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| The Winners | |
It’s been four and a half years since Time Out broke the mould and gave Dubai its first independent, opinionated food reviews. Approximately two million calories later, we’ve reached our verdict. These are the best restaurants in Dubai… |
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Best Lebanese Restaurant |
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Sponsored by
 Winner: Highly commended: Also nominated: That the jury’s decision was unanimous in this extremely tough category speaks volumes of Al Nafoorah’s enduring class. Set in the shadows of the Emirates Towers, the restaurant offers consistently excellent mezze, grills, breads, juices and desserts. With its idyllic terrace, charming host and authentic Levantine food, the Dubai Marine Beach Resort’s Al Qasr is a worthy runner-up, as are Bastakiah Nights, where impressive food is served in a stunning building in old Dubai, and the Grand Hyatt’s Awtar, with its assured service and exquisite food. |
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Best Iranian Restaurant Sponsored by
 Winner: Highly commended: Also nominated: There are plenty of places in Dubai where you can get your Persian fix, but there’s nowhere as deeply evocative and romantic as the InterContinental’s Shabestan. Tender, juicy, and soaked in gorgeous marinades, its mammoth grills are the best in town. Only recently opened, the colourful, youthful Sarband has added some much-needed life to the city’s slightly tired Iranian eating scene. |
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Best North African Restaurant Sponsored by
Winner: Highly commended: Also nominated: For years there was only one serious Moroccan restaurant in the city, the mighty Tagine, a dimly-lit, pungent palace manned by a fez-toting staff. While the place still has a legion of loyal fans, in terms of sheer quality, freshness and imagination of dishes it’s been usurped by young pretender Marrakech. The Shangri-La’s North African eatery lifts couscous, grills and tagines into the realms of fine dining, turning simple stews into works of art. Shoo Fee Ma Fee only narrowly missed out on a commendation, but the jury felt that it was too inconsistent to be in the same league as the Mirage or Shangri-La outlets. |
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Best Indian Restaurant Sponsored by
 Winner: Handi, Taj Palace Hotel Highly commended: Also nominated: It should come as no surprise that the chefs at the Taj Palace Hotel, part of India’s most luxurious hotel chain, know how to whip up a decent curry. Indeed, last August, Time Out proclaimed Handi home to the best curry in Dubai. For many the restaurant’s Achilles heel will always be its lack of alcohol license, but the live music is excellent, service is exemplary and the food is exquisite. Nina continues to thrill with its unorthodox Indo-fusions, Ashiana serves up great curries and wondrous nan breads, and Vineet Bhatia’s Indego is home to sophisticated, infinitely complex dishes, albeit very expensive ones. Just missing out were the inconsistent Asha’s, budget favourite Gazebo, the quirky Antique Bazaar and Sanjeev Kapoor’s endearing Khazana. |
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Best Chinese Restaurant Sponsored by
 Winner: Highly commended: Also nominated: There were long and bitter disputes among the jury when it came to selecting the city’s best Chinese restaurant. One faction spoke in glowing, yearning tones of the joys of Zheng He’s, while another cited a recent dip in its form which had led to a couple of negative experiences with the food and service. We revisited the restaurant individually and en masse and finally emerged with the verdict that when Zheng’s is good it is very, very good – streets ahead of the competition, in fact. The China Club is certainly the best Chinese restaurant in Deira, although it’s not up against particularly strong competition. Shang Palace, meanwhile, suffers from its unromantic location overlooking the hotel lobby. While the food’s generally excellent and authentic, the waiting staff do have a tendency to walk past the diners every other minute, a somewhat off-putting trait. |
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Best Southeast Asian Restaurant Sponsored by
Winner: Highly commended: Also nominated: It’s a sad truth that while Dubai is stocked to the gills with upmarket hotel restaurants, its independent scene is still held back by licensing restrictions. This makes the commendation of Lemongrass a real pleasure – it’s an independent, booze-free eatery that’s built a name for its wonderfully authentic food, pleasant atmosphere and clued-up service. Over at the Park Hyatt, the Thai Kitchen is scoring highly with its tapas-style approach to Thai food, making it easy for customers to try a huge range of flavours over the course of one meal. For its sheer reliability, though, Sukhothai gets the highest honours in this category. The wood-lined Thai palace maintains the highest standards when it comes to service and ingredients, a policy which has made it a long-term favourite of in-the-know Dubaians. |
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Best Japanese Restaurant Sponsored by
 Winner: Highly commended: Also nominated: All the nominated restaurants are expert at slicing fresh-out-the-water fish, but the reasons Kiku came out top in this incredibly strong section are its stylish, comfortable décor, polite service, and most importantly, admirable commitment to low prices. The bento boxes cost around Dhs75 and provide fantastic full meals that showcase and celebrate the variety of Japanese cuisine. While Minato offers flawless food it suffers slightly from aging décor and high prices and Miyako is wonderfully atmospheric but isn’t quite as slick as Le Meridien’s restaurant. Creekside, meanwhile boasts excellent food and a view of the Creek. |
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Best Latin American Restaurant Sponsored by
Winner: Highly commended: Also nominated: It may still be a work in progress, but newcomer Latino House – home of tremendous steaks and authentic South American appetisers and desserts – won this category with some ease. With Pachanga and Malecon still a little too inconsistent to contend, the city’s only authentic Mexican restaurant, Maria Bonita’s Taco Shop, stormed to second place. |
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Best Italian Restaurant Sponsored by
 Winner: Highly commended: Also nominated: There are over 40 Italian restaurants in Dubai yet pastaphiles still struggle to find world class options. Dubai’s location is certainly a problem – the ingredients simply aren’t fresh enough, but in the case of Bussola the food is let down by the poor service. Vivaldi and Bice, meanwhile, are a little too inconsistent to mount a serious bid for the title, Come Prima is solid if unspectacular, while Certo has started on a high note but is not yet well enough established to compete with the old guard. The Emirates Towers’ Mosaico may be open 24 hours and be prone to serving the odd buffet but don’t let this put you off – the pasta and seafood dishes are as better than almost any others in the city. And while Medzo hardly competes with the best restaurants in Tuscany, it’s a reliable, attractive, Mediterranean (but mostly Italian) eatery with a handful of jawdroppingly good dishes. |
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Best Global Restaurant Sponsored by
 Winner: Highly commended: Also nominated: Dubai is addicted to its global buffets, and spreads of all-you-can-eat dishes from across the world – usually accompanied with an attractive drink deal – populate many a restaurant. By and large they are poor, largely because they rely on trays of food being kept heated over the course of several hours. The jury was disappointed that this trend shows no signs of dying out. However, we were delighted that Spectrum on One and Teatro, two of the restaurants in the city that do global food properly – i.e. by cooking international dishes fresh to order – are going from strength to strength. While Teatro’s kooky décor and excellent sampler menus earn it major points, it was felt that Spectrum has the slight edge when it comes to innovation. |
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Best Contemporary European Restaurant Sponsored by
Winner: Highly commended: Also nominated: The most fiercely contested of the regional categories, the Best Contemporary European award saw an epic struggle between some of the best restaurants in the city. The fact that stand-out locations such as Vu’s and Celebrities failed to be highly commended demonstrates the sheer level of competition for this particular gong. When it came down to it, though, the jurors were of one mind over the winner – it had to be Verre by Gordon Ramsay, an epicure’s palace devoted to pure dining pleasure. While its location is nothing particularly special, the food is quite simply outstanding. Of our three highly commended restaurants, La Baie got in for its modern takes on traditional dishes, Mezzanine for single-handedly flying the flag for British haute cuisine, and Tang for its imaginative forays into high-octane gastronomy. |
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Best Business Lunch Sponsored by
 Winner: Highly commended: Also nominated: The whole point of a business lunch is to impress people you hope will help you make money. So with the best view in the whole city and blissfully unobtrusive service, the 50th floor of the Emirates Towers is the obvious option. The Dhs130 lunch menu at Vu’s offers excellent value for money. While we’ve often quibbled with The Glasshouse’s evening offerings, we’re well impressed with their bargain Dhs60 business lunch; for world class comfort food try the delicious bangers and mash. And The Cellar’s Dhs50 buffet lunch may be a little hit-and-miss but at least we know it’s good for us – they’re dedicated to organic ingredients and we’re keen to see more restaurants follow their lead in the coming year. |
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Best Café Sponsored by
 Winner: Highly commended: Also nominated: Deciding on the winner of the best café award was the nearest thing the jury had to a no-brainer. The Lime Tree Café on Jumeirah Beach Road sells highquality deli dishes, wonderful cakes and easily the best sandwiches in Dubai: its perma-packed dining room testifies to the appeal of this culinary leviathan. Over in Garhoud, the highly commended More offers a less subtle range of dishes – more comforting than inspiring – but the overall dining experience is appealing nonetheless. XVA Café wins a gong on the strength of its stunning location and its healthy, locally-influenced dishes. |
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Best Family Restaurant Sponsored by
 Winner: Also nominated: The family restaurant scene in Dubai is seriously weak. There are precious few restaurants that combine food that’s appealing to kids and edible for adults and where entertainment comes as part of the package. That’s what makes Café Céramique stand out – it offers tasty, kid-friendly meals plus the allure of no-holds-barred ceramics painting. While your kids are distracted creating their masterpieces, you can take in the view on the terrace and knock back a few invigorating cappuccinos. Sadly, apart from this one smart option, the jury felt there was nowhere else currently worthy of a highly commended award. While Chili’s, Hard Rock Café and Planet Hollywood do offer kid-friendly (if often fattening) meals, they don’t go above and beyond when it comes to the all-important entertainment. |
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Best Friday Brunch Sponsored by
Winner: Highly commended: Also nominated: With face painters, magicians, clowns and a live band all out in force, the food at the Mina A’Salam’s Terrace brunch could so easily have become an afterthought. But on frequent visits, the brunch offerings have been remarkably fresh, varied and delicious. The Thai Kitchen are distancing themselves from the ‘b’ word by calling their all-you-caneat- and-drink, superb-value spectacular a ‘lunch’, albeit one that takes place on a Friday. Yalumba’s brunch, with freeflowing Bollinger champagne, was another instant hit. Just missing out on the big prizes were the Friday offerings from Legends, Amwaj and Splendido. |
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Best Romantic Restaurant Sponsored by
 Winner: Highly commended: Also nominated: When it comes to romance, you can’t beat the restaurants at the Royal Mirage. Eau Zone is the pick of the bunch; the eatery hugs the ocean shore and the shimmering pool. The most romantic walk in the whole city is the one across the pier at Al Qasr’s Pierchic, and if you’re lucky enough to get a seat on the edge of the terrace, the view of the Burj, the Palm and the Jumeirah Beach Hotel is unbeatable. But if your seat is indoors, the effect is nowhere near as swooninducing. The Burj’s alfresco offering, Majlis al Bahar, is frighteningly expensive but the setting is magnificent. |
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Best Seafood Restaurant Sponsored by
Winner: Highly commended: Also nominated: Given its coastal location, it’s no surprise that Dubai is a city awash with fine fish restaurants, making this one of the toughest categories to judge. With its inventive, graceful and delicate fish dishes, Pisces took the piscine prize but it was pushed all the way by Singaporean seafood emporium Peppercrab, fish alchemists Amwaj and the independent Lebanese seafood market of Sammach. The Burj’s palace of basement blowouts Al Mahara, the Aquarium at the Dubai Creek Golf Club, and the Mina’s picturesque Dhow only just missed out on honours. |
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Best Steakhouse Sponsored by
 Winner: Highly commended: Also nominated: Crowned Time Out’s favourite steakhouse in November 2005, Manhattan Grill has gone on to score this carnivorous gong – its slick, effortless approach to serving thunderously tasty hunks of prime beef went down a treat with our jury. With its torrentially juicy steaks, expert service and accompanying jazz piano, Palm Grill was only inches away from being top dog. In November we were unconvinced by the JW Steakhouse, but our jury has been swayed by its gentleman’s club-esque charms, and we also appreciate Legends’ well-priced early bird set menus. |
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Best Wine Bar Sponsored by
 Winner: Highly commended: Also nominated: The wine bar scene has taken off in the last two years, with a flurry of new openings and a concerted effort by importers to bring more exotic wines to Dubai. Recent opening Cin Cin at the Fairmont has impressed the city’s tipplers with its New York-style décor and its cosmopolitan atmosphere. The Agency at Souk Madinat Jumeirah offers wonderful waterside tables and good bottles at affordable prices. However, the jury had no hesitation in awarding Best Wine Bar status to Vintage at Wafi Pyramids. The setting is intimate, the service friendly, the lighting low, the music perfect, the wine delicious and the choice of accompanying fresh cheeses and meats exquisite. A solid gold hit. |
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Best Newcomer Sponsored by
Winner: Highly commended: Also nominated: With the kitchen tutelage of Gary Robinson, Mezzanine stormed into first place with stellar contemporary British and French cooking and bold interior décor. Traiteur stumps all the competition when it comes to design but service could do with a little fine-tuning, while Stephane Buchholzer’s Tang has been a revelation, with a tasting menu concept that allows customers to enjoy a wide-range of world class food at a reasonable price. We loved The 25th when it first opened but were sorely disappointed when the jury revisited, while the excellent food at Yalumba is let down by average service and a lack of character. |
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Restaurant of the Year 2006 Sponsored by
Winner: If these awards had taken place two years ago, choosing the Best Restaurant of the Year would have been straightforward. At the time, Verre stood head and shoulders above every other restaurant in the city. Since then, several hundred new restaurants, many of them excellent, have opened in Dubai, forcing standards up across the city. There are now a substantial and growing number of restaurants that can hold their own among the best that Paris, New York and London have to offer. However, Verre has kept pace with the upsurge in quality, and while its menu is not blazing brave new culinary trails like some of its competitors, it does deliver glorious, note-perfect dishes with utter reliability. A deserved winner, then, but several restaurants are snapping at its heels, and the competition for next year’s award is likely to be very fierce indeed. |
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Time Out Dubai.com is published by ITP Digital Ltd.