YU Dubai — Restaurant in Dubai

I am really surprised at the number of raving reviews of the food at this restaurant. After recommendation of our concierge, we decided to have dinner at LAO during out weekend stay. First of all, definitely no value of money as the food was so overpriced. It would have been acceptable if the food quality matched the price tag. But overall none of us could enjoyed the food. The traditional Pho noodle soup is served here, but without the usual condiments on the side, the rice noodles used are the 'dry' types, not even fresh and was undercooked. The soup itself is extremely salty and we had no idea till our son didn't finish and we had a try. Many regular Vietnamese restaurant in Dubai will serve a way better and authentic Pho. The backribs had an odd flavour that I have never experienced with any Indonesian cuisine in the past and definitely not to appreciate by my palette. The dim sum platter was alright, no surprises or excitement but would expect way more delicate crystal wrappers at a fine diner. The other three dishes were not as bad: the grilled octopus (although salty), the lobster red curry (but nothing like a traditional red curry as it had too much coconut milk and not spicy at all) and the Wagyu Beef (although the sauce was over empowering and salty again). We didn't even bother with the desert after. Service was alright, although waiters were attentive but lack professionalism as one would expect at a fine dining restaurant. Ingredients of food is acceptable for the price tag but the flavours and seasoning were extremely disappointed. Food were extremely salty (to the degree you think the chef has seasoned everything at least twice). Strongly recommend to spend your money elsewhere if you are looking for decent Asian food, without the ridiculous price tag. As with most food joints at Waldorf Astoria in the UAE, we had never experienced top quality food as one would expect, attached to...

Upon arrival the staff were very welcoming and pleasant. We got seated outside with a great view of the resort.

We originally ordered 3 appetisers and two mains each, however when the waitress was taking our order she mentioned the dishes are quite big, so we changed to just start off with the appetisers and then see how we go from there. We did order one main to share after the appetisers and we were so full after!

Our choices were the Tom yum goong, octopus and satay chicken for appetisers, and the fried prawns and bok choi for mains. Me and my husband shared all the dishes between us and the portions are quite big.

We are both Asian and we really enjoyed our meal here, I haven’t had a nice satisfying meal like this in a long time from eating out! Everything we ordered are dishes I would recommend trying, our favourite was the octopus.

Wait staff are very tentative, I was shooing away bugs and was looking up if Dubai has mosquitoes and the waitress brought out a candle to place under our table to help repel the bugs which I thought was so thoughtful.

Extremely happy with the entire experience and I would recommend you dine here.

Edit: we ended up coming back here again so dined here 3 days out of the 5 we stayed at WA. We just enjoyed the food here so much. Each time we tried new dishes as well which I’ll upload pics of. Every dish was exquisite! And on our last meal here they were so kind to give us a complimentary Bon voyage dessert on the house since we kept coming back for more...

Tried Lao a Vietnamese restaurant at the Waldorf Astoria. Loved the food and the service. The hits: Vietnamese rice paper crisps with chicken, peanuts, carrots and shallots. The Vietnamese take on a taco with a lighter touch. Crab meat with mushrooms fried rolls with sweet and sour sauce. Perfect crispy texture on the outside and soft meat inside. Beef Henry: beef wrapped in King Henry leaf with peanuts. Full of flavors but tiny portion and only 3 pieces. You can only split 3 by 1 and 3! Black pepper and garlic beef tenderloin. Super soft and full of flavors. Egg fried rice with veggies as good as you'd expect them to be. The miss: To start with, the portions of the appetisers are tiny. Green mango and crab salad although it's one of their most ordered salad it wasn't for me. Maybe coz it was called a salad :) I'm not sure what that taste that I didn't like in it. It reminded me of something I had on my trip to Vietnam. The dumplings: not sure how I felt about them.

Overall the food was very good. Would recommend for a date with someone who likes to try new things, don't take someone picky or someone who nags about food. Use zomato gold...