Where to Eat in Abu Dhabi: Mijana, Niri and Taparelle Review
Perhaps my ignorance is showing, but I never knew just how vast the Emirates capital is, let alone where to find the best restaurants in Abu Dhabi . Covering 26,000 square miles and a whopping 87% of the total area of the United Arab Emirates, it’s a sprawling city state that features a plethora of distinct neighbourhoods and districts – each with their own character, and yet each united by the same singular vision that’s rocketed the Gulf nation to the forefront of so many people’s imminent travel plans.
Having just returned from a whistle-stop tour of Abu Dhabi’s highlights (and having been mightily impressed – more so than anticipated, truth be told – by what’s on offer in the Emirati capital), I can also attest that the Emirate’s food scene is incredibly underrated. What’s more, the best places to eat in Abu Dhabi aren’t hard to find, yet each and every one still feels like the kind of hidden gem you’ll talk about for years. What’s not to love?
Uncovering The Best Restaurants in Abu Dhabi
Hotter than hot (in a lot of good ways)
Now, let’s make one thing clear: I expected the food in Abu Dhabi to be good. After all, I was due to visit a handful of restaurants in one of the world’s most celebrated hubs of luxury living, where the warm waters of the Arabian Sea meet centuries of tradition, trade and the kind of widescreen orientalist romance that hints at unforgettable sensory encounters.
However, another expectation lurked beneath my optimism – one that suggested the presence of style over substance, of glitter over gold. I’m delighted to report that this preconception was quickly proven wrong, despite what millions of Instagram reels from neighbouring Dubai might lead the cynical to believe. Abu Dhabi’s restaurant scene seems to be actively battling against this prejudiced view of what’s on offer, confidently asserting itself on the world stage by attracting genuine talent to its kitchens and securing its place as a culinary capital worth the seven-hour flight from Heathrow.
Let’s dive into the three restaurants that haven’t just turned my expectations on their head, but which satisfied my senses and made me genuinely eager to return for more.
Mijana, Ritz Carlton Grand Canal
I was determined to kick my culinary tour off with a restaurant that leaned into the gastronomic traditions of the region, celebrating those uniquely aromatic and seductive spice blends and the bounty of the land and sea around the Arabian Gulf. I’ve always been a fan of the flavour profiles from this part of the world – there’s a delicacy to the seasoning and use of aromats, as well as a robust approach to flavour and a willingness to feed very well indeed that ticks a hell of a lot of boxes for me. Mijana, frankly, didn’t disappoint.
A plethora of Arabian delights
Prettily positioned in the gardens of the beautiful Ritz Carlton Grand Canal (which overlooks the astonishingly beautiful Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque a few hundred metres away), Mijana is that rarest of things: a hotel restaurant genuinely worth seeking out even if you’re not a guest. Specialising in cuisine that takes in a considerable swathe of la monde d’Arabe, it’s an incredibly inviting place in which to spend an evening – flickering candlelight, a canopy of stars, pristine service and plate after plate of stunning and carefully-prepared food allows one to explore those distinctive flavour profiles and fall breathlessly in love with the region’s various offerings.
The menu opens with a dazzling array of cold and hot mezze options – we opted for a subtly smoky baba ganoush and a beetroot mutabal that one couldn’t help but pile onto the pillowy, clearly just-cooked flatbreads, resulting in a vibrant flavour combination that hit all the right spots. The waiter highly recommended the house salad (it’s always a significant green flag, in my opinion, when a restaurant has a salad as a signature dish – it suggests a commitment to the finer details that often leads to a seriously memorable dining experience) which brought together quinoa, bitter greens and hunks of mango in truly delightful fashion. No notes – it was a fabulous balancing of flavours borne of a confident kitchen team, clearly capable of elevating simple ingredients to heady new heights.
A celebration of Emirati flavours, Mijana
This opening salvo was followed by a sizeable fillet of hamour – a fish I’m not particularly familiar with, but which is very much the local favourite due to its firm white flesh, subtle sweetness and ability to hold its shape after grilling over coals. Slicked in a spice blend reminiscent of za’atar, the richness and char that results from some time familiarising itself with fire and woodsmoke was a joy to behold. A heaving plate of fat, juicy chargrilled prawns with grilled vegetables had a similar impact – this is fish cookery with the gloves off, driven by generosity and a willingness to highlight the allure of those regional taste sensations. Those seeking to explore this style of cooking further would surely be thrilled by the inclusion of various meats featured on the menu – baby chicken seems to be a popular choice in this part of the world, as are the minced lamb skewers and chops which sizzled and popped on our neighbouring tables. I’ve little doubt that they were equally delicious, and prepared with every bit as much love.
Despite being rather full from the copious portions, we had a journalistic duty to push onto dessert – and what else could we choose on our Arabic gastronomic adventure but a warm bowl of Umm Ali? Common sense and my tightening trousers dictated that this dish – a nostalgic combo of puff pastry, spiced milk and nuts – should be shared between two, and provided a perfectly comforting end to a meal which beautifully showcased a set of underrated culinary traditions.
Niri, Mamsha Al Saadiyat
I’ve eaten a lot of seaweed salad. This one was the best.
The coastal stretch of Saadiyat island’s Mamsha region is a wonderful place to while away a few hours. In fact, my companion and I accidentally rocked up an hour early for our dinner appointment at Niri – arguably Abu Dhabi’s most exciting contemporary Japanese restaurant – so we happily killed the additional time by simply walking up and down the coastal promenade, watching residents and visitors enjoying an array of delights at the range of tempting-looking restaurants which have opened in recent months and years.
By the time our booking rolled around, the excitement was palpable. I’d read a fair amount about Niri before my trip, and the reviews ranged from glowing to all-out reverence – here was a spanking new Japanese restaurant leaning fully into the future of that most beloved of gastronomic traditions; one which gleefully blends street food stylings with time-honoured tradition, local and imported ingredients, and a playful approach to satisfying diners which seemed to be the overarching vibe of Abu Dhabi’s culinary scene.
As with every restaurant visited during my week in the Gulf, expectations were effortlessly exceeded. Special mention must go firstly to the cocktail menu at Niri – both the Zenitsu (orange gin, yuzu, citrus bitters and tonic) and Kocho (gin, lime, shiso leaf and blueberry) provided a riot of flavour and freshness – and the opening clarion call of wakame seaweed salad, which I do not hesitate in declaring the best I’ve ever tasted. Seriously, there was a mountain of the stuff to get through, drenched in sesame and peanut, and yet I could have eaten it all evening.
Refined. Precise. Delicious.
Our tasting menu was thoughtfully put together, and each consecutive dish built upon the best features of the last. Achingly thin and precise slivers of yellowfin tuna and salmon came in shallow dishes of tart citrus, ginger and ponzu dressings. An unctuous scallop’s natural sweetness was given heft and depth by mirin, mitsuba and soy butter. A vibrant plate of sunshine-coloured sweetcorn tempura was a delight to dig into with its shatteringly-crisp batter, and a house special of beautifully chargrilled octopus skewers put one in mind of late-night yakitori bars and masterful street food prowess.
Sushi came in three styles; exceptionally unctuous fatty tuna belly, sea bass and squid, each deftly prepared and presented flawless freshness on the palate, and a triumph of a main course – a slab of charred sea bass, its flesh pearlescent and falling apart into delicate flakes between chopsticks, served with a miso-rich sauce and pillowy new potatoes – was every bit as good as I’ve no doubt it sounds. Dessert was a matcha and candied nut cheesecake, and as the plate was cleared and night fell over Saadiyat Island, all felt well in the world.
Taparelle, Manarat Al Saadiyat
If Niri sounded good – and it damn well should have done, because it was, quite frankly, sensational – you should see what the same team can achieve when faced with the task of elevating Mediterranean cuisine to similarly giddy heights of excellence.
All things bright and beautiful, Taparelle
That’s essentially the essence of Taparelle, a spacious restaurant a stone’s throw from the astounding new cultural quarter of Saadiyat Island, where the Louvre now stands in the hulking shadow of the soon-to-be-opened Guggenheim museum. It’s a riotous fiesta of an eatery, where an exceptionally skilled kitchen team have seemingly been given carte blanche with a spectacular array of world-beating ingredients brought over from Puglia and Campania, as well as home-grown items from UAE treated with equivalent reverence and respect. Japanese precision with Italian flair? It’s a bonafide recipe for a menu that shoots for the moon and hits with real swagger, and one that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend to anyone within a 500-mile radius. Maybe more.
Anyway, to the food. The tasting menu at Taparelle does a sterling job of showcasing exactly what this beautiful restaurant is all about; we start very much as we mean to continue, with a hulking Atlas marble of a burrata (imported from the south of Italy and tasting as fresh, sweet and creamy as any you’d find in Bari or Ostuna) surrounded by sun-ripened local tomatoes and fruit-forward olive oil, with a light dusting of dukkah as a pleasant reminder of where we are on the map. There’s a strutting confidence on show that’s immediately justified by the simplicity and limited number of ingredients on the plate. You can’t mess with perfection, after all.
Exceptional Mediterranean cookery
That same olive oil provides the theatrical backdrop for a trio of seafood appetisers; sea bass carpaccio with microherbs and raspberry vinegar, scallop grenobloise with brown butter and prawns with a punchy tarragon oil. Hints of the Japanese team behind the restaurant are present in the confident handling of fish and seafood, yet there’s an unfussy rusticity on show that works brilliantly with the dishes both as a collective and individually.
Next up, risotto. I’ve never been the biggest pasta fan (something I receive an undue amount of heat for among my fellow gastronauts), so I’m pleased to see a pitch-perfect al dente rice dish as the first of three main courses. A good risotto is surprisingly hard to find even in its spiritual home – this one, which boasted a rich and nutty artichoke cream, capers and edamame (again, a pleasing hint of provenance) was up there with the best I’ve tried. An honest-to-goodness woodfired Napolitan pizza was next, followed by another gargantuan sea bass fillet which was similar to that served at Niri in quality, but distinct enough in its olive oil-blistered skin and unabashed charring to be far from unwelcome. Frankly, it may have been even better than the stunner served the night before, and not least because it came with a winning side dish of grilled corn topped with a piquant cloud of grated manchego.
Once again, we’d encountered a generous (and thoroughly Arabian-meets-Italian) impulse to showcase bountiful quantities of exquisite food. Once again, we had to brace ourselves for dessert – this time a sharable dark chocolate torte, its molten centre naughtily oozing in the midday sunshine. Paired with a fior di latte gelato, it left my companion and I grinning happily for the rest of the day.
Artichoke and edamame risotto
Abu Dhabi’s foodie scene, at least as viewed through an encounter with three exemplary restaurants, is clearly beginning to flex some serious muscle. I can’t recommend it highly enough, nor can I wait to see what the talent flocking to the Emirate comes up with next.
