Dining
Gymkhana Opens Its First Gulf Table at DIFC
London has kept Gymkhana close for more than a decade, a room in Mayfair where classic Indian cooking is treated with the seriousness usually reserved for the grandest European kitchens. This September the restaurant leaves home for the Gulf. Gymkhana opens at Gate Village in DIFC on the first of the month, its first address in the United Arab Emirates, and reservations are open now through the restaurant’s website.
The Kitchen
A Kitchen Rooted in the North, Widened for Dubai
The Dubai kitchen is led by Executive Chef Rahul Rana, working under Global Culinary Director Chet Sharma and JKS co-founder and creative director Karam Sethi. As in London, the menu takes its cues from the culinary traditions of North India, with notes drawn from the South and the West, built for sharing across five movements: Nashta, Kebabs and Tikkas, Game and Chops, Curry and Biryani, and Sabzi.
The signatures that made the London room are all here, the Kid Goat Methi Keema with Salli, the Tandoori Masala Lamb Chops with walnut chutney, the Achari Paneer Tikka, the Chicken Butter Masala. Beside them sits a run of dishes written only for Dubai, among them a Fatechand Kachori Chaat with green mango, a Chettinad Duck Dosa with coconut chutney, Makhmali King Crab with Malai Pyaaz, Wagyu Beef Sukka with bone marrow, and a slow Goat Shank Nihari. Dessert leans regional too, a Rasmalai paired with Emirati qishta, and a Gajar Ka Halwa served as soft serve.
The Room
A Room That Answers Back to Mayfair
The DIFC restaurant runs across two levels and a terrace, seating up to 137. Samuel Hosker of North End Design worked with Karam Sethi to reinterpret the Mayfair flagship in a lighter register: a green palette, bespoke Indian stained glass, rattan and cane, reeded timber panelling, Murano lights and artwork that nods to the history of India’s gymkhana clubs.
The ground floor holds two dining areas under patterned ceilings and warm lantern light, gathered around a bar finished in Indian marble. A mirrored staircase leads down to the lower ground floor, where ornate chandeliers hang beneath a mirrored, jewellery-box ceiling, and a Peacock Bar anchors a room that folds from open dining into a private space for fourteen, or a standing gathering of thirty.
The House
From a Mayfair Corner to the Gulf
Gymkhana was opened in 2013 by the siblings Jyotin, Karam and Sunaina Sethi of JKS Restaurants. It takes its name from the gymkhana clubs of India, the social and sporting institutions where members once gathered to dine and socialise. The restaurant earned its first Michelin star within nine months and a second in 2024, and the group counts it among the most in-demand tables in London. Dubai follows JKS openings in Riyadh and Las Vegas, the next step in a widening international map.
Dinner service runs from September, Monday to Sunday, 6:30 in the evening until 1 in the morning, with lunch to follow in October. Reservations are open now at gymkhanadxb.com.
For Boujeez
The arrival of a room like this says something about where Dubai now sits on the culinary map. A restaurant that spent a decade earning its stars in London does not cross to the Gulf on a whim. It comes because the audience, the room and the moment have finally aligned. The luxury here is not spectacle, it is a kitchen that trusts its own tradition enough to travel without diluting it.