With a plethora of restaurants and cafés to choose from in Dubai, there is no shortage of great places to visit for lunch to enjoy good food in an elegant setting. Below are some of our favourite places for a sophisticated lunch experience if you feel comfortable dining out at the moment. As we are now enjoying the best of the winter weather in the UAE when it is possible to actually sit outside and enjoy your lunch at a leisurely pace without suffocating in the sweltering heat, this is the best time have your lunch al fresco as all of these places have an outside area.
We have chosen these 4 places on the basis of the quality and presentation of food, good and efficient service, elegant ambiance, hygiene standards and our overall experience when visiting each of them.
Please note that all photos in this article were taken pre-Covid, hence the absence of sanitisers on tables etc.
The Hamptons Café – The Hamptons tradition
The Hamptons Café has been our old-time favourite ever since discovering its Umm Suqeim branch a few years ago. It has since opened in another 2 locations in Dubai – Jumeirah Islands and Arabian Ranches.
The Umm Suqeim branch café is spread out on 3 floors, our favourite being the middle floor with an elegant dining area. The café is decorated with a nautical theme in mind keeping faithful to its Hamptons vibe.
Our favourite dishes we recommend you should try are burrata crostini (we order it every single time we visit) and the Thai noodle salad with prawns. They are simply delicious but very filling so make sure you order them to share! We also enjoyed asparagus and egg with Scottish smoked salmon and the avo toast with salmon. Again, the portions are very generous so they are enough for 2 people to share.
For a lighter salad option try their tuna, avocado and quinoa salad.
For a vegetarian option, the Hamptons quinoa salad with strawberry is a clear winner – it is very light and refreshing and full of avo and berry goodness. It also contains vitamin C rich blueberries in addition to strawberries so a great option to top up your 5-a-day.
All teas and coffees are presented on a wicker tray with a glass of water and a handmade macaron (additive and preservative-free!) of your choice. We adore the cute designs on our coffees, especially the Hamptons anchor!
If you are looking for something even more eye-catching, we recommend you should try the Hamptons Tropical Coconut – it looks stunning and tastes very refreshing being 100% organic young tropical coconut.
If you are looking to add extra 5-a-day and vitamins to your meal, you can’t go wrong with one of their Boosters! Our favourite is the Glow Booster with mango, pineapple and ginger.
There are some good dessert options too that are beautifully presented.
We have visited the Umm Suqeim and Jumeirah Islands branches and the former is our favourite for enjoying lunch indoors, while the latter is perfect for al fresco dining as it has a spacious terrace.
Gia – Italian indulgence
Gia is another go-to lunch place for us when we are craving some Italian. It is conveniently located on the ground floor of the Dubai Mall around the corner from the Burberry store.
The menu is very extensive and everything we have tried is very good and full of flavour. Our favourites include the burrata salad (with amazing colourful heirloom tomatoes!) and the arugula and pear salad – both are fresh and delicious!
Their pizzas are yummy too and you can ask if the chef can tailor it to your liking if you want some modifications to the options on the menu.
If you are craving something more substantial for lunch, you should definitely go for Gia’s rigatoni cacio e pepe which will be finished off in a parmesan cheese wheel table-side for you as a mini culinary performance. I am yet to try it but Silvia says it’s really good which means it’s a must try!
Speaking of table-side performances, if you order Malena, one of Gia’s signature mocktails and our personal favourite, you will get to enjoy a delightful performance featuring smoking cinnamon sticks and dramatic dry ice. Other than being entertaining to watch, Malena is also very refreshing so you should definitely try it.
Another great signature mocktail we recommend you should try is La vita e’bella – a flowery creation that comes with a polaroid of you with your mocktail. You can decline if you do not feel like posing for the camera though and just enjoy your lovely mocktail.
Creative drinks are Gia’s specialty because they have a whole section of the drinks menu dedicated to eye-catching dessert drinks. We have tried Espressotini, a lovely cold coffee with a silky foam served in a Martini glass.
If you prefer a more traditional dessert, you can’t go wrong with their cannoli with pistachio ice cream – very decadent.
Parlour Boutique – French elegance
Parlour Boutique is located just opposite the Trade Exhibition Centre. We really like its bright space and comfortable sofas – we often meet there for breakfast too as their French Toast is the best in town with a generous serving of all of our favourite berries!
As you can probably tell already, the first section we check on any menu is the salad section so obviously one of our recommended dishes from Parlour Boutique has to be one of their salads. They update their menu from time to time so our favourite salad – the Summer salad with burrata, heirloom tomatoes and peaches – is no longer available. However, there are some similar interesting options, for example, the burrata starter.
The menu has been recently expanded to include a larger variety of avocado toasts in their L’avocat Bar, which we really appreciate as we are partial to a good avo toast any time of the day. Who said avo toast is a breakfast dish? We happily eat them for lunch! My personal favourite is Le scandinave with smoked salmon.
Parlour Boutique also serves nice coffee and you can buy a bag of their beans to make Parlour coffee at home.
We see that the restaurant now has an area for al fresco dining – awesome news as the weather is perfect for exploring all outside seating areas. Plus, those who feel uncomfortable dining in a confined space may feel more at ease when sitting outside in the fresh air.
Colt – Equestrian heritage
Colt is a fairly new addition to the restaurant scene in Fashion Avenue at the Dubai Mall. Both Silvia and I are equestrian enthusiasts so naturally we were curious to try it.
One of our recommendations to try includes Colt’s crab avocado salad – it is our go-to dish whenever we visit the place for lunch. One thing I don’t particularly understand about this dish is the addition of crisps as a garnish, otherwise it is a well-presented, yummy and filling salad.
The equestrian-themed restaurant boasts a lovely spacious terrace with a prime view of the fountains and Souk al Bahar so take advantage of the fine weather and enjoy a coffee or a refreshing mocktail al fresco. Our favourite cooler is the Sunset Escape – the size is very generous and the glass looks like it could comfortably house a small goldfish (lol).
This list is not exhaustive of course as there are more great places to enjoy your elegant lunch in Dubai. We are planning more articles with ideas on where to eat based on our own unbiased tried-and-tested experience, so if you are interested to read more, please subscribe to receive updates about our latest posts or follow us on Instagram @thegoodlifeindubai
Thank you for reading and bon appetit!
Bisous,
Yasmina
