User reviews:

Posted by: Jacob Smith on 04 Jul ' 12 at 06:03

Edited by TimeOutDubai.com

This has got to be one of the worst places I have visited in Dubai. The service as mentioned by other reviewers was frankly appalling. The food was very poor with some of my dish clearly still frozen and when we asked to simply substitute a side of chips with a side salad, we were passed through three different waiting staff before being told it was not possible by the chef. Avoid this place at all costs.

Posted by: Simon on 29 Apr ' 12 at 01:43

Being a resident of the Shoreline Apartments I decided to finally check out RIVA Beach Club with two friends, as I have often passed but had never ventured inside.

We went in the evening when all of the fairy lights and outdoor heaters were alight, which we thought would add to the ambiance of an Al fresco meal.

However we were immediately disappointed by the Hostess' attitude towards us as we approached. We were looked at like some something she had found on the bottom of her shoe and when we asked for a table (which there were plenty of incidentally) the young lady looked put out by the effort and annoyed at us for daring to ask such a question.

We overlooked this as all three of us are ex-restaurant employees and can understand that maybe this girl was having an extraordinarily bad day. However a smile is free and surely would not tax this girl's efforts any more than she was employing to frown at passers-by.

The menu was what you would expect from a typical beach bar and the options all looked very tasty.

We ordered a:
Calamari
Pizza with additional toppings
Club Sandwich
Feta and Beetroot Salad

We enjoyed the first three items very much but the feta and beetroot salad was a little more than a few leaves tossed in a bowl with a 2-3 cubes of feta cheese and some shavings of beetroot. The club sandwich came with more greens than the salad.
The time taken for a waiter to take our drinks and subsequent food orders was a little extreme considering the place was on the quiet side (15% full at a guess).

Therefore I would ordinarily recommend Riva Beach Club to friends for the surroundings alone but as the service had been so bad I will not be bringing guests to visit and instead will take them to the Madinat which is even more pretty at night.

Posted by: Leyla on 05 Feb ' 12 at 11:56

ambience beautiful would say even romantic at night. bar is really really lovely. ordered shrimp coctail and calamari not really impressed with the food but coktails were decent nothing special but not bad at all. staff is attending and nice. will be back for sundowners and relaxing romantic evenings