There is always a little extra pressure when a restaurant arrives in Dubai with a reputation like Gymkhana’s. Its London sibling holds two Michelin stars, the name comes with plenty of expectation and, if we are being fair, Dubai has not always improved the international restaurants it imports.
That was my main reservation before visiting Gymkhana Dubai. I had heard plenty about the London original, including from my sister who had eaten there, and I was hoping its arrival in DIFC wouldn’t mean making everything bigger, flashier or unnecessarily more complicated.
Thankfully, it hasn’t.
The team is quite open about the London connection. They know the reputation attached to the name, but they aren’t trying to recreate the original restaurant or pretend its two Michelin stars have simply travelled with it. This is very much its own restaurant. More importantly, the food is excellent.
An old-world Gymkhana in the heart of DIFC
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The restaurant takes its name from the gymkhana clubs that became social institutions across India, where people would meet around sport, food and drinks. The team takes time to explain that history, and once you know it, much of the design begins to make sense.
Downstairs is where I would choose to sit. Dark woods, patterned walls, oversized paintings of tigers and panthers and warm table lamps give the room the feel of an old members’ club. The bar is particularly good-looking, with an enormous peacock picked out in the tiles behind the bottles and chandeliers hanging overhead. There is something slightly old Bond about it all, and it fits the Gymkhana story remarkably well.
The music takes a similar approach. Modern tracks are mixed with Indian classical vocals, which sounds like it could be distracting but works surprisingly well. Together with the lighting and décor, it gives the room some energy without turning dinner into a performance.
There is a pleasant upstairs dining room too, but downstairs has more character. It feels elegant without being particularly formal, somewhere that works as well for dinner with friends as it does for a date or a business dinner.
Familiar Indian food, cooked exceptionally well
The food is where Gymkhana Dubai separates itself from some of the city’s other ambitious Indian restaurants.
Dubai already has places such as Trèsind Studio and avatāra pushing Indian cuisine in more experimental directions, where presentation, technique and the theatre around each course form a significant part of the experience. Gymkhana isn’t trying to compete with them on that basis.
There is very little here designed to make you stare at the plate and wonder how it was made. Instead, much of the tasting menu is food you already know. The surprise is how much better some of it tastes than versions you have eaten countless times before.
The opening selection of poppadoms sets things up nicely. Several varieties arrive alongside a generous collection of chutneys and sauces, which stay on the table as the meal continues this was actually a recommendation from the staff. They advised to keep on returning to them, trying the chutneys with different dishes and finding combinations.
The aloo chaat was one of the early favourites. Crisp potato, masala yoghurt and sev make for exactly the combination of texture, acidity and richness you want from the dish. The yoghurt doesn’t overwhelm everything underneath it and the whole thing disappeared very quickly. I could quite happily have eaten a bucket of it.
The gol guppas were equally good. As someone who will rarely turn down pani puri in any of its forms, I had reasonably high expectations. They delivered.
The dishes I would order again
The tandoori masala lamb chop is one of the dishes Gymkhana is particularly known for. It deserves the attention. The lamb was exceptionally soft inside, properly charred around the edges and the marinade had worked its way through the meat without overpowering it.
My favourite course was the makhmali king crab. It wasn’t really the presentation or anything particularly clever that made it memorable. The crab itself was phenomenal. The flesh was so tender and succulent that simply tracing it with a fork was enough to pull it apart. A rich, buttery sauce and a little truffle sat around it, with garlic naan served alongside.
That naan deserves some credit too. Bread at fine-dining Indian restaurants can sometimes feel secondary to everything else happening on the table. Here, the fermentation gave the dough proper flavour and texture, and it was perfect for mopping up what remained of the crab sauce. Very little was left behind.
Then came the curries, and this is probably where Gymkhana’s approach makes the most sense.
The chicken butter masala may be the best butter chicken I have had. The sauce had all the creaminess and richness you expect, but the chicken itself was just as impressive. It remained moist and tender rather than becoming something that simply carries the sauce.
I was less convinced by the wagyu beef cheek vindaloo when I saw it on the menu, but it ended up being another favourite. The beef was soft enough to separate easily with a fork and worked particularly well with the vindaloo.
We tried both the standard and vegetarian tasting menus, and while I will almost always favour the former, the vegetarian menu doesn’t feel like an afterthought. The dal makhani was particularly good, while the aloo chaat is vegetarian anyway and remained one of my favourite dishes of the entire meal.
Dessert, a saffron pistachio kulfi falooda, was good without being one of the courses I would particularly return for. By that point, though, we were very comfortably full.
Service without the ceremony
For a restaurant carrying a name like Gymkhana, the experience is refreshingly relaxed.
The staff were friendly and talkative, but what I appreciated most was that they had actually eaten the menu. Ask what they like and they have favourites. Ask what you should order and they will tell you why. Recommendations never felt like an exercise in pointing towards the most expensive addition to the bill.
That extended to the bar team, who guided us through a drinks list that is considerably better than it needs to be. The Pearl of India was my favourite, but both the cocktails and mocktails felt specific to Gymkhana rather than variations of drinks you could order anywhere else in DIFC. We would happily come back simply to sit at the bar.
There was no rush to get us through the tasting menu either. Around halfway through, the team asked whether we wanted to take a break before continuing. We did, and dinner eventually ran to around three hours without ever feeling drawn out.
At AED 695 for the tasting menu and AED 595 for the vegetarian version, I also think Gymkhana represents very good value for this level of cooking in DIFC. Portions are generous, there is plenty of variety and nobody is leaving hungry. An à la carte menu also means you don’t need to commit to the full experience every time you visit.
That may ultimately be what I like most about Gymkhana Dubai. The cooking feels worthy of the reputation, but the restaurant itself doesn’t demand an occasion.
You could bring visiting parents, use it for a business dinner, book downstairs for a date or come back with friends for the crab, a curry and a few drinks at the bar. It is special because the food is so good, not because the restaurant keeps reminding you that it is supposed to be.
I went in hoping Dubai hadn’t done too much to Gymkhana. I left already talking about coming back.
Quick summary – Gymkhana Dubai
- Style: the Dubai outpost of the London original, with an old-world members’ club feel inspired by the gymkhana clubs of India, dark woods, oversized paintings of tigers and panthers and a peacock-tiled bar downstairs
- Location: DIFC, Dubai
- Cuisine: Indian, with familiar dishes cooked exceptionally well rather than reinvented
- Menus: tasting menu at AED 695, vegetarian tasting menu at AED 595 and an à la carte for shorter visits
- Don’t miss: makhmali king crab with garlic naan, tandoori masala lamb chop (an AED 120 supplement) and chicken butter masala
- Drinks: cocktails and mocktails created for Gymkhana rather than borrowed from elsewhere in DIFC, with the Pearl of India the one to order
- Service: warm and unhurried, with staff who know the menu and offer a break midway through the tasting menu
- Atmosphere: elegant, lively and relaxed, with downstairs the room to book
- Ideal for: date nights, business dinners, visiting family and anyone who loves Indian food
