The Review
Vineet Bhatia was the first Indian chef to hold a Michelin star in Europe — at Zaika in 2001 — and has since collected stars in London, Paris, Geneva and Mauritius. Indya, his Dubai room at Le Royal Méridien Beach Resort & Spa on Jumeirah Beach Residence, is not a destination tasting menu of the Bhatia canon. It's louder, looser and considerably more fun — a poolside restaurant opened in 2019 that puts Bhatia's technical ambition into a format designed for large tables, long dinners and flip-flops off, kurta optional.
The room reads like a Bombay fever-dream: rattan chairs, peacock-blue tiling, exposed tandoors in an open kitchen, Kenneth Cobonpue Peacock thrones at the entrance, Ganesh murals on the corridor walls and a gin-tasting nook tucked into the centre of the space. LW Design gave it the texture of a Parsi colony bakery colliding with a Goa beach shack. There's an outdoor terrace that overlooks the pool and, beyond it, JBR's beach strip. Service is warm, fast and — unlike many Michelin-pedigree Indian rooms — utterly unbothered by your dress shoes.
The food is where the pedigree shows. Bhatia has reformatted the menu into three columns — Earth, Land, Sea — and the cooking is sharply regional in ways Dubai Indian restaurants rarely bother with. Aunty Braganza's prawn stew is a pitch-perfect Goan Catholic recipe his mother-in-law taught him; the chowpatty bhaji with quinoa dahi magnum is a chaat course disguised as a frozen dessert; the lamb biryani kofta in rogan josh sauce rebuilds a biryani backwards in meatball form and is the single best thing a first-time diner should order. The butter chicken — simply listed as "Butter. The Chicken." — is the version every Indian restaurant in Dubai is chasing.
Expect to spend AED 280–420 per person without drinks, AED 450–650 with a couple of cocktails or wines. The four-course Weekend Grand Thali Lunch (Saturdays and Sundays, 12:30pm–3:30pm) is the best-value tasting menu held by a Michelin-credentialed chef in Dubai — around AED 285 per person with unlimited dishes. Indya holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand in the 2024 and 2025 Dubai guides. It is closed on Wednesdays.
Best for Birthday or Team Dinner
Indya was engineered for a table of six to twelve. The menu is all-in on sharing — the tandoor and biryani formats demand it — and the service brings the noise: bhangra-adjacent playlists, birthday sparklers on the chocolate samosas, and a gin sommelier who'll build flights by botanical profile. For large group celebrations that want culinary credibility without the hush of a tasting counter, it's the strongest Indian option in the city. The outdoor poolside terrace seats up to twenty for private takeovers. Request the corner booth by the open kitchen for the best sightlines onto the tandoor pass.
Signature Dishes
Order "Butter. The Chicken." at least once — it reopens the debate about what the dish is meant to taste like. The chowpatty bhaji with quinoa dahi magnum is the best dessert-first chaat in Dubai. For the table: Aunty Braganza's Goan prawn stew, the lamb biryani kofta with rogan josh sauce and raita, the Sabudana kabab with coriander chutney, and the Neele Neele Ambar Par dessert — a blue-hued coconut panna cotta that photographs better than it tastes (but still tastes excellent). The drinks programme is centred on gin: the in-house gin-tasting room pours 40+ labels and Bhatia's team builds bespoke flights.
What to Know Before You Go
Indya is open for dinner Monday–Thursday, 6pm–11:30pm, and adds Weekend Lunch Saturday and Sunday 12:30pm–3:30pm. It's closed Wednesdays. Dress code is smart casual — beachwear is fine from the pool, but a collared shirt at dinner raises the room. Book through SevenRooms or call +971 4 316 5555. Vegetarian and vegan menus are as deep as the non-veg menu — Bhatia runs the vegetable cooking with the same intensity as the tandoor. Valet parking is included at Le Royal Méridien.
Also consider Trèsind Studio for Dubai's tasting-menu apex of modern Indian, Avatara for vegetarian Michelin-starred Indian, Jamavar for Royal Leela's grand-dame version, and Carnival by Trèsind for a wilder regional approach. See more at our Birthday and Team Dinner guides, or explore the full Dubai directory.