Babiole Dubai — Restaurant in Dubai

I visited Babiole with a group of friends for their newly promoted evening brunch with 80's & 90's music. But unfortunately we ended with a highly disappointing experience and regret for visiting and paying quite a high amount for the poor quality of food and drinks that we were offered.

We opted for 349aed package which included house spirits and wine. Food was absolutely tasteless to the point that I thought something was wrong with my tastebuds, only to realize that a whole group was experiencing the same. Since I am vegetarian, I was given options to chose from a la carté, as the brunch menu only offers fattoush and hummus for starters which were incredibly bland and badly prepared. My tabbouleh and quinoa salads were uneatable, poorly or no seasoned at all, lacking everything that came with their description in the menu. Halloumi in quinoa salad was barely visible and salad had a sweet, fermented dressing and weird aftertaste, that made salad completely uneatable, while artichokes were soaked in garlic.

After unsuccessful attempts for my starters, I had finally asked for Margarita pizza, thinking ' I can't go wrong with that', which they gladly prepared for me. But even pizza had no taste, there was no flavour in tomato sauce.

For mains they had vegetarian option of risotto, which I ordered although no longer motivated to eat at all. Firstly they messed up our orders for mains and I received a sea-bass risotto instead. They insisted to bring me vegetarian risotto, even though I lost hope all together and made peace with eating french fries which were the only satisfying item that evening. When risotto came it was drenched in the sour tomato sauce and didn't really look appetizing at all. Desserts were not even worth a mention.

For drinks I wanted to start with white vine, but the vine smelled and tasted like vinegar, so I immediately started with vodka soda. Even though we had 5 drinks each, my friend had red wine, we felt as if we barely had one. Which made us convinced that drinks were diluted with water as most of us experienced the same.

Service was also not up to standard at all. While our waitress was trying to make us happy as she clearly saw my dissatisfaction, overall service was not up to standard and not organized, nor coordinated from the moment we sat down.

Music by DJ Gaby is as always great selection of old tunes, but we were disappointed as he played only until 10,30 while the brunch is being advertised differently.

There was no overall vibe, no dancing, apart from few guests dancing at their tables and we couldn't wait to pay our overly priced bill and continue the night somewhere else to wash this bad taste from our mouths, quite literally.

Overall rating would be 2.5 stars and brunch worth is more likely 149aed rather than 349 which I feel...

Very bad experience. So bad that you feel uncomfortable from the first moments. Please don't reserve la perle tickets with diner at this restaurant. They will treat you as if you got it for free. They dedicated a special place for the people with la perle tickets. It is inside and don't have any view. Very small area that will make you feel as if you are dining in a corridor. Dark and nothing special about it what so ever. I asked them over the phone hours before to reserve me a nice table because I have chosen it only because it had a view. They told me that they don't take reservations and they will assign me a table once I arrive. When I arrived they placed me on the worst table behind the service counter. I asked them to move me to a better table and they told me that this was the only area dedicated to la perle tickets holders. I asked them to move me to a better table within this area as it got available and they agreed and asked me to wait till they prepare it. After about 15min of waiting I asked them if we can move and they said that we can't cause it got reserved. I was really frustrated as they clearly told me over the phone that they don't take reservations. When I told them that and they saw that I am getting nervous they offered me to sit in the other area designated for non la perle customers. All that time I felt that they are treating me as a burden they want to get rid of. I found an available table and asked the waitress beside me if I can sit and she told me "it's up to you"!! So I sat with my wife and daughter and started ordering. They have a set menu to choose from for la perle customers. So we chose our food and we ordered some drinks that were not included. Every thing took forever. The food was below normal. As we were eating the same waitress approached us with the bill. We still didn't finish that main course. I told her that it was unusual to ask us to pay before we are done. She answered that we had to pay for the drinks as they were extra. I told her that we still have the dessert and they should wait once we are done as in every other restaurant in the world. She told me " don't worry..you will get your dessert "!! We felt that we are begging her for our food and that she is serving us out of charity. I asked for the duty manager and he was polite but started to give strange excuses like "we have a different sense of humour here "!! So I told the waitress in a calm tone that I didn't like her attitude and she should treat us with respect. She just looked at us and left without a word. Not even a simple apology or excuse for her disrespect. The duty manager watched. This was the worst experience we had ever. The show and the "fancy" dinner were a gift for my daughter for her birthday. The show was amazing, but the dinner was horrible and a...

*UPDATE ON THE BELOW: Emailed the manager as he requested below. No reply over 2 weeks later. Clearly an attempt to look like they want to rectify and improve, but with zero intention to do so. Avoid. *

Severely disappointed. Myself and my mam are gluten intolerant. Although ingredients were listed on the menu, Allergens were not listed. 2 different items we selected from the menu (where ingredients listed did not contain gluten) we were told we cannot have them because the chef said they contain gluten and that we can only have salmon or sea bass only. So although this was annoying we accepted. Moments later the waiter comes back to say we can have the sea bass meal but with only vegetables because the potato's are 'rolled in gluten' so instead we asked for boiled potatoes. What we were served was severely disappointing. I could cook better myself and I am no talented cook. It was dry, overcooked grilled seabass, with dry boiled potatoes, 2 pieces of Brocoli and 2 pieces of asparagus, all boiled to taste like nothing. And that's it. Easily the worst meal I've tasted in Dubai it was that bland. I asked for sauce to help this issue (such as the lemon butter one listed on the menu, or even regular butter). Moments later the waiter arrived with a sauce 'that the chef made just for us', it was tomato passata out of a tin/carton. So I asked for butter, only to be told that the butter also has gluten and they only have normal butter??? Normal Butter does not contain gluten! This is a serious lack of education by the chef or just sheer laziness and lack of care by Babiole to serve their customers. Serving gluten free food with taste is...