Cipriani Dubai — Restaurant in Dubai

The ugliest experience in my entire life !!

This is a long, yet very genuine review for those who really want to avoid being insulted, belittled and offended in public by untrained fine-dining restaurant management.

On the 13th of January, my friend decided to invite me for dinner, but then insisted on taking me to Cipriani to treat me for their desserts that he always recommended (homemade pistachio ice-cream which they took off the menu anyways).

At Cipriani’s reception, my friend made it clear that we’re here for desserts only, so the receptionist welcomed us and offered us a table with no issues.

We sat, ordered 2 desserts, Vanilla Ice-cream and the Sicilian Cannoli followed by espresso. I honestly was extremely disappointed with both orders, I have to say McDonald cone ice-cream taste much better! .. & the Cannoli was just as awful.

The bill came at 220 AED and we tipped the waiter who had an uncalled for arrogant attitude, so it all added up to 250 AED.

Upon leaving the restaurant, we asked for our car valet ticket to be stamped, and the surprise was that the receptionist spoke loudly like she’s in Italian with her colleague (a language we do not understand) only to turn us down and say that they do not stamp car tickets for desserts.

What upset my friend the most, is that he is a regular customer at Cipriani, he goes there often a lot and spends thousands of dirhams, yet the restaurant reception team did a big mistake for not checking on my friend’s profile in their system to begin with, let alone embarrassing him in front of me and belittling him in front of everyone for the sake of a 21 AED car valet ticket which for us is meaningless, but its the courtesy that mattered to us.

For me, the worst part was when the receptionist spoke in Italian with her colleague regarding us, a language which we as customers do not understand, to me that was extremely disrespectful it just tells me how badly the staff are trained !!

Moreover, was that 21 AED car valet ticket worth loosing a regular customer who literally spends thousands of dirhams every month at Cipriani? Imagine his big network of friends and relatives that now will refuse to step in Cipriani after hearing this ugly experience from my friend!

We spoke to the restaurant manager about it who handled the situation even worse by telling my friend to come back to Cipriani and to seek him so that he could “pay more attention to us”. Seriously? How pathetic?!

I don’t think we’ll ever forget this experience, because its like Cipriani made us waste our time and money to be insulted in public.

Its the 26th of January and now I decided to write this review because I just couldn’t get this horrible experience out of my mind!

I honestly think the local sponsor should be...

I had high expectations which sadly were not met. We booked a party of 6 for the graduation of my daughter. The table was nice, and the wait staff was friendly as well in the beginning until they seemed to forget about us. We ordered a bottle of water for our party. When the waiter poured the water he left the glass of my husband empty. Without acknowledgement or asking whether we wished another bottle. Until my husband noticed that he didn’t get any water so we ordered a second bottle. A drinks Menue was never provided to us. So we stuck with the water throughout our meal. For the food, we had chicken salad and calamari for starters and pizza and pasta for main course. What was surprising is that all the dishes arrived fast … but at once. No one bothered to ask whether we would like starters first and then the maincourse… all was served together. It was messy. The quality of food was average. Nothing special that one would remember and definitely not worth the price. We ordered cappuccino with less coffee. When the cappuccino was served and I asked whether it was with less coffee the waiter could not answer and had to check again with the kitchen. For desert, I informed the staff that I was lactose intolerant, the server informed us that there was no lactose free desert option on the Menue but highly recommended the meringue cake and pistachio ice cream. We ordered the meringue cake… but it was just meringue and whipping cream. No cake. Would have been nice to know that in advance. When we finished the meal we had to ask twice for the check as they had again forgotten us. When they finally brought the check they did not bring the credit card machine. In fact we had to get up and walk to the cashier to pay. I was really excited to try out Cipriani but know that I...

We dined regularly (but not too frequently) at Cipriani in Dubai. We’ve bought family & business colleagues there, and even referred people there.

We will be letting those people know not to return, and we won’t be returning again, for the following reasons:

The waiter misunderstood the lunch order, didn’t confirm, and bought the wrong dish for my husband.

The waiter went to check with management and returned to confirm they said we could order what we originally ordered, but that we would be charged for his mistake!

When we made an issue about the injustice of that, (it’s not about the small amount, it’s the principle!), the day manager came over, stood & stared at us, then said dismissively something like ‘what is it?’ We explained, and again had to make an issue before she very reluctantly with a sour face took the dish away and ordered the correct dish. By the time it arrived I’d already finished mine, as it would be sitting too long otherwise.

The menu is not overly interesting, so we usually order the same few things when dining there. I’ve never mentioned because it was just somewhere to stop and grab a bite between appointments etc. We’ll find an alternative now!

I got food poisoning that night/ all the next day from whatever was in that food. (I didn’t have dinner, feeling ill, and only had my usual berries & yoghurt for breakfast, so it can only be that dish that caused it.) Eww.

After that treatment, we left feeling entirely unwelcome and disrespected. They could use a lesson on customer service. Arrogant attitude isn’t endearing your brand to anyone. We’ll stick to Cipriani in Italy where they actually know how to cater to guests. What a shame on the...