Al Mawal

When you do order, the country cheese salad is a decent place to start, with lovely lumps of feta tossed into a pleasant salad mix, while the warm breads (that are replaced on your plate as you eat through them) dripped into garlic and mint labneh are wonderful Middle Eastern comfort foods 1 Reviews

From Time Out Dubai Eating Out 2007

It might start with a waiter pouring you a glass of water without asking that later appears on the bill at an inflated price. And it just might end with a vow never to return to this restaurant. In between, the food is reasonable but not worth the fuss. The venue is one huge room with row upon row of tables making it look like a business conference for a ‘how not to run a restaurant’ seminar and has an atmosphere to match, especially when there’s no live music on. Too big to fill, when Mawal is empty it’s spookily quiet and the waiters either ignore you or hang on your shoulder like Edgar Allen Poe’s raven.

When you do order, the country cheese salad is a decent place to start, with lovely lumps of feta tossed into a pleasant salad mix, while the warm breads (that are replaced on your plate as you eat through them) dripped into garlic and mint labneh are wonderful Middle Eastern comfort foods. The mixed grill is an inconsistent affair, with some chunks of the lamb perfectly tender and full of flavour and others – the chicken the main culprit – having toughness that ranks somewhere between reinforced tungsten and Chuck Norris.

The hammour is a safer bet for a main course, but only just – it’s very average. Some of the food is genuinely good, and in the evenings the live entertainment is fun, but it’s not worth dealing with the dire venue, misfiring dishes and the unwelcoming attitude of the staff.

• Previous reviews
  • 26 March,2008- reviewed by Jeremy Lawrence
  • 30 April,2006- reviewed by TimeOut Dubai Staff
  • 01 March,2002- reviewed by Carolyn Robb
  • 01 March,2002- reviewed by Carolyn Robb

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