The Review
Reif Othman is, quietly, one of the most influential Japanese chefs ever to have worked in the Gulf. He ran the kitchen at Zuma Dubai for seven years, then Play, then The Experience — a private twelve-seat chef's counter in a Business Bay apartment that for a period was the most inside-track table in the city. In 2019 he opened Reif Kushiyaki at Dar Wasl Mall on Al Wasl Road: a small, disarmingly casual Japanese izakaya and skewer counter with his name over the door and his hands on every plate. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand in 2022, renewed it in 2023, and renewed it again in 2024. That is the consistent acknowledgement of a working chef at the top of his form.
The room is small — twenty counter seats around a U-shaped bar that wraps the kitchen, a handful of tables for walk-ins, raw concrete walls, exposed ducting, paper lanterns, a blackboard of daily specials that changes constantly. This is deliberately not a destination-restaurant setting. It is a neighbourhood izakaya where the best-dressed guests of Dubai arrive by Uber and squeeze onto barstools next to off-duty chefs and omakase-obsessed regulars. There is no velvet rope and no sommelier in black tie. The crowd is the point: everyone is here because the cooking is better than the room suggests.
The menu is short, refined, and counter-driven. Japanese small plates (oysters with yuzu ponzu, tuna tataki, spicy salmon with crispy rice, hamachi sashimi with truffle ponzu) open most meals; the signature Wagyu Gyoza (with black garlic and truffle) is the dish that put the restaurant on the Instagram map but is not the best thing on the menu. The best things on the menu are the kushiyaki: skewers of yakitori-style grilled proteins cooked over binchōtan — thigh, wing, liver, wagyu tongue, shishito peppers, shiitake, quail egg, bacon-wrapped asparagus. Order eight. Then order more. The final course is always, by consensus, the A5 Wagyu Donburi.
Expect AED 350–550 per person all-in — the lowest luxury-counter price point in the city for cooking at this level. This is why the Michelin Guide calls it a Bib Gourmand: recognition of "good quality, good value" cooking. Reservations through reifothman.com or via SevenRooms. The counter books three weeks ahead on weekends. Walk-in tables open at 6pm.
Best for Solo Dining
Reif Kushiyaki is a near-perfect solo-dining room. The twenty-seat counter is built for eating alone: a clear view of the grill, service that reads the pace of a single diner, a menu designed to be ordered in small increments rather than in course structures. It is the kind of place where a chef sliding you a piece of the daily special off the cutting board feels like the normal state of things. Sit at the back of the counter near the yakitori grill for the best view of the action. Order six skewers and a donburi and two sakes and you will have had the best-value Japanese meal in Dubai, full stop.
Signature Dishes
Start with the Oysters with Yuzu Ponzu (three Kumamotos, chilled) and the Tuna Tataki with crispy garlic and truffle ponzu. The Wagyu Gyoza is the viral dish — order them, they are very good. Then order skewers: the Chicken Thigh (two-bite, charred, brushed with tare), the Wagyu Tongue (shaved thin, yuzu salt), the Tsukune (chicken meatball with egg yolk to dip), the Bacon-Wrapped Asparagus. The Spicy Salmon with Crispy Rice is the other sleeper — salmon tartare stacked on a crisp sushi-rice base, blowtorched, served with chipotle aioli. Finish with the A5 Wagyu Donburi: rice, shaved wagyu, truffle, quail egg, yuzu.
What to Know Before You Go
Dar Wasl Mall has free parking directly in front of the restaurant. Dress code is relaxed — this is not a dress-up room — but closed shoes and smart casual reads correctly for the crowd. Licensed; sake programme is small but well-curated, and the single-malt Japanese whisky selection is unexpectedly deep for the price point. The counter is the only table to book; floor tables are walk-in. Allergens can be accommodated with notice but the menu is fundamentally Japanese and seafood-driven. Chef Reif is usually behind the grill from 7pm onwards — sit at the south end of the counter for the best chance of a conversation.
Also consider Kinoya for the other cult Japanese counter in Dubai, Hoseki for omakase sushi, and Orfali Bros Bistro for the other chef-driven Bib Gourmand in the city. See our Solo Dining and First Date guides, or browse the full Dubai directory.