New Restaurant: Gaia now open in DIFC
Lead by Chef Izu and Chef Orestis, the modern tavern serves Greek cuisine with a contemporary approach
New restaurants in Dubai often have a certain demand to them, especially while they are new. Everyone wants to be the first to dine and brag… including me.
It’s only been open for two weeks and as I walked in, the hostess informs me that she would need the table again in two hours. They were fully booked… on a Monday!
This must be good I thought. The restaurant sort of does feel like Greek tavern. It is meant to be inspired by the Greek Goddess of earth, the mountains, sun and sea and her name is Gaia. In reality, Gaia isn’t what you would call cosy, but more… ‘Dubai.’ White table cloths, fancy cutlery, crockery and servers in a white uniform and black tie. We can’t forget that this is DIFC, and despite the fact that ‘casual fine dining’ is what’s hot right now, some people still like to make their restaurants, for a lack of a better word, fancy.
As I sit down, I am met with a server, who legit knows her stuff. She recommends things, knows exactly how they taste, she knows what goes into every single dish; the ingredients, the flavour, the lightness. It’s great to have someone so knowledgeable and motivated by food to do her job well. We started with some freshly baked bread, with olives, fresh veggies and olive oil. I am a bread basket lover, no matter where I go, and that bread was honestly exquisite. We kicked off the meal with a Greek salad, , and tuna carpaccio with truffle oil, watermelon and feta salad and three different types of Greek dips including taramas, fava bean dip and an aubergine dip.
In general I am a massive fan of appetisers and am usually happy to end the meal there. But of course, I kept going with some warm appetisers including an amazing baked feta, and some grilled prawns, which were a little undercooked for me, I like my food a little charred.
As we were starting to get super full from all the food, we decided to share the main course, which was a Greek style lobster spaghetti dish. It was delicious. Just the right al dente way of cooking, a pink creamy sauce and a generous portion of lobster.
By the time dessert came around, we just wanted the bare minimum. A Greek yoghurt dessert drizzled with honey and some small chocolate truffles.
All in all Gaia was a pleasant experience with delicious. From what I saw, it’s not a place to go and have a lit time and a loud dinner. You go for the food, you have a grown up conversation and you leave feeling full and happy to go party somewhere else.
Location Gate Building 4, DIFC Cost Dh500 for two approximately Timings open daily for lunch from 12pm to 3pm and dinner from 7pm to 2am
