Dubai & Marina Area

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Original Poster:

884 posts

174 months

Friday 29th August 2014
quotequote all
Soo, landed quite late this evening and will be here for the next 2 weeks on a training course.

I'm based in an apartment block just SW of the Marina Mall on Al Gharbi St.

Went for a quick wonder at 1am, but gave up trying to find a hotel for a beer and have come back. Will have a good wonder around tomorrow, see the mall, grab lunch and a few drinks in the afternoon.

Any tips and recommendations for drinking and eating around here would be much appreciated.

biggrin

shirt

22,508 posts

200 months

Saturday 30th August 2014
quotequote all
couldn't find a hotel?

al gharbi is the bridge down from the marina mall isn't it?. with your back to the mall, cross the road on the same side of the water and take the road between the highway [sheikh zayed road] and the marina.

halfway down on the right is the marina yacht club. not great in summer as the main draw is the veranda on the first floor, but worth a pint at happy hour from 6-7pm [2 for 1] as thats where most people start drinking or stop in for one on the way home from the office. if the humidity has dropped it should be ok in the evenings. leave when the office crowd does, later on it gets too glitzy and vacuous to cope.

bit furtherdown on the left is bobs fish and chips. best chippy in dubai. directly opposite is the marina byblos. here there's an ok nightclub on the first floor but is suffering at the moment from overpopularity [i.e. its up its own arse and the door staff are s] but very busy on weekend. there's also nell gwynns on the ground floor which is a welsh theme pub [erm, what?]. very much weatherspoonsy but still one of mine and a few other pher's regular boozers.

come to the next bridge, walk over it and across the junction. there's a hotel on either side. on the left is the ocean view hotel, home to girders [scottish bar] which does a decent full english [pork] and is half price beer all day sunday and 4-7pm on friday. tends to full up with post brunch crowd on a friday which can be annoying or amusing depending on the male/female ratio. the hotel opposite is the rotana which has rossi on the 2nd floor which is a good spot for indoor and outdoor drinking and does reasonable but overpriced italian food. happy hour here is until 8:30 i think so a good place to head after the yacht club. if its cool then sit outside, they have live chillout type music and its a good spot for relaxing.

come out of rossi, turn right and right again and youre on jbr walk. lots of restuarants on the beach side but nothing to write home about and they're all dry. from here to the next bridge you have the sofitel on the right [2 bars i think none of which are ever busy] and then the hilton at the junction. the hilton has a smokey dive bar on the ground floor and the skyy bar on the 30+ floor in the main tower. worth a trip for the view at least. if you take the right at the junction by the hilton you'll have walked in a square and be back where you started.

keep on the walk and there are more hotels. al fattan towers [biggest all glass ones on the walk] has a wagamamas [better than the uk ones and serves beer] and a tiki bar which serves lethal cocktails. the movenpic has comedy nights which are worthwhile if there's one on whilst youre here. the ground floor bar is pretty st but shows the f1 on a big screen. it also has the stupidest named bar on the walk - chinwaggery and soul - which is ok. the ritz carlton is best avoided as its really a beach resort noone goes to if they're not a guest. the meridien is the same but a very decent mexican which serves proper cuisine not texmex crap. right up at the top there's the habtoor which has the underground bar. better pub food, good beer, pool tables and russians.

there's also a bar in the address which is the big tower next to the mall. dont ever go there, it is terrible. also all the restuarants and cafes down on the waterfront don't serve booze, even the real madrid sports bar!

make sure you go to toro toro at the grosvenor, prob my favourite place in the marina for food. for a souvenir go to bateel's on the basement level of the mall and buy a kg or two of dates. the best ones imo are kholas with caramelised pecan.

eta - where i said to take the bridge after byblos, if you went straight instead there's an indian restaurant on the left called saravanaa bhojan shala [sp?]. vegetarian but cheap as chips and the best of its type without having to schlep up to karama.

and they say i'm not helpful!

Edited by shirt on Saturday 30th August 00:06

Asterix

24,438 posts

227 months

Saturday 30th August 2014
quotequote all
shirt said:
and they say i'm not helpful!
I'm guessing you're bored stless in some hellhole in the United States of Africa somewhere...

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Original Poster:

884 posts

174 months

Saturday 30th August 2014
quotequote all
They were right, completely unhelpful biggrin

Thanks for that extensive list of tips, enjoying a cheeky wagamamas now before some sunbathing and might check out a sports bar around here later on for the Man Utd vs Burnley game.

Aye, no hotel, company provided apartment unfortunately, whether you're an apprentice or Engineer, all stay in the same place and no hotels.

And damn, it's hot, wondering around to be left until evening. Can't say I miss the Aberdeen weather though!

On the PH front, I've heard a few tasty V10s tongue out

2 sMoKiN bArReLs

30,230 posts

234 months

Saturday 30th August 2014
quotequote all
Have they finished the twizzly twisted building yet?

TNW

536 posts

201 months

Saturday 30th August 2014
quotequote all
2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:
Have they finished the twizzly twisted building yet?
Yep


2 sMoKiN bArReLs

30,230 posts

234 months

Saturday 30th August 2014
quotequote all
TNW said:
2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:
Have they finished the twizzly twisted building yet?
Yep

Cool!

I always wondered what some of the corner rooms look like from the inside!

Asterix

24,438 posts

227 months

Saturday 30th August 2014
quotequote all
OT - I was in Bahrain last week and drove past this often - looks amazing. Has real presence and even though I'm numb to new buildings having lived in Dubai for so long, this really gets your attention.


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Original Poster:

884 posts

174 months

Saturday 30th August 2014
quotequote all
Girder'''''s is good smile

e21jason

717 posts

218 months

Saturday 30th August 2014
quotequote all
There are 42 bars in the marina last time I checked as last year over Christmas I tried them all, the majority are crap so there only about 6 you need to know.

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Original Poster:

884 posts

174 months

Saturday 30th August 2014
quotequote all
Those 6, your alcohol tolerance level and bull **** dubai level would be handybiggrinbiggrin

shirt

22,508 posts

200 months

Saturday 30th August 2014
quotequote all
-Ad- said:
Aye, no hotel, company provided apartment
it might be handy to know that 99% of restaurants will deliver. even maccy d's have delivery boys! check out 24h.ae and foodonclick. they cover most cuisines, just register with your address and phone no. and pay on delivery.

take it its OG training? any jobs going out here?


ps - james, bored doesn't even cover it mate. its the pits.

Edited by shirt on Saturday 30th August 18:29

e21jason

717 posts

218 months

Saturday 30th August 2014
quotequote all
Most hotels have a few bars and several are not worth a drink so doing 42 over a week was not that hard to check. Shirt listed most of the decent bars there is the Sheraton across from girders the waterfront restaurants have bars in pier seven (round building on stilts). The mex food was average but they used to have displays of vertical fitness dancing till the landlord said no.

Edited by e21jason on Saturday 30th August 18:21

eein

1,331 posts

264 months

Tuesday 2nd September 2014
quotequote all
The twisting tower is very much finished - I've been living in it since December! It's called the Cayan tower.

When we first moved in it was possible to get on to the roof - so I got a bunch of pictures you can see here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/+IainAbernethy1/alb...

Will probably move elsewhere at the end of the year as the road noise from all those super cars (and st cars) going over the bridge at the front is getting annoying! And while the echo of an Aventador being revved to the red line between the Grosvenor House building sounds great, it is not appreciated at 3am!


chrisquy

109 posts

205 months

Tuesday 2nd September 2014
quotequote all
Off topic but there are some absolutely fantastic pictures in there. Great work.

TNW

536 posts

201 months

Tuesday 2nd September 2014
quotequote all
chrisquy said:
Off topic but there are some absolutely fantastic pictures in there. Great work.
Beautiful photos, I know it's only half the story, but what camera did you use for those Eein?

2 sMoKiN bArReLs

30,230 posts

234 months

Tuesday 2nd September 2014
quotequote all
eein said:
The twisting tower is very much finished - I've been living in it since December! It's called the Cayan tower.

When we first moved in it was possible to get on to the roof - so I got a bunch of pictures you can see here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/+IainAbernethy1/alb...

Will probably move elsewhere at the end of the year as the road noise from all those super cars (and st cars) going over the bridge at the front is getting annoying! And while the echo of an Aventador being revved to the red line between the Grosvenor House building sounds great, it is not appreciated at 3am!
Cool!!! I couldn't see an interior shot. Are the corner rooms a bit funky?

Impspeed

299 posts

142 months

Wednesday 3rd September 2014
quotequote all
TNW said:
Beautiful photos, I know it's only half the story, but what camera did you use for those Eein?
Click on the photos and it brings up the EXIF as a Nikon D600.

Mr Trophy

6,808 posts

202 months

Wednesday 3rd September 2014
quotequote all
My favorite place in Dubai is the "spinning restaurant" which is in the Hilton if I remember correctly?


6th Gear

3,561 posts

193 months

Wednesday 3rd September 2014
quotequote all
Hyatt Regency.

When was the last time you were in Dubai?