With formidable culinary credentials and its largest collection of location-specific dishes yet, Gymkhana proves that this is more than a straightforward export.
There are very few restaurants where the name alone carries culinary cachet. Carbone. Zuma. Gymkhana. These are places that have moved beyond individual addresses to become global dining destinations with clear assumptions about food, service and, most importantly, consistency.
Gymkhana arrives in Dubai during an interesting period. The city hardly lacks accomplished Indian cooking. Trèsind Studio became the first Indian restaurant in the world to earn three MICHELIN Stars, while restaurants including the FACT award-winning Jamavar have cultivated loyal local followings. Gymkhana enters one of Dubai’s most competitive dining districts, one in which diners understand the nuances of Indian cuisine and are increasingly difficult to impress.
The restaurant’s credentials are formidable. Siblings Jyotin, Karam and Sunaina Sethi opened Gymkhana in Mayfair in 2013 under their JKS Restaurants group. Inspired by India’s historic gymkhana social and sporting clubs, it won its first MICHELIN Star the following year and a second in 2024. The brand subsequently travelled internationally, including permanent restaurants in Riyadh and Las Vegas, before making its UAE debut at DIFC in September 2026.
The Dubai kitchen is headed by Executive Chef Rahul Rana, who is known locally for leading MICHELIN-starred vegetarian restaurant avatāra. He works beneath Global Culinary Director Chet Sharma, and describes the Dubai menu as roughly 80 per cent Gymkhana DNA and 20 per cent adaptation, which is perhaps the most sensible way to transplant a restaurant with such a recognisable identity.
Like Mayfair, the DIFC restaurant hides behind an understated dark-green frontage. Inside, however, the world changes. Blinds obscure contemporary Dubai, while timber panelling, lamps fringed with Murano glass, and old sporting photographs add an intimacy to the atmosphere. There are echoes of Kolkata mansions, Shimla retreats and colonial-era clubs, expressed through Kashmiri chilli reds, patterned carpets, leather seating and Edwardian-style joinery that recollect the luggage trunks of the Raj era.
The two-level restaurant expands upon the London aesthetic rather than replicating it. Upstairs feels brighter and more residential, while downstairs the Peacock Bar is resplendent in tones of jade green, dark timber, mirrored surfaces and metallic flourishes. Even the soundtrack receives attention. On our visit, the alluring playlist slipped between Musiq Soulchild, Timbaland and Mtume.
The food is where boldly spiced Indian cuisine gives way to technique. Gymkhana’s menu is predominantly grounded in northern Indian cooking but roams south and west when required, moving through biryanis, curries, kebabs, and tikkas. Plus, game and chop dishes. Dubai also receives the brand’s largest collection of location-exclusive dishes to date.
We ordered a selection of Gymkhana’s greatest hits, along with several Dubai menu exclusives. The Amritsari Shrimp and Queenies is a good place to begin, combining prawns and queen scallops in a crisp spiced batter, while dill raita cools the spice and provides the acidity needed to reset the palate. Better still, the Punjabi Lamb Samosas feature slow-cooked lamb shoulder and peas tucked into a deeply bronzed shell that fractures cleanly rather than collapsing under the filling’s weight. Mint chutney cuts through the meat’s richness, making each moresish morsel disappear rather quickly.
Then comes perhaps Gymkhana’s defining dish. The Kid Goat Methi Keema & Salli has filled enough social feeds to qualify as a minor celebrity in its own right. Yet beneath the attention lies something fundamentally satisfying. Goat meat is cooked until supple, enriched with spices and fenugreek, then piled into buttery brioche pav, becoming part keema pav, part luxury sandwich and entirely difficult to stop eating.
The mains were return-worthy good. Make sure you order a biryani – cooked in a pastry case, with the lid lifted to reveal a richer taste. However, people have written pages about the Tandoori Masala Lamb Chops with Walnut Chutney, which use the whole rack to produce three hefty chops, grilled over high heat to achieve a beautiful char, with their rendered fat carrying the masala deep into the meat. There is a reason the dish has survived every iteration of Gymkhana.
Dubai’s exclusive seafood dishes offer stronger evidence that this branch intends to develop an identity of its own. Imli Black Cod with Peanut Podi exploits the fish’s natural fattiness. Yet the Malvani Sea Bream is the dish that impresses the most. The skin-on fish sits in an almost compulsively spoonable coastal gravy balancing sweetness and spice. The fish is carefully cooked with a nice crackle to the skin, but rather than swimming in distracting sauce, the gravy makes the dish, resulting in one of the most marvellous things we’ve eaten for some time.
Dessert options such as Saffron Pistachio Kulfi Falooda and Rasmalai with Emirati Qishta have obvious appeal, but the Rasgulla Tiramisu wins us over. It is lavishly layered beneath an embossed frozen disc echoing the dining room’s ceiling motifs. We’d encourage you to dig deep through the dessert, pulling its milky Indian sweetness into the coffee-led bitterness and creamy textures below.
The drinks list follows the same thinking. The Clarified Lychee Martini introduces Himalayan timur pepper to vodka and lychee, while the Masala Margarita borrows coriander and green chilli from green chutney before finishing with a masala-salt rim. Indian whisky, beer and lassis provide more modest alternatives.
Gymkhana Dubai’s achievement is ultimately one of translation. It retains enough of its Mayfair DNA to satisfy anyone arriving with memories of London, yet dishes such as the Malvani Sea Bream give Dubai reasons of its own to return. Chef Rahul Rana has inherited a restaurant with an unusually heavy reputation, but his kitchen appears more interested in protecting flavour and perfecting consistency.
Having eaten at Gymkhana from London to Riyadh, that consistency remains striking. Dubai feels grander and perhaps more consciously luxurious, as its surroundings demand, but the fundamentals have survived the journey: deep spicing, confident grilling, and service that understands hospitality without turning dinner into an unnecessary ceremony.
In a city already producing some of the world’s finest Indian food, Gymkhana Dubai does not intend to redefine the cuisine. It does something arguably harder. It reminds us why the classics became classics in the first place.
Where: Gymkhana, Gate Village 7, DIFC, Dubai
When: Daily from 6:30pm to 1am
Contact: https://gymkhanarestaurants.com/dubai