The Review
Gigi Rigolatto is the work of Paris Society — the French hospitality group behind Laperouse, Monsieur Dior, and a steady roster of Parisian bistros that punch above their weight — in partnership with Dubai's RIKAS Hospitality, who have been a quiet force behind the city's better Italian rooms for the better part of a decade. The Dubai location opened in late 2024 on J1 Beach, the reimagined Jumeirah stretch of sand that has become the city's most concentrated strip of serious restaurants in a single walk. Gigi is the Italian flagship of the development. Its older siblings in Paris's Palais de Tokyo and Saint-Tropez trade on the same Riviera fantasy, but the Dubai outpost is easily the biggest and most confidently executed.
The interiors are by Hugo Toro, the Paris-based designer who has made his reputation turning restaurants into stage sets without ever reading as costume. Gigi Dubai is his Riviera moment: hand-painted majolica tiles in coral and sea-green, striped yellow-and-white parasols along the beach extension, rattan chairs, solid walnut bar, frescoes of lemons and cypresses climbing three walls of the main room, and an open pass where pastas are finished in the cheese wheel in full view. A DJ booth, disguised as a vintage drinks cabinet, sits in one corner; from 9 p.m. the room moves from dining to dining-plus, without ever tipping into loungecore.
The menu is Italian Riviera rather than strictly regional: plenty of crudo, seafood-forward antipasti, tagliolini with Ligurian pesto, cacio e pepe finished inside a half-wheel of Pecorino Romano for two (the requisite Instagram moment, but also a legitimately excellent piece of cooking), wood-oven pizzas at the rear pizzeria counter, and secondi built around grilled whole fish and Milanese veal. Pricing sits in the AED 450 to AED 900 per person range before wine, which is competitive with Cipriani but below the Palm's top end. The wine list is Italian-heavy with a Piemonte depth that rewards longer dinners; the aperitivo programme is where the Paris DNA shows through most cleanly — a proper Americano, a correctly bitter Negroni Sbagliato, Campari spritzes poured over ice molded on the premises.
The crowd is the J1 Beach crowd: international, moneyed, dressed slightly above Dubai's baseline, and the restaurant knows its audience. Gigi is not the place for a serious close-of-deal dinner — Zuma and ROKA are — but it is one of the best rooms in the city for a good-time dinner that still has food worth paying attention to, and in that specific category it is difficult to beat.
Best for Birthday & Team Dinner
Gigi is built for the large-table occasion. The main dining room can hold banquette tables of up to fourteen; the beach deck extension, open between October and April, seats long tables of twenty under the parasols with full sand-and-Arabian-Gulf views. For birthday service, the kitchen will bring a plated tiramisu with a candle without a scene if asked; for bigger birthdays the restaurant can coordinate with the DJ to dim lights and bring out a sparkler dessert. Team dinners work particularly well as set menus at AED 550 per head, which buys four antipasti, two shared pastas, a choice of main, and the whole-wheel cacio e pepe for the table — enough food, enough show, without micromanagement of the order sheet.
Signature Dishes
The cacio e pepe alla ruota — finished inside a half-wheel of Pecorino Romano at the table — is the signature, the photograph, and the order. The tagliolini with white truffle (October through February) is priced at market but is one of the better truffle pastas in the city. The vitello tonnato is the sleeper starter. From the wood oven, the margherita is done in the Roman style (thinner, crispier) rather than Neapolitan, which will please some and disappoint others; the tartufata — fontina, mushroom, truffle — is the house's best pizza. Grilled branzino with Ligurian olive oil is the main that the kitchen recommends for anyone hesitating. Tiramisu is the reliable dessert; affogato is the better drinks-pairing close.
What to Know Before You Go
Gigi Rigolatto is on J1 Beach, Jumeirah 1 — a fifteen-minute drive from Downtown Dubai, twenty from DIFC, and five from the Burj Al Arab. Valet parking is available at the J1 Beach main entrance. Dress code is resort-chic to smart — this skews slightly more formal than the Palm beach clubs, reflecting the Paris Society brand. Reservations are essential and fill one to three weeks ahead for peak season (October through April); the beach deck books furthest out. Private dining is available in a dedicated room that seats up to twenty-two, with its own service team and a separate entrance off the beach. A set menu for group events starts at AED 550 per person; bespoke menus are available with notice. Vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free menus are comprehensive and are not afterthoughts. Brunch on weekends runs from 12:30 to 4:00 p.m. and is one of the livelier brunches in the city without tipping into nightclub energy.
Also in Dubai, see Tagomago Dubai for the Spanish Palm counterpart, Bussola Dubai for Italian with a marina view, and Cipriani Dubai for DIFC-set Venetian Italian. For all Birthday venues globally, see our guide. Explore more in our Dubai dining editorial.