ROKA Dubai is set to open early next year, and we can’t wait to check out the brand-new Japanese restaurant.
ROKA comes from chef Rainer Becker – the mind behind Time Out Dubai Award-winner Zuma – and has multiple branches in London including in Mayfair, Aldwych and Charlotte Street.
Dubai’s restaurant will open in the ME Dubai in The Opus by Omniyat in Business Bay, designed by the late Zaha Hadid, in early 2020 and is sure to be one of the city’s most exciting new arrivals.
It will have space for 175 diners in the 7,437 sq ft venue. Interiors come from Norisan Muramatsu and we’re promised an “edgy warmth” and “chic feel”.
There will also be a spacious terrace, while a resident DJ will provide the beats.
ROKA is a Japanese robatayaki restaurant that focuses around robata grills.
When Time Out Dubai caught up with Becker earlier this year he told us: “Roka was born through the success of Zuma,” he says. “My business partner [Arjun Waney] said ‘let’s do another restaurant in London, let’s do another Zuma’, but I wanted to try something different.
“I’m nervous, which is normal,” he says, “but it’s a fantastic area. It’s very exciting.”
The main difference from Zuma is ROKA is based around the robata grill, doesn’t have a sushi bar and is more “mid-level” dining. The robata grill originates from the fisherman cooking fish over charcoal on the boats out to sea off northern Japan.
Watch this space.
For the full interview with Zuma founder Rainer Becker, click here.
For Dubai’s Best Japanese restaurants, click here.
Opening early 2020. ME Dubai, The Opus by Omniyat, Business Bay, www.rokarestaurant.com.
