Manava — Restaurant in Dubai

So the hotel overall is great, no doubt about that. When we entered the restaurant everything went smoothly, we were directed to our seats outside in the smoking section. My husband and I were celebrating our anniversary after a recommendation and to our surprise, the variety of food that was offered was not that great. The food lacked taste and very few choices for dinner on Sunday.

After we had our salads my husband decided to smoke a cigarette, to which a lady sitting behind us told us that we should not smoke and that the smoke is blowing everywhere, bear in mind that the lady had a 6-8-year-old daughter with her. To respect what she asked for, my husband when ahead and put it off. I was furious as I had requested via email and in person for a smoking area. I went inside and informed the staff and reconfirmed if we were seated in a smoking area to which they agreed and I informed them that we were asked to put off our cigarettes in a smoking area! the waiters went and told the manager about the situation and he went ahead to confront the family and ask them politely to move. However, the lady was extremely rude to them after which the manager decided that we should move instead of them and I told him that I was here celebrating my anniversary and you are asking me to move. Like seriously? I told him I will not be moving, after a while the family left, and then my husband put the cigarette to smoke. After that, the manager approached me again and he was apologetic but it made me furious that we were asked to move because we were speaking the same language as him.

To our disappointment right before we decided to leave all of a sudden we were brought sparking juice and a slice of cake, to make up for the discussion that happened earlier. All in all, it is something that could have been easily solved if the family who was seated before us were asked to sit in the right place.

In the end, the anniversary dinner was completely ruined and the food made it no better. I will not be coming back again nor will I recommend it to anyone else to celebrate.

I am giving it a two because I liked the décor...

Low quality, limited variety and easily the worse hotel buffet we have eaten at. The service is inattentive, slow, forgetful and in the most part non existent. Breakfast buffet is chaotic with subpar offerings and the dinner buffet although less chaotic simply poor and inferior to every other hotel we have dined at within a similar standard category. I usually look forward to breakfast and dinner at hotels but it simply is not the case here.

The taste, quality and variety is simply not there and pales in comparison to other hotels we have stayed at within a similar standard/price range. If I had known the food would be this bad, I would have never chosen any food options during our stay. Would definitely recommend eating elsewhere as the taste, quality and variety is severely lacking. The read that seafood curry consisted of mushy squid and prawns.

Out of all the food, the Indian selection was probably the best at a passable standard and definitely better than their dedicated Indian restaurant at Zoya Maui.

Having eaten here several more times during our stay, the service has got better but still slow. Indian selection has no bread options (they wont make you naan or roti) although you can request paratha from a waiter and it will take about 20 mins. This is really poor as chefs have purposely made all variety of naans and sent it to us at other hotels we stayed at. Other hotels then went out their way to make special dishes to enjoy with the freshly made bread, nothing of the sort here. Manava is massively underwhelming in every way when it comes to the food.

At best mediocre but easily unremarkable and fully forgettable. One advantage is that we never felt like we overate or were bloated simply down to lack of variety and...

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

I’ve visited Manava at Sofitel The Palm twice for the breakfast buffet. While the food and service from most staff were fine, I had a very uncomfortable and disappointing experience during my most recent visit.

A waitress or hostel wearing blue uniform (not the one that gave us our table) or the admirable waiter that attended our table….approached only my group—while we were already in the queue with plates in hand waiting for our omelettes —asking if we were staying at the hotel. When I told her we came for the breakfast buffet, she continued to press with questions like, “Did you tell anyone you’re here?” and “Does anyone know?”

It felt unnecessary, intrusive, and frankly, humiliating—especially when no other guests around us were questioned in this way. This wasn’t our first visit, and we had a proper table arranged already. And plus who walk in a hotel buffet in dubai blindly??? If there was any confusion, it should’ve been clarified internally—not by singling us out in front of other guests.

I usually never play the “race card,” especially in a city as multicultural as Dubai. But this interaction felt discriminatory, and it’s not what I expect from an international brand like Sofitel.

There’s no place for this kind of behavior—especially when all guests are paying the same rate and should be treated with equal respect. I’ll appreciate this hostel to do some more training.

I was there 14th September 2025 from 10 am...