Gaia Dubai — Restaurant in Dubai

This was definitely a 5 star dining experience from the moment we walked through the door. We were 20 minutes late and they were very understanding. We had hostesses greet us and one walked us to our table which they needed for their next reservation 1.5 hrs later. No worries.

We ordered a couple of eclectic and tasty cocktails and then the appetizer and salad. Wait, I forgot the tastiest start to this remarkable dinner. We had a choice of 4 varieties of bread (I had the olive and cheese bread, super soft and yummy) along with marinated eggplant, kamalata olives, soft cheese and tomatoes. We ordered the watermelon salad, and the grilled octopus for appetizers. Our dinner included lobster linguine, scallops, a truffle potatoe and the baked baby goat.

The lobster linguine was out of this world. Absolutely delicious. The scallops were yummy as well, the slow cooked baby goat melted in our mouths and the truffle baked potato had a whipped truffle topping atop a soft sliced potato. So so good.

Dessert was so light and airy. It just felt like zero calories of yumminess. I’m not a big dessert girl, give me a salty fav anytime. I wanna say the cheesecake was hands down the lightest fluffiest cheesecake I’ve ever tasted. The frozen Greek yogurt another star at the table, but the honey gets hard almost like a light candy shell at the bottom of the bowl. Who wanted donuts? Well, I didn’t until I ate two of these crispy outside and light fluffy inside this mini treat. The chocolate truffles had a beautiful hazelnut flavor and crunch that would have gone great with a glass of Malbec.

Everything was perfectly prepared and flavorful. I would recommend trying these dishes and anything else you may not have had. Believe me they will make you smile with every presentation of each course.

Now the service was impeccable. Everyone was attentive polite and friendly. This was our first time at Gaia and in Dubai. The leading lady offered recommendations for our next stop in Abu Dhabi. Just the kindest people who enjoy sharing all the beauty Gaia has to offer and more. Everyone there was happy and enjoyed doing what they do. If ever in Dubai, Gaia is an absolute MUST. Thank you ladies and gents. It was a wonderful dinning experience. We hope to join...

Super Chefs Izu Ani and Orestis come together again with the Bulldozer Group to give us Gaia, an elegantly designed, contemporary Greek-Mediterranean restaurant in DIFC. Located opposite Cipriani, the restaurant has already become hugely popular with Joe Public and A-Listers alike. Even H.E. Sheikh Mohammad recently paid a visit, sadly not the either of the two occasions I’ve been.

As expected, the food at Gaia is superb. I am no expert of Greek cuisine but luckily had an Athenian with me who is already a regular there. He quickly took charge and ordered – grilled octopus, baked feta, spinach pie and the amazing red mullet tempura wrapped in a vine leaf. Of course, we started with a Greek salad and some complimentary olives and cherry tomatoes in olive oil and dried Mediterranean herbs – yum. All the Greek restaurants in town offer octopus but few can deliver such tender perfection. I loved everything we ordered.

Whilst I found the overall ambiance of Gaia slightly pretentious and snooty, I felt the servers and supervisors were actually quite friendly. It’ll be interesting to see how Gaia stacks up to recently opened Ena on the Palm of the fantastic Opa. Till then however, Gaia is the new fine dining king of Greek in Dubai and almost as good as my favourite Greek restaurant, Mythos.

Hey! Now read this – Xerxes physically dines at, or orders from, each and every venue he reviews. He pays in full for whatever he and his companions eat, drink, take away or occasionally throw at each other. Xerxes accepts no money, gifts, discounts or free meals in return for reviews or favouritism. What you have read was NOT influenced in any way by the venue. Join me on Instagram @ravenousxerxes or email me on...

My boss from London came to visit and I decided to go for a lunch at Gaia to expose her to the Dubai food scene! I know very well Gaia Monte Carlo as I used to live there but first time trying the Dubai one. We had a booking for the last seating at 14.45. I understand this is not ideal for the kitchen and the team but unfortunately we didn’t have the choice as we had a meeting just before. The food was excellent, delicious, well presented. PERFECT. The service was embarrassing. No explanation on the menu, no up selling , no introduction from the waiter, not a smile. We were rushed as the team wanted to finish their shift. Fine, I understand. They might be working long hours and might need to rest and get ready for the dinner service. However a few mistakes happened and could have been avoided. We order a bottle of wine and then waiter came back to us and mentioned the price out loud of the bottle of wine to ensure we were aware. How embarrassing when you invite guests over. We were confused so we asked the Sommelier why this happened, he then sighed openly on our face. I didn’t know what was going on. Then we were eating our starters (half way) and the waiter came with clean plates to let us know he wanted to prepare us for our mains and basically clean the table. Once again very confused as we were only half way eating our starters. We felt so embarrassed and said yes sure but I think he understood he did it wrong. Desserts have been preordered and were delicious. Such a shame we didn’t enjoy our lunch as the food was exceptional and I really love Gaia. Maybe we went on a bad day but for the pricing the service must be reviewed. However hostess and welcome, was faultless....