Imperial Garden

Delicious Dim Sum in Satwa Discuss this article

From Time Out Dubai Eating Out 2008

The Capitol Hotel is popular among Dubai’s Chinese visitors, but the restaurant is tatty and seems happy to feed a captive market complacently. Even on first impressions it’s shockingly clear that wowing diners isn’t one of Imperial Garden’s priorities.

The room is fiercely over-lit, there’s often no music, piles of clutter fill the edges of the restaurant, and the decor is unpleasant – plastic grapes hang from a strange green trellis on the ceiling. And the food does little to spare its blushes. Steamed seafood dumplings are bland and arrive on a bed of lacklustre lettuce, the beef with broccoli and black mushrooms is dull and comes in a watery sauce, while the stir-fried vegetables are, quite simply, boring.

The Peking duck is pretty dire too – a small portion of dry and fatty meat sits atop pieces of prawn crackers and comes with lukewarm pancakes. We can recommend one thing, however: a change of heart if you find yourself near here craving a delicious dim sum.

• Previous reviews
  • 12 March,2007- reviewed by Time Out Dubai Staff
  • 30 April,2006- reviewed by Time Out Dubai
  • 01 June,2004- reviewed by Rob Orchard
  • 01 January,2003- reviewed by Rob Orchard

Time Out reviews restaurants anonymously and pays for meals. Of course, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or independence of user reviews.