Restaurant review: It’s a game of two halves at The Sportsman’s Arms

The self-proclaimed ‘American/Irish gastropub’ The Sportsman’s Arms, which replaced The Clubhouse, the previous bar at Zayed Sports City’s tennis stadium, has a strong British flavour, too, despite its dual-nationality billing.

The Sportsman’s Arms, a gastropub at Zayed Sports City, is plusher than its predecessor The Clubhouse. Courtesy The Sportsman’s Arms

The list of salubrious Abu Dhabi pubs in which to watch sport on television isn’t especially lengthy. The hard-of-counting probably don’t need more than the fingers of one hand.

Enter the self-proclaimed “American/Irish gastropub” The Sportsman’s Arms, which replaced The Clubhouse, the previous bar at Zayed Sports City’s tennis stadium. It has a strong British flavour, too, despite its dual-nationality billing.

Its former incarnation was a trifle run down, and the cheap-and-cheerful food wasn’t exactly, let’s say, up to restaurant-review standard. Aside from a few salads, most of the greasy dishes that were on offer would have comprehensively undone any good work you had achieved if you preceded your meal with a workout at ZSC.

The Sportsman’s Arms is altogether plusher, with dark wood on display everywhere in a varied dining area that spans a range of seating options, from tall American sports bar-style tables beneath plentiful TV screens to more-comfortable sofa benches and regular-height pub tables and chairs.

The imported drinks will be a boon for many, but we were there to assess the food. The bar’s overhaul has come at a price – quite literally, thanks to not-insignificant dining bills – positioning The Sportsman’s Arms a long way from other, more affordable sports-related watering/feeding holes.

Evidence of this arrived almost immediately in the shape of my apple and fennel salad, with toasted walnuts, Gorgonzola and added prawns. Though it was sizeable, fresh and tasty, it was also a slightly outrageous Dh25 to add a fairly meagre portion of crustaceans, raising the price to Dh85.

My dining partner and I also shared crispy calamari with aioli (Dh45), which was faultless – but we needed to order two portions to sate our seafood cravings.

Pizza was one of the old Clubhouse’s better offerings, so it seemed sensible to order the four-cheese pizza (Dh60) as a main. True to form, it proved to be a more artsy, lozenge-shaped take on the Italian staple than what was previously available, with a satisfyingly strong tang of Stilton.

The butternut squash risotto (Dh75) was the undoubted highlight of our meal, with chunky helpings of the vegetable, plus pleasantly uncloying rice. The only irritant was that it was deposited on our table at the same time as my salad.

There were only two dessert choices (Dh45 each), so we dutifully ordered the Bramley apple crumble with vanilla ice cream and the chocolate brownie with pistachio ice cream. The crumble’s fruit component could have been a smidgen better-cooked, but everything else delivered.

That’s kind of the problem, however. In isolation, it’s hard to pick any major flaws in the dishes – but they really need to be more remarkable to outdo upwardly mobile competitor bars such as McGettigan’s.

In comparison, The Sportsman’s Arms’ menu is roundly booted out of the park in terms of choice and cost, despite its star player: an outdoor terrace complete with a (seemingly soon-to-be-opened) bar.

Not surprisingly, given the location and name, whether you will need to fight for a seat or find yourself among a handful of diners at The Sportsman’s Arms depends on the sporting action that is going on. It’s often standing room only during screenings of big events or during post-match celebrations (or commiserations) by the sports teams based at ZSC (particularly the Abu Dhabi Harlequins rugby team – this is essentially their clubhouse). On a regular weekday evening, such as when we visi­ted, it is a bit of a ghost town.

Regardless of whether you enjoy a quiet atmosphere or a more boisterous experience, the less-than-economical menu could prove a significant barrier, especially considering you’re in a glorified pub and not a specialist restaurant.

If The Sportsman’s Arms’ prices were lowered, it could rightly stake a claim to being the best sports bar in town. Until then, it’s a somewhat expensive contender, rather than a champion everyday local pub.

• Our meal for two at The Sportsman’s Arms, Zayed Sports City, Abu Dhabi, cost Dh355. For more information, call 02 403 4235. Reviewed meals are paid for by The National and conducted incognito