais Building, Baniyas Road, Deira, DubaiLandmark: Near Carlton Tower Hotel Zip, Dubai, United Arab Emirates" - Their bing pindrop was totally misleading and wrong and led us on a wild goose chase.. The chase was so wild, we actually caught a goose. 

A wild choc and nuts goose so to speak. Apparently there exists a pseudo-choc and nuts store nearby and we were to unlucky enough to chance upon. At that point in time though, we were so happy to see the store sign "choc and nuts" and ready to get out of the sun that we didn't think too much of it. After all, which nutter would fake a nut store? Well we were wrong...

Top: The real McCoy
Bottom: The not-so-real one. 

To cut a story short. We bought from the fake store the first time round. So the second time, we braved the traffic in Deira and attempted to find the real McCoy. This time, armed with more information about the possible location, we carefully made out way to Deira. And Lo and Behold! We found the shop! Haha!

So please learn from our mistakes! I'm irked enough that I went to to wrong shop the first time round that I feel like I should post about this. 

I've even made a nice annotated map to show you where the actual shop is! For those interested, navigate to Carlton Tower Hotel on google map. You will find the shop literally a few meters in front of the hotel main entrance.

In all fairness though, I can't remember if I was fleeced when I went to the pseudo shop as it was a few months back as I can't recall the prices I paid. But if you went to the wrong shop as well, please let me know how the prices compare. 

When we went to the real shop (with their distinctive bright blue and red neon light signage) this week, we paid between 22-38 dirhams each, for 500g of chocodates, 250g pinenuts, 500g cashew, 500g pistachios.

Happy Chinese New Year in Dubai #ikeahack

This is quite cool. I just realised that my blog site http://imbuedwithlove.blogspot.com is also shown as http://imbuedwithlove.blogspot.ae or even  http://imbuedwithlove.blogspot.sg but not  http://imbuedwithlove.blogspot.my .. How is that possible?

It's Chinese New Year now everywhere which means tons of feasting and bai nian (house visiting of friends and relatives). Everyone's house must be in top spick and span condition, decorated with lots of red paper decorations like wall couplets, lanterns, auspicious words. Mind you, this is all in the name of starting the lunar calendar out with a bang.

Here, in Dubai, I had to curb my OTT urges and try to go for something a bit more classy. So instead of all red, I decided to mix the Ikea's SLÄTTHULT decorative stickers, which feature pink magnolia (木兰花 mu lan hua) with a simple red lantern paper cutout of the word 福 (fu - Good fortune).

Ikea's SLÄTTHULT 

Final product - Happy Chinese New Year!