Asador de Aranda — Restaurant in Dubai

We came for the quality of the food and they did not disappoint. What came as a disappointment was when we were told that the lamb chops - a part of the Saturday brunch menu is "out of stock". While I can understand from the financial point of view that a brunch menu has some space for "adjustment" - that is a no when it comes to the house speciality. In our case we picked this place - among other choices because of the lamb. And to be told nonchalantly that "it's not available sorry" - with the attitude of "it's not our fault and you have to live with this", is more than disappointing. It's a refusal to acknowledge accountability. If you are a restaurant that lives on your reputation as an authentic version of the best of Spanish cuisine, then it is a matter of reputation. If you want to be just one of the "standard Dubai Saturday brunch" then go ahead be irresponsible. But this restaurant has its cuisine as its best promise. They do not deliver a party vibe, no live entertainment - or any of the typical Dubai distractions - then they should take full pride of their food! So to be nonchalant about it- it's a betrayal. It will make me question myself next time I want to go back and bring friends. This is something their management has to consider: do we want to maintain our reputation or do we want to be simply profitable and be one of the Dubai Saturday brunches. They're the only ones who can answer that question. So I took it upon myself to order the house specialty and pay extra. But I couldn't help but wonder - if the management said "in stead of the lamb chops, we can offer the lamp shank for 2 people (in exchange for 2 servings of rib eye - also not cheap), will this make me respect them more? Absolutely! I'm paying for this one. But will I come back? Introduce friends to them? Rave about them? That's a sad no. On that note, let me acknowledge the impeccable service given to us by : George, Jun and Leila. Management decision should not reflect on their impeccable service. Will I come back or recommend? Only if they make some changes. Otherwise I will have to ask "are you sure...

Absolutely disappointing – not worth the location, the hype, or the money.

I honestly don’t understand the positive reviews here. We arrived without a reservation and were placed at a tiny table in front of the kitchen entrance – barely 40 x 40 cm. The waiter eagerly recommended ordering via Careem with a voucher, assuring us it would be accepted. After downloading the app and attempting to purchase the voucher, we discovered it was only valid with a pre-booking – something he failed to mention.

When we pointed this out, the same waiter simply said, “That’s your problem,” and offered the so-called “blah blah blah” menu at AED 149 per person. No explanation, no flexibility – just a take-it-or-leave-it attitude.

We went along, hoping the food would compensate. Unfortunately, it only got worse. The dishes were shockingly basic: over-fried, tasteless, lukewarm. The portions were laughably small. The “beef” was mostly fat – maybe 150 grams in total, shared between two people. Nothing came close to the promise of quality Spanish cuisine.

The ambiance didn’t help either. The restaurant was excessively loud, and the freezing cold air conditioning made it uncomfortable to sit through the meal – possibly to cover up the strong kitchen odors.

The final bill was the peak of absurdity. Instead of AED 298 as promised (inclusive of drinks), we were handed a bill for AED 357. When we mentioned the Careem voucher again – the very one the waiter had suggested – he refused to accept it, claiming the menu was already discounted. After a 15-minute back-and-forth, and only once the supervisor got involved, they reduced it to AED 302. Even that was incorrect and inconsistent with their own pricing.

I had genuinely looked forward to a nice evening in what should have been a stylish, Spanish-influenced restaurant in a reputable address near Dubai Mall. What we got was far below even the most basic expectations – both in food and service.

Maybe some guests find value here. I absolutely did not. If I could rate zero...

No longer worth a visit, the service has gone downhill. For a long time my wife and I went to eat our favorite pumpkin soup, there was always an adequate portion, the bowl of soup was full. Recently, the restaurant has started to save on portion sizes; now before ordering you are being asked if you are going to share the soup. This is an extremely stupid and tactless question, since by default and according to etiquette, soup is not shared, we always take two separate servings. However, now the portion of soup that is served for one person takes up 1/5 of the plate at best, the last time we were served soup, the portion was ridiculously small, one might say the liquid was poured to the very bottom. We even called the waiter to ask what happened to the portion of soup and why the restaurant mocks visitors so much, the chief among the waiters approached us, but apparently he himself was confused by the question and by the size of the portion that he saw, so he could not explain anything intelligible to us. By the way, no one offered us an apology or a replacement portion; the waiter preferred to quickly hide in the kitchen and ignored us for the rest of the evening, apparently so as not to answer any more uncomfortable questions. We don’t go to this place anymore and will look for a worthy replacement, where staff don’t dare to lie straight to the regular customers faces and reduce portion sizes to...