New shawarma eatery suffers flooding damage

Dubai: A newly-opened Dubai restaurant began a massive clear-up operation on Monday after its kitchen ceiling collapsed in the torrential rains that struck the city on Sunday.

Wild Peeta, a fusion shawarma eatery in Dubai Healthcare City, is closed to the public indefinitely after opening for business in late October.

Mohammad Parham Al Awadi, Co-owner of Wild Peeta, said: “We are shocked as this has happened just as we were settling in and our business was growing. We spent over Dh400,000 renovating the outlet before we opened; we’ve no idea how much this damage will cost.

“A quarter of the kitchen ceiling has just collapsed. It appears there was an accumulation of water in a drainage pipe that runs along the roof of our outlet and the pressure caused it to burst. We still had some customers arriving at the restaurant yesterday looking for a shawarma so we’re trying to spread the word through Twitter that we are closed for now.”

Sunday’s downpour also affected several malls across Dubai including Mercato on Jumeirah Beach Road, which suffered substantial flooding.

Rana Jaser, PR and Corporate Communications Manager of Mercato, said: “At around 2.20pm on Sunday afternoon there was flooding between Patchi and Mango after a drainage pipe on the ceiling became blocked.

“The main entrance to the mall was closed for approximately two hours and the power was disconnected in certain areas while maintenance teams worked to fix the problem.”

“Tenants resumed trading throughout the afternoon and operations were fully back to normal by 6pm. Mercato’s security teams also had to work hard to stop people from gathering at the affected area.”