Overlooking the sandy beach on one side and with gardens on the other, the Beach Bar & Grill hotel well and truly lives up to its name. The dining room inside the luxury One & Only Royal Mirage is done out in dark woods set off by the gold tones of the lighting, but the best bit is the wooden terrace, shaded by canvas parasols and with views out into the tranquil water where superyachts bob in the Gulf. If you want to get even closer to the beach, book one of the VIP gazebos on the sand itself, with the glittering towers of Dubai rising over the palm trees behind.
Seafood and salad feel like the best bet for lunch. You could start with grilled octopus with garlic and chilli butter, tiger prawns with garlic and parsley butter, a Greek salad or mozzarella and burrata, or share a dozen Fine de Claire oysters or a sparkling seafood platter.
To follow, it’s all about the grilled fish: black bream with sauce vierge, sea bass fillet with herb vinaigrette, salmon fillet with lemon butter sauce, or grouper fillet with sautéed wild rice.
The extensive steak and grilled meat selection is perhaps better suited to the evening. Irish and US Angus comes as fillet or sirloin, Australian Angus is available as a T-bone too, or there’s sirloin of Australian wagyu. Rib-eye is grilled in the Josper or if beef’s not your thing, there are lamb chops and marinated grilled baby chicken.
Sweet-toothed desserts to finish include the classic likes of chocolate fondant, café liégeois, profiteroles or a coconut and lime tart.
If you’re feeling peckish in the afternoon, something from the aperitif bites section of the menu should fill the gap between lunch and dinner: fried calamari with aioli, grilled spicy prawns, or scallops, mussels and grilled vegetables from the Josper oven, perhaps.
Things are fairly casual during the heat of the daytime but the Beach Bar & Grill is more glamorous and dressed up by night, when candles flicker on the decking and a dress code applies: no sleeveless T-shirts, shorts or plastic flip flops, please