Hakkasan Abu Dhabi

The Verdict

Hakkasan Abu Dhabi occupies a 16,000-square-foot pavilion inside Emirates Palace, the city's most ornate hotel, on the West Corniche. It is the brand's most theatrical international outpost — the London flagship, the New York duplex, the Las Vegas nightclub — all distilled into a single room designed by Gilles & Boissier. Blue-glass bar imitating the Arabian Gulf. Stainless-steel and mirror-polished arrival desk. Carved wooden screens and latticing borrowed from the brand's original Hanway Place townhouse in Fitzrovia. The terrace seats 108 and overlooks the Emirates Palace gardens with the Corniche beyond.

The cooking is modern Cantonese in the Alan Yau / Tong Chee Hwee lineage — dim sum lunch service of the city's highest caliber, evening signatures of crispy duck salad, jasmine tea smoked ribs, Peking duck with royal beluga caviar, and the black truffle roasted duck that has defined the brand internationally since 2001. The wine list runs deep on Champagne and Burgundy (as the hotel-license context permits), with a sake and baijiu program that outperforms most Chinese restaurants outside Hong Kong.

Service is formal without being starched — captains circulate with the calm coordination of a hotel that trains staff for visiting heads of state. Expect AED 700–1,000 per person at dinner with modest wine; the tasting menu runs AED 985. Dim sum lunch is the value play at AED 250–350 per person and is the best way to experience the kitchen on a first visit. The room is louder at dinner — resident DJ sets the tempo on weekends — and quieter at lunch, where the sunlight through the Emirates Palace arcades is its own attraction.

Why It Works for Close a Deal

The Emirates Palace address alone signals you understand the stakes. Ground-floor arrival through the hotel's gold-leaf lobby rewards a client's willingness to cross town. The dining room is carved teak, blue-glass bar, and Chinese lattice screens — quiet enough for serious conversation, grand enough that no one forgets where they are.

Signature Dishes

Crispy duck salad; black truffle roasted duck; Peking duck with royal beluga caviar; jasmine tea smoked ribs.

Also in Abu Dhabi

For the broader Abu Dhabi picture, see our full Abu Dhabi dining guide. Related rooms at this level: Zuma Abu Dhabi (Contemporary Japanese Izakaya) and COYA Abu Dhabi (Contemporary Peruvian). For the close a deal cross-city picture, see our Close a Deal directory. Travelling on? Consider Dubai, Doha, or Riyadh for your next leg.