Not gonna lie, Dubai is pretty hit and miss when it comes to restaurants that have genuinely good food, preferring to go more for the style than the substance
Greek-Mediterranean restaurant Gaia is the oasis in the desert, a place to go to get watered and fed in beautiful surrounds. But can that translate to London? We went along to find out.
Gaia London is located in Mayfair, just opposite the Ritz, in the building that once housed The Mayfair Club. Inside is very similar to its UAE sister: a big, beautiful whitewashed dining room with an open kitchen and huge raw bar (pictures please!). The food menu is very similar too, featuring familiar Greek classics with a modern twist and, of course, 95% of them are chopped and served for you at the table – did we mention this was founded in Dubai? But that doesn’t just mean tableside service, that also means free snacks like bread with cheese and veggies, big portions as standard, and beautiful dishes made for the ‘gram.
The standouts for us were the stuffed vine leaves, a spinach pie, the moussaka (which might have had a little bit too much nutmeg in), truffle potatoes and a very good sea bass steamed in a salt crust with sage and orange zest. There’s a whole section on the menu offering no less than six different cooking options for fish from the raw bar display, including raw, in a soup, grilled, baked, steamed or fried. Desserts are in the same vein, OTT and decadent. We opted to share the filo mille-feuille, which, you guessed it, is served tableside…
As cynical as we (and most other people are about Dubai) there’s no denying Gaia is a good restaurant. We’d definitely go back and it’s much better than any other UAE imports that have come before. Yes it’s super spenny but this is Mayfair darling and and you best get dressed up.
50 Dover St, London, W1S 4NY
gaia-restaurants.com