Al Mahara

Food	Service	Atmosphere	Value
7	5.67	8	5.33

This underwater themed restaurant begins with a mock submarine ride from the reception to the dining area. The tables are situated around a giant glass aquarium full of fish that adds to the restaurants submerged theme. Also adding, though not as enjoyable, is the cold air temperature.
As the name (which translates to oyster) suggests, the dishes here are mainly seafood, though there is fusion with other meats and Asian flavours. The surroundings make you feel as if your food was plucked freshly out of the ocean. With a dinning experience as exciting as this, it is no wonder that this place was named one of the 50 best restaurants in the world.

October 2004

Great aquarium! Otherwise, this restaurant is rather average.
Seriously, if you took away the aquarium, this restaurant wouldn't be worth more than 1/3 of what you have to pay. And if you considering factoring in the value of getting to visit the world famous Burj Al Arab, read on.
Service-wise, definitely just average (or maybe even slightly below) for a "real" five star hotel, let alone a "seven star." Foodwise, the restaurant is hit and miss. There were some dishes that pleasantly surprised us and some that were just room service standard.
Finally, you can't take photos in the restaurant and you are allowed on a very short leash on your visit around the hotel. They would not allow us in the sky bar and even an area of the lobby was off limits to those not being served. Considering that 3 of us paid Dh2000 just for lunch, I thought this was rather unreasonable.
The hotel itself is a big disappointment. Architecturally, it's fantastic. But after they erected the structure itself, almost everything else was done with bad taste. Very middle eastern (and not in a good way).
If you've got money to spare, and lower your expectations, it could be worth a visit.

Henry - Saturday, January 12, 2008

honestly, a crab milkshake? it was disgusting, for the record. crab should never be had through a straw.
i liked the bread and the oysters were fantastic. The rest of the meal was fairly unspectacular. All in all, the restaurant is physically stunning. However, i greatly call into question the 'substance' of the restaurant. crab milkshake. it was nasty.

- Friday, July 06, 2007

My husband to me to Al Mahara for my birthday. The entire thing is an experience, although I could do without the simulated submarine ride. We enjoyed a multi-course meal of seafood, washed down with a lovely Australian white wine, some sparkling water, and a lovely berry and melted chocolate dessert. I knew the meal would be very expensive, but I was not shocked when we got the bill. And to top it all off, the staff bought me out a lovely chocolate birthday gateau with mixed berry topping to take home!

Friday, February 02, 2007

Went here for the 1st time a couple of weeks ago and it took my breathe away! The whole experience was just fantastic the restaurant is on the expensive side but even if you only do it once you will never forget it. I had blue fin tuna to start and dover sole for my main. You chose from set menus but theres lots of choice and you can mix and match, my partner had turbut and it was beautiful! i had a chocolate tarte to finsih and a lovely bottle of australian wine i would go back in a flash and pay the same all over again. our bill came to £350 so its not as expensive as everyone makes out! the fish tank just leaves you speechless! and you get to have a good look around the hotel make sure you go up to the bar on the 27th floor for a pre dinner drink the view is amazing.

Helen Mackay - Tuesday, October 17, 2006

The Al Mahara is the "signature" restaurant at the externally beatiful, internally gaudy Burj Al Arab hotel at Jumeirha Beach, Dubai.
We'd read very mixed reviews about this place, including that it was the most amazing place ever, vastly overrated, served tiny portions, was staffed by a brigade of snooty waiters, and you need to book at least a month in advance. All of which proved to be way off the mark.
We booked 3 days before the date, which happened to be a Friday; I don't know if that's particularly busy or not in Dubai. And it was a week into Ramadan.
We could only get a 10pm table, which actually was a nice change. Dubai was a stop-over on the way back from Japan where it seems you need to be seated before 8pm or risk them vacuuming under your feet before you get to dessert.
The entrance to the hotel is very grand. We felt a bit "low-rent" stepping out of our Toyota taxi surrounded by Bentleys, Rolls-Royces and a Ferrari. Inside you take the escalator past the first large aquarium of the night and realise all the rumours about the bad-taste interior are true.
We were about 10 minutes early for our reservation and had to stand around for a few minutes while the reception staff of the restaurant determined if there was room for us to sit in their lounge. Another couple already occupied the only seats in reception - a bit of a poor start.
Downstairs in the bar we were as unadventurous as usual and ordered G&Ts. Unusally for somewhere this pricey we weren't offered a choice of gin. You may not care, I like Tanqueray. This was another brand, but I could cope.
After all of 2 minutes it turned out that our table was ready. The much advertised virtual submarine had sunk, which wasn't a major blow, so we just walked round the partition and into the dining room.
Same bad taste decor. And a lovely aquarium complete with all sorts of pretty big, pretty, and big fish.
The dinner menu is divided into a 3 or 5 course classic menu. A 3 or 5 course modern menu. And a la carte. You can mix and match dishes from the classic and modern menus. We both chose 5 dishes from the classic menu. I personally like multi course menus partly because I don't have to think too much. Here you choose the 5 dishes you want. Not a criticism, just mentioning it.
You're looking at about 650 dirhams for 3 courses. 800 dirhams for 5. That's proper money. I could have 9 courses at Le Manoir, and change for a couple of bottles of water for that.
Next book to look at is the water menu! I kid you not. About 20 waters, each described like fine wine. Personally I think this is trying too hard. Still or sparkling is fine with me. I ordered Badoit. They had run out. So we took the waitress' recomendation and had a bottle of Voss which it turns out comes in a silly bottle that looks like clear bubble bath and is on the flat side of sparkling. Anyway, it's water.
The wine menu is designed for those out to impress business clients. I spotted 2 bottles for a shade under 300 dirhams. There's plenty in the 500-700 dirhams range, and no shortage above 1000 dirhams each. This is the kind of place where I wouldn't let the sommelier near me, simply because I don't trust them to be sensible. I could be wrong, and I didn't give him a chance. We settled on a safe bet, New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc for about 400 dirhams. I still think that's a lot of money. Mr Ramsey and Mr Blanc have plenty of very good choices for £30-£40. Maybe they don't attract so many wealthy Russians, who seemed to be very visible here. Anyway, the wine was very nice. Just maybe not 400 dirhams nice.
So finally on to the food. We started with an amuse bouche of "vegetable soup". They have to tell you it's vegetable soup because you'd think it was luke warm, salty cream if they didn't. Not a good start.
Next, onto starters. I had tuna carpacio with truffle oil which was nice but didn't have me raving about it. The truffle oil actually suited it better than i expected. My fiance had a lobster salad which she assured me was very tasty. It was certainly a good chunk of lobster.
Next was the soup course. Why they couldn't just bring in soup I don't know, but we had soupless bowls complete with a sort of ravioli for my partner. She had lobster bisque ladled in, I had the fish soup. Now, I've never had a real bouillabaise so I don't really know what I was comparing it to, but again it was perfectly OK. The bisque was very nice, but really I can make bisque that nice, it's not really that tricky.
To follow I had scallops on a creamed leak puree smothered over a disk of puff pastry, with a few black truffle shavings on the very top. I like truffles and this was truffly enough to satisfy. The pastry was hard to get hold of though, not enough moisture in the rest of the dish to get it to stick to the fork. Once again nice, not exceptional.
We then had a sour cherry sorbet between our fish course and our, err, main fish course. This had a definite aniseed flavour and would have been an excellent pallette cleanser before a meat course.
Main fish courses were a good size. I had a fish "pot au feau". A meaty chunk of lobster, scallop, prawn and some white fish, in a fish broth with some lighty cooked vegetables and a nice dollop of mashed potato. My fiance, being Irish, and a self-proclaimed potato expert, which to be fair, she is, pronounce it as good, which is praise indeed from her. She had a whole Dover Sole, beatifully cooked and expertly filleted at the table. This is where the volume of food began to catch up with us.
A week previously we had happily devoured a 14 course menu from Shannon Bennet in Tokyo. Again, that wasn't one of my top 3 best meals, but the portions were sized with the number of courses in mind. What you get here are 5 full sized portions, and despite observing Ramadan and not eating all day we were pretty bloated by this point. I think the late hour was also catching up with us and maybe we didn't savour everything as much as we should.
Just as we were hoping for a light desert and a taxi ride back to our hotel, pre-dessert arrived. A rasberry coulis topped panne cotta. This was small and perfectly formed, and would have done us fine for dessert.
But dessert had to follow. I had a strawberry "compostion". Basically some glazed strawberrys skewered on a stick of lemon grass with a very nice strawberry sorbet, and a very chemical tasting strawberry biscuit.
Service was fine. I didn't feel as relaxed as with similarly priced UK venues, and the sommelier did that really annoying thing of placing the white wine in an ice bucket out of reach and topped the glasses up in such a way that we still had a glass each left after we'd finished our main course. Personally I don't want anything other than a dessert wine anywhere near my dessert.
We had petit fours to finish, but we were so full by this point that we asked if we could take them away with us. Unfortunately the waiter told us that food could not be taken out of the hotel, which for me seemed at odds with the "can-do" attitude I'd expect with these kind of prices.
So, overall a very nice £60 meal. Only of course this was more like a £110 meal (each, plus water and wine), and for me it wasn't up the quality I would expect for that money in London or Oxfordshire. That said, it's one of those once in a lifetime venues. I didn't feel short changed, but neither will I count it as somewhere I'd excitedly recommend to a friend. It's one of those places where the reviews are probably justifiably just OK, but you'll go anyway just to see inside the Burj Al Arab.

Rob - Friday, October 06, 2006

I had the undisputable pleasure of dining at he Al Mahara for lunch last Sunday the 12th March and was blown away by the incredible tropical fish tank which overpowered, in a good way, the dining experience. The service was sedulous and the food delightful. Our two year old grandson would have loved the submarine experience but, unfortunaltely it was out of action for a few days due to a refurb.

Janet Bullen - Thursday, March 16, 2006

Food and service was fantastic, Can't wait to go back to Dubai from Sydney

John Tannous - Thursday, December 29, 2005

Al Mahara was a first class experience in Great food Superb service and Amazing surroundings A wonderful last night out for myself and my daughter in Dubai and thank you to Anu for calling.

Ms Claudia Mori - Sunday, September 04, 2005

It was a great experience, everything was so special. the food was great. we all enjoied the dessert most. it is such an exceptional place, if you are in Dubai, You should absolutely go.
However, one thing I didn't like was the submarine ride. it was a simulator ofcourse. I think it was like the fly on the apple. (Sorry Al-mahara Guys)

Razi Ali - Saturday, July 16, 2005

hi i work as an executif chef and every year i have to visit 3 to 4 saloons concerning food hotels ...
i tried the most europeen countries restaurants but there is no one like the mahara restaurant in everything food service and especially the view even u forget sometimes to eat and your food gets cold and u r admiring the view .
go and try it.

tarek ghossoub - Saturday, May 14, 2005