DUO Gastrobar — Restaurant in Dubai

I cannot tell you, how impressed I am with this restaurant, I went inn quite skeptical cause I’m not usually pleased with fusion, but Duo has absolutely brilliant food, we tried so many things, and each dish is unique, the balance of flavors, and the freshness of the ingredients stands out in each dish, also the attention to detail, lastly the pricing is fairly decent as well. This can possibly be one of those places where you dine regularly and on special occasions alike. Now let me tell you what we had:- we started with some Dibba Bay oysters, i was happy that they went local, cause local sourcing is great for the environment and also these oysters taste as good as imported ones. They’ve a dumplings soup, which was light, refreshing and flavorful, we were fasting so it was a good thing break the fast with. Chef Demitri’s take on Beef Tartare with parmesan foam & aioli among other things, pure love, then we had Salmon with truffle sauce ( a very Dubai inspired dish ) & the sweet Tomato salad, the tomatoes were actually sweet & juicy. I’m not usually ordering Avo on toast cause lately, at certain places the bread they use is impossible to cut, here at Duo they’ve a Avocado Bruschetta with smoked Buratta, ooohhh so good the dressing on top !! highly recommended. Tuna ceviche, I’ve had better, nothing wrong with it but just not my favorite. Young cabbage with truffle, I told the service that this is possibly the best thing to have been done to a cabbage :) delicious! For mains we had Hokkaido Scallops & Lamb Lion, both dishes were well composed & again the ingredients quality stood out for me.

We were stuffed to core by this point but offcourse, there’s always room for dessert. They’ve a pana cotta with prunes, yes that’s right prunes, oh so good ! So all in all, the place is highly recommended, possibly my favorite new discovery for this quarter, and Chef Demitri knows his way around incorporating local flavours with an international flair. Can’t wait to be...

I wanted to book a table during lunchtime to celebrate my fiancé’s birthday. Originally from Saint Petersburg, where the first DUO restaurant opened, I know how well they treat their customers. I am SO SHOCKED that here in Dubai, the service is so low. I asked a guy named Daniil to help me organize balloons to create the right atmosphere. I said I would come one day in advance and give him a small amount of balloons, asking if the team could set them up for us. The answer was: 'If you want balloons, come and fix it yourself!' What the actual HELL is that? Should I come 1 hour in advance, fix the balloons, go home, and then return to the restaurant? Lol. What is the problem with helping me fix balloons? It will take 10 minutes of their time. Once again, it would be TUESDAY at 4 pm. It’s not Friday evening when the restaurant is busy. It’s midweek. Oh yeah, he also said that it’s not his job to blow up the balloons and he won’t ask THE TEAM to stop doing their jobs and fix this for me. I used to work in a restaurant for years, and it’s PERFECTLY NORMAL to do that when someone asks you to. I didn’t ask them to buy me an elephant or do a belly dance for us. I asked to fix 10 freaking balloons around our table. I am so upset and disappointed that you have such an attitude. Good service starts with a polite response. You ruined the experience from the...

I was looking forward to visiting since I heard the recommendation on the radio. Never again will I be listening to that nonsense! I wonder how they got a recommendation on the MICHELIN guide?!

My husband made the reservation he asked for a “nice table” as it was my birthday. We got THE worst small table there is, where the servers had to pass between us to get to the kitchen (however I enjoyed watching the food being prepared). The service was disorganized beyond belief! Barely a couple of mins of us sitting down 3 different servers came welcoming us & asking if we wanted something to drink, we actually had to tell the 3rd server that we were already asked. The server that was somehow in a bad mood & a little more than rude, she really should not be working customer facing. The bathrooms were NAAASTY as can be! I’ve been to club bathrooms that were cleaner! According to my husband the men’s room had feces on the floor (?!!!) I couldn’t believe I was in Dubai & I’ve been here since 2005. The cherry on top was a lonely slipper by the valet station (?!) while we were waiting for the car.

The food was not bad at all, but nothing memorable either. Mind you, this was a Thursday night, I wonder if they had an event? None of this experience made sense to either of us & I would NOT be recommending this place to...