Ribambelle review: Restaurant with play area on Bluewaters is a feast for the family

Soft-play and activity areas will keep little ones engaged as parents enjoy chef Gabriel Martinez’s diverse dishes

The buttery beef gyoza come with a nori salt crust. Photo: Ribambelle

Few restaurants can boast as eclectic a menu as the one to be found at the recently opened Ribambelle on Dubai’s Bluewaters. Throw in a well-stocked play area and activity corner that will keep children from walking age right up to the tenacious tween years entertained, and you have a feast for the whole family.

Where to sit and what to expect

The two-storey restaurant is located at the farthest end of Bluewaters Island, and is best reached by parking as close to Ain Dubai as possible.

Level 1 is where all the action takes place, with the dining room flanked by a soft-play area on one side and an activity arena on the other. It’s not a small space, yet feels quite crowded as the tables are crammed in close together, presumably so more parents can keep a watchful eye on their little ones.

Younger children will enjoy the jungle gym house, with four large glass windows extending out over the dining area to keep a watchful eye right back on their parents. They can go up a winding staircase and come down via a cheery green slide that drops straight into the ball pit – just watch out for kids with a penchant for burying themselves within.

The area is also filled with toys in themed sections, from a garage and kitchen to a fashion and beauty corner, complete with toy make-up and costumes to play dress-up.

The activity section has both sit-down desks, used for arts and crafts classes, from soap and candle-making, to bottled sand art and T-shirt painting; as well as a higher table for the various culinary lessons – everything from making pizza and gingerbread to volcano cakes and healthy energy balls recipes. Individual sessions need to be booked beforehand.

Just be aware that the Ribambelle lives up its name, which means “a lot”, so the time flies here. Even though the restaurant validates parking tickets on a bill of Dh100 or more, parking is only free for up to three hours after which you’ll pay Dh20 per hour.

The second level has a licensed restaurant (and terrace for the cooler months), with an industrial-chic feel and tables that, thankfully, are better spaced out.

The menu

Think it and you’ll probably find it on this menu. Oatmeal porridge, eggs Benedict and acai bowls for breakfast; salads, soups, pizzas, pastas, bruschetta and burgers; plus fine-dining mains – from miso-marinated black cod to 250g grilled rib-eye.

However, my dining partner for the day is 4-year-old Baby M, who’s going through a serious hummus and pasta phase at the moment. Dutifully, I get her hummus and pasta, with both dishes benefiting from chef Gabriel Martinez’s culinary touch.

The red pepper hummus (Dh55) is tempered down for little taste buds but still retains its tangy flavour profile. It’s easy to eat scooped up in mini triangular pieces of freshly baked pita, and it’s gone before I feel the need to spoon-feed the child a sneaky bite or three whilst she’s distracted.

The sea bass ceviche (Dh85) is a bit too spicy for one of us, but the other laps up the fresh fish served with bits of avocado, pomegranate and coriander – although I wish it came with more sauce. The presentation, in a flat, long dish rather than a cocktail glass or bowl, might have something to do with it.

The menu is replete with pasta and risotto options, some inspired by Ribambelle’s original Moscow outpost. While capers are not yet an acquired taste for the decision-maker in our household (and so were painstakingly picked out and sent to a land far, far away from the table), the rest of the chicken picatta went down a dream. The angel hair pasta was generously drizzled through with lemony sauce, and the meat was plentiful and melt-in-the-mouth tender, which is not always the case with chicken. It’s priced at Dh55 on the children’s menu and Dh95 on the regular.

As a parent, I was mighty pleased to have entered and left a play area with nary a mention of nuggets and French fries.

Standout dish

After three hours and countless trips down the slide, the child and I felt a bit peckish again. Upon the chef’s recommendation we got the beef gyoza (Dh55), which are a revelation not only in terms of taste, but also treatment and presentation.

For one, the dish looks like a fluffy pancake when it first comes out because it’s plated upside-down. The top layer is a crispy combination of nori salt and flour dough, which is tacked onto the gyoza and then flipped over on the plate. Only once this is cracked (or consumed) can we see the gyoza parcels underneath, and these in turn are stuffed with beef that’s flavourful and almost buttery. A real highlight.

A chat with the chef

Chef Martinez was raised in Los Angeles, has worked in Spain, trained in Japanese and Asian cuisines to enhance his own Latin-Mexican culinary heritage, and has worked in the Middle East for a decade.

In the UAE, he was brand executive chef for Katsuya, then helped launch Virgin Izakaya, Not Only Fish and Tanuki before being cherry-picked for Ribambelle.

“I was itching to do something different than Asian cuisine when this opportunity came along, and I was given a lot of freedom with the menu from [founder] Yulia,” says Martinez, adding that a healthier children’s menu was top of mind. Accordingly, the top two dishes ordered for little ones, tenders and cutlets, are gluten-free and made from organic chicken respectively.

Other than the dishes we tried, the chef recommends cauliflower carpaccio, made of purple, yellow and white cauliflower, for vegetarians; garlic jumbo prawns for seafood lovers; the aforementioned chicken cutlets for children, served with mash and a sauce made from chicken broth and a dollop of butter; and pavlova for dessert. “The pavlova is delicious and very interactive because it comes to the table in a shell and you’re meant to crack it and pour the sauce in,” says Martinez, who is all praises for executive pastry chef Luis Frederico Oliveira.

Price point and contact information

Breakfast ranges from Dh55 for waffles, to Dh75 for the Benedict, cottage cheese dumplings and syrniki pancakes. Hot and cold snacks are priced from Dh55 for cauliflower popcorn and to Dh115 for beef tartare. The children’s menu ranges from Dh45 for chicken noodle soup and goes up to Dh65 for lamb meatballs. Pizzas and pastas are priced from Dh80 for the margherita to Dh220 for the lobster linguini. Mains are from Dh120 for the grilled octopus to Dh260 for the rib-eye. Desserts are Dh75 a pop.

Until August 31, entry is priced at Dh100 on weekdays and Dh150 on weekends when booking a table, both inclusive of one complimentary workshop. Additional workshops range from Dh100 to Dh200.

This review was conducted at the invitation of the restaurant