Restaurant Awards 2012

This was the worst experience I had in Dubai! I went in for dinner and drinks with friends. Before we sat the hostess kept saying she will only seat us if we have dinner. That's why we were there! A second later we were told the kitchen is closing and we have to order RIGHT NOW! Or move to the bar. It was soooo embarrassing the way so many employees kept forcing dinner as soon as we sat. We asked for more time to look at the menu but we were asked to move. NEVER go to this place! VERY BAD service.

What a hypebeast place. It's soooo overpriced and you still leave hungry. Plus they make up there own rules about what it considered acceptable as wearable in there Resturant part. Since when is a polo considered sporty. It will be too soon if I have to go back. It's not worth it at all.

I booked for a romantic dinner on my wife's birthday and honestly I wish to confirm its glamorous reputation. Impeccable ambiance and service. The food was unbelievably exquisite and the bill doesn't come cheap but for its standard it's also no surprise. It is not an every day place but for important occasions I cannot suggest a better place.

The restaurant is average and I would not consider it having a wow factor . Staff were friendly though.

The crockery is a bit off putting and not funky as the plates look like tiles off of the bathroom floor and the chop stick holder looks like a small piece of concrete.

I found it to be a bit pretentious and overrated as the food is not made with fresh ingredients(with the exception of the raw meat) and has loads of sugar in some of the main dishes.

Edited by TimeOutDubai.com

Went there for my wife's birthday as she likes Japenese food, I don't so there was a limited menu for me ,thankfully I filled up on the starters as the main meal was exactly what it said it was .... balck cod wrapped in a leaf absolutley nothing else on the plate (except a little pot of sauce) what I had was nice, my wife loved it and the staff were excellent but it is over priced. I would go back but not very often

I came as a tourist to Dubai and ate out almost every night. The city has much to offer foodies, but this place was full of itself, over priced and an arrogant atmosphere. Once was enough

I went to Zuma for Brunch yesterday and had the most amazing time with my family. I don't usually write reviews but truly, I don't recall receiving the whaow factor anywhere for a long time.The food was heavenly, the service very attentive. My kids spent their entire time playing in the kid room, leaving my wife and myself enjoying a sweet break. What a shame we were sat next to a large group of loud English people who ruined our moment near the end giving a hard time to the lovely staff there when they could not get more drinks...
Anyhow, I definitely will return!

Went to the bar for cocktails, the bar tender acted as thougth he was an expert, but the cocktails sucked. I asked him to re mix them and even then they were not up to standard.

I was invited to this Dubai restaurant and could not believe the prices. Our host was very generous, but for those prices I expected great service and great food. The service was hopeless!

Been there most of the time, drinks, lunch, dinner & brunch... Zuma never failed me & my frenz.. always on their toes even they are not afraid with new openings around them.. new dishes, special of the day, new cocktail list. keep up the great afford. Zuma best in town!

no words to say but outstanding as always.. amazing and they always have something new on the menu & cocktail list!! keep it up...

LO-LO-LO-LOVE IT!!!!!!!!

We complained to the management about being over charged and ripped off at this smoky joint.
The response was arrogant and unapologetic. We were told that everyone who goes to Zuma leaves happy and satisfied, clearly the an unhappy customer does not exist.
Avoid this place it's over rated, over priced and the service is extremely poor. If you complain you are told that you are wrong!

Service is poor, they con you into over ordering and rob you blind with the bill. I used to love this place, but the magic has gone and the service is 3rd rate. Go elsewhere.

Went there for a weekend lunch. The service was good and the flavours were amazing. However if you're really hungry and do not want to spend a bomb for morsels of food, i do not recommend it. I also felt the main course options are much better than the entre's

Definitely worth a one time experience or for special occasions,

great sushi and great bar scene also. try the beef n crab, super Busy on the weekends.

I used to like this place, not anymore, not sure what is happening there. very bad service and completely unprofessional staff.

the food was really out of this world! i would defiantly go to it again... the service was excellent and the decor was heavenly...

everything we tried was delicious! the lobster, the beef, the crab, the squid, and the sushi. one word for all of them: FANTASTIC.

the sauces were quite unique.

the fruits were amazing and fresh. their chocolate fondant was amazing.

everything in this restaurant was clearly fresh.

zuma and okku are the best japanese restaurants in dubai. Theres no doubt about that.

Great FOOD! highly recommended

Food is great but the staff are incredibly arrogant. Barely had we finished our meal and we were thrown off the table to 'sit by the bar' if we desire... Unbelievably expensive, which in itself is no problem as the food is great and I love the ambience, Zuma just need to stop being so exceptionally money/profit orientated and realise that repeat trade eventually fizzles out with inhospitable service and customer care.

Good to have experence, but one time viset is enough.
No value to pay this price for me.
Deco is excellent. But I didn`t go there for sightseeing. I went there to eat.

This is a great place for a business lunch or for after work drinks. The food is great, no doubt, but will definitely put a dent in your wallet.

I liked ZUMA very gorgeus restaurant!!!!!!!!

this my first visit to Japanese restaurant in my life. i always had that feeling Japanese food is not tasty till i tried ZUMA. a friend of mine convince me to try it. first we tried the sushi which i found normal anyway the most tasty sushi in the world will be average taste to me i don't know why after all it's paunch of rice but not till i tried the steak with sesame sous which blow my mind that was so tender and juicy. and when it come to sweet we tried chocolate cake and shawan. o man i fall in love with ZUMA something to be written in history
but unfortunately it is overprice which will prevent us from visited again

Let me start off by saying I've been to Zuma more than you could ever imagine, and the food is always great! The Maki Rolls are to DIE for! I keep on coming back for more! The Service is good, and sometimes great. The Decor can be a little bit in a higher standard putting into mind that every table pays more than 1000+ DHS. The value is a little bit over the top, but because of the fresh food and the taste that drives me nuts, I'm willing to pay.

Went to Zuma for my b'day and had a tasting sensation! All the food was brilliant and danced on your taste buds!

Thank you Zuma for providing me with the most amazing food I have ever eaten! I will not forget that meal in a very very long time!

Pure eating bliss! I will be back!

Fantastic Friday brunch,really enjoyed the experience. The staff were attentive,helpful and knowledgeable.I see from earlier reviews that other people have not found this the case. I can only say we did not experience ANY bad service. The food was brilliant. It is pricey but worth it. Dont go if you cant afford it. Simple.

3 wrods ' I LOVE ZUMA'

The best Japanese food ive tasted - far far better than fancy pants Nobu.

The best black cod, edamame, dessert and ambience.

Will recommend it to everyone living and visiting Dubai.

EXTREMELY OVERPRICED.Service just fine.worse dining experience id ever had.

The manager is about as impressive at customer service as the likelihood that the taxi driver getting you there is good at driving. The food is undoubtedly great but the service has really gone off. When politely letting them know this you do not expect the answer to come from the client is always wrong book of customer service. Change the manager and many more will come back... Arrogant!!

Amazing place, knowledgeable staff who also offer to teach you a bit or two about the food you are having, excellent wine and saki pairing reccomendations, superb food, and the ambience is perfect if your out with friends.

Sushi is a highlight, and the chocolate mint desert is sublime.

bit expensive, and your bill could shoot up if you dont watch yourself :) but worth it everytime.

the Superb Black Code, I have never eaten before! the best japanese restaurant in Dubai!

best plase,, mouth watering food,, good staff,, thank you zuma,, see u soon,,

I went to Zuma last night and I am so impressed! I loved the vibe you get as you walk in to the restaurant: I had thought that was long gone in Dubai! As the writer mentioned, you would expect the beautiful crowd to be here, and you would do well to dress to impress.

The service was excellent. Although we had no reservations, we were taken to the chefside counter which was equally comfortable. Waiters appeared with our food, drinks and check with no coaxing from our part. All the staff were very friendly- not at all snooty as you might expect.

The food- we had sashimi, albeit veg- was excellent, very tasty. Agreed, they are small portions and pretty expensive. But the food is of the best quality and this is one of those fancy pre-theatre(if we had theatre) kind of places that you would go to for a special occasion and warrants a splurge. Unless you're entertaining on the expense account of course!

Overall: makes for a great ritzy night out!

i ordes a seafood salad with steak sesame sauce, the food was great, i ended my dinner with a fabulous fondu cake, i would defiantly go back again,

I was at Zuma on an idle weekday evening, and was surprised to see it packed to capacity. My last visit was nearly a year ago and honestly i expected the influx of 'oh-so-cool, oh-so-chic, u gotta be here to be it, look-at me-i-can-hold-chopsticks' eateries to have some or other effect on Zuma...

...boy was i mistaken. It is still as trendy as it ever was or as any place could be, the dj is still rocking, the staff is still making you feel every bit as VIP as the celeb on the table next to you, the chefs are still coming up with new ways to both tease you and keep you interested. In Dubai dining experiences like these don't come around too often, so I savour, literally SAVOUR, every moment.

I will end off with one thought, GREEN CHILLI MARINATED PINE-APPLE!!!!!!! pure genius, this one... i've never hummed so much while eating something in a long time.

Love Zuma. And will definitely go back for more.

This was my second visit following an enjoyable debut.

However, following my most recent visit I hope NOT to be afforded the opportunity to return.

Service: poor....slow, inefficient,disinterested.
Food: mediocre, uninspiring, tempura very poor, black cod average.
Ambience:Table density too high leading to cramped intrusive dining.
Value for Money: None.
Conclusion: A money orientated restaurant operating at the expense of the dining experience. A very poor Japanese dining experience.

amaaaazing food! great service.. loved it!

Very ordinary business lunch. The food portions were tiny and unremarkable. Drinks overpriced - my AED 28 cappacino was a weak, grey, lukewarm concoction of 70% froth. Service poor, with my course arriving at least 10 minutes before that of my dining partner. The space has potential, but is currently furnished with ugly scratched beachwood dining tables and soiled tatty chairs. Not impressed.

Maybe I was crushed after leaving because my expectations were extremely high going in, but still; 7300AED dinner for 8 with 2 good bottles of saki is not acceptable considering the food wasn't even close to amazing, the best part about it was that it was clearly fresh but nothing that blows you away. While the bar upstairs looked really nice for some drinks, I was extremely disappointed with the restaurant as a whole downstairs. The final nail in the coffin was when I asked why there arent any type of noodles in the menu and server replied ''because this is a japanese restaurant not a chinese one'' CLEARLY THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN TO JAPAN THEN! And I am sure you can find some things on their menu that are not Japanese either!
Thank you Zuma for giving me another reason to travel more. After 8 years here I see myself traveling more and more and focusing on restaurants when I am away. Last month in Canada I went to a restaurant that would blow ZUMA or anything else in Dubai out of the WATER! and it only cost 3700 AED for Dinner for 10, 3 great bottles of wine and at least 12 double drinks. This was ''the hot spot'' in the city, with movie stars and celebrities at every corner not some dump in case any of you are questioning.

Been there for dinner. it was jam pack & full house. service was ok not that perfect but i understand why they behave that way. big scale of restaurant... basically its not noodle chain restaurant but this is how they want it to be i suppose. need to improved on the service only.

food was perfect. fresh & worth to pay for. i put full stars on value as i know what im paying for as they are not a local fishes from the market. its all overseas & surprise they can maintain it well to keep it fresh. i rather come here often as i know the food will always be fresh due to a high volume of people dines in. to all the people out there. see it to believe... Nobu is too old now!!! need more enegry.. this is the real thing. ZUMA is the best....

i never seen service so bad in my life - dinner 900 for 2 + 700 wine ... been asked to leave in less than 2 h and move to the bar - carp - wont ever go back there and will tell everyone this

I love the restaurant... the ambiance, food, drinks, service just perfect

They need to work on the music though!

Awesome, service is awesome, food is awesome

Been there before and I like the food however got so so put off by the person confirming my table this time that decided not to go. Tables only for 2 hours and I asked her what if I dont finish my meal by then? Well if there is no booking we won't push you to leave was the response? That I think is ghastly - PUSH me to leave? I am a paying customer and i thought this was about customer service. While I understand the need for higher customer throughput ,we are not discussing a noodle canteen here. for all those people who say lots of UK restaurants operate this way - firstly this is not UK and having dined in the UK several times, I wonder what restaurants are they talking about. Rushing someone through a meal in two hours at a reasonably expensive place is not acceptable anywhere in the world unless you are perhaps at a fast food chain.

Customer service is defined by places like Reflets and seriously restaurants need to take some lessons from them.

So i guess it is goodbye Zuma for me. The food is not that great to put up with this rubbish !

The food is great, the ambience is unlike any other place in Dubai, the staff is friendly and attentive, yes, no one is perfect, but they do their jobs quite nicely! - Yes, I am a ZUMA FAN!

Do any of the revieweres that said they wouldn't go back because they were asked to leave the table ever Listened to the receptionists explaining this over the phone when the booking was being made, or the second reminder when you are being taken to your table???...In UK many high end restaurants opearate this way?

Also, there is no starters or main courses at Zuma, it's a first made-first-served dish policy, emphasizing in sharing food! - which suprisingly enough it is also explained to you at the table bythe wiater -If all dishes came at the same time, quality of the food served would be compromised and you'd be eating in Yo-Sushi!!!

Maybe I've been very lucky during all my visits....but it also helps to pay attention to staff, rather than just ignoring them while we talk away with our friends or try to impress our new lady/man/colleagues!

Just sit down, enjoy the food and stop whinning!

It is expensive and classy. If you don't have the wallet for it, then please don't write nasty reviews. It has a 100% occupancy rate at any given time.

when it gets busy, the service gets sporadic and the hot food often arrives vey tepid/cold- this is esp true if you eat in the lounge area upstairs. but my biggest gripe are the ridiculous prices which unfortunately let this sleeky designed, buzzy place down...heaven help you if you decide to have a few drinks with your meal.

I am Japanese and my friend took me here. As Japanese, we dont really expect decent Japanese food in Dubai, but my friend and I were very happy about the quality of food and the staff. They actually care about the real way of presenting Japanese food and the Japanese service in details, which I was very surprised. So I think if you are non-Japanese, you will be surprised how the food looks or tastes different from other `Chinese-Japanese rentaurant..' because the food in here are actually much more real(or similar) in Zuma..

I would not say all the food are exactly the same as the one in Japan, but they still use lots of real Japanese ingredients and present it in a very artistic way and sometimes surprise us with the very delicious fusion of Japnese - western food. And we can experience the fancy atomosphere and be served by very profesional & friendly staff.

The only thing is the Ambience outside of the restaurant. It was a shame there was not a good view from the window...and since my friend paid for me..I think the price would be expensive for me to afford.. ..But definitely would recomend anyone who are willing to pay and experience somethings new in Dubai.

The food is excellent. I find the set lunch extremely good value for the quality of the food. The sushi is fresh and the sushi rice is well prepared. The grilled dishes are autherntic. I agree the waiters do not know when to clear the plates and when to leave them. A good place for expense accounts.

Loved my experience at Zuma. Went there for drinks -- decided to have dinner and we were seated immediately at the sushi bar. Food was great and service was exceptional. Both the sushi chef and another member of staff took the time and seemed genuinely interested in answering all my questions, even though the restaurant was packed. In fact to the amusement of my friends I ended up in a 15 minute conversation with one their staff on the sourcing of their fish.

At many restaurants you can expect and be delivered really tasty well presented food, but the difference is truly in the staff -- and at Zuma I found the staff to be engaged, friendly, and knowledgeable. A real treat! Plus the food was very good!

very good food! though expensive! like the place.

Now I must say Timeout should review who is on their panel to give Zuma the best japanese restaurant award!

Disgracefully poor service, definitely overpriced as some people commented, and the staff have no clue of what is hospitality is all about!

I was moved out of my table and was given the option to go to the bar before I was able to get to my desserts! Disgraceful! I had a 1200 dhs bill (2 people) . I can confidently say that visit had my last contirbution to Zuma's overly priced food!

The best you must be kidding, we had a reservation and everything went well untill we were hounded off our table. We had not finished our meal plus a rather pricey bottle of wine. We were then asked to take the bottle to the bar. This type of service will never survive in Dubai. By the way to the manager who removed us from our table, drink carries the highest margins who are you trying to kid, thats why you served the bottle of wine and 5 mins later refused the order of additional food. Long live Nobu and i hope Zuma hits the wall.

Has to be the best restaurant in Dubai abeit at a cost. Everything sampled was delicious and having been 3 times with hungry boys, believe me we've tried most dishes!

The decor is fabulous and comfortable. The table under the stairs should be removed, for the prices they charge, you really do not wanna be sat there, it removes from the otherwise superb dining experience.

2 hour time limit on the table is annoying but this is something that is voiced loudly at the time of booking and fairly standard in these types of restaurants.

My favourite place in Dubai without a doubt.

Probably one, if not the worse dining experience I've ever had! Me and my husband enjoy fine dining and therefore have experienced some of the best restaurants around the world. Zuma Dubai is an extremely pretentious restaurant trying to mimic the likes of Nobu but with great fail on all aspects: food, service and value. It can much better be described as a bar/ pick up joint than a quality fine dining restaurant and yet you end up with a blown up bill as if you had eaten at a top gastronomic restaurant. The advice I can give is, if you're not looking for three course meal go ahead, as their "2hours" only dining gap barely takes you to desserts! In our case, we were served our 600 AED wine bottle just five minutes before our "two hours" was over which lead us to not being able to order additional foods, obviously not finish our wine and skip desserts!!!! And may I add all for a 1900 AED bill after 2 hours. I understand the restaurant industry needs to be profitable but during these two hours we had been ordering a considerable amount of food and were only trying to get our desserts! This kind of mentality goes against what hospitality industry stands for and restaurants of this sort should not be allowed to practice. The whole experience was highly embarrassing as we were dining with guests.

I went in the evening, but I think this place would be great for a lunch. Food was very good, and service was not as bad as previous reviews. They tried to give us one of the 1st tables by the stairs when one of our party had booked one far from the entry by the windows, but this was quickly sorted out. Waiter was nice guy from Zuma London, which put me at ease..he was charming, friendly and efficient. It is expensive, don't order too much like we did.. if you're still hungry you can order more dishes as you go along..I would def go back, one of the more stylish places in Dubai for sure, mind you my view was out the window and not into the restaurant, so no idea what the crowd was like..

Extremely overpriced when you can have similar if not a LOT better dishes in a restaurant in Souk Al Bahar, Old Town, think its called Momotara....

The traditional Gintara Miso in Zuma, very well cooked although the accompanying sauce is too tangy and definitely not the right one for the dish. Service was just OK, absoultely nothing personal about it, they seemed to know what they are doing although not well versed with the menu when it came to making recommendations. From the reviews read above, it seemed that waiters did not know when to clear a dish or serve one in time, they were either too slow in serving or too fast in clearing, things like that could definitely be avoided if they had only tried to connect with the customer and understand what they really want for the exorbitant price paid. The Sake list is also rather difficult to understand neither was the sommelier able to help (who had decent knowledge of the wines but steered us into having the warm hous sake)

The maki portions were miniscule for the bombshell of a price paid which is definitely for the location, name and ambience. If you really do want to impress someone, do check out Momotara in souk al bahar.

I though I was the only person in Dubai who found it terrible. Decor is ok, but pretty standard nowadays in terms of style venue. Nothing different.
Service was an utter joke. A team of 7 poring over the reservations book, whispering, looking for our names while we waited for what seemed an age. Took an age to order, and meals were then being removed from under our noses while still eating. Food was 'ok', very overpriced.
Don't believe the hype.

The food at this establishment is tremendous! I mean tremendously good. The ambience during dinner time of for a drink at the bar or lounge upstairs is unmatchable. The decor is divine. But alas, in Dubai there is no such thing as a perfect place. The service is abhorable! I mean, it is so far below the standards set by the food and ambience that it is a HUGE let down. Just bear this in mind when you go. Be prepared to be disappointed by the service and you will be able to enjoy the food.