Zuma

The robata sets the pace

The robata section asks for pace before theatre at Zuma in Abu Dhabi, and the Al Maryah Island kitchen has to hold that line all service. Zuma began in London and this is one of six houses worldwide, each built on the same premise: take the izakaya, a casual Japanese pub-style eatery, and run it at a high-end standard around charcoal grilling and fresh seafood. That is why the room is not built around a single tasting-menu argument. It is a kitchen of flow, with small plates moving from raw preparations to the grill, and the craft sits in keeping that movement exact without making it stiff.

Flow is harder to cook than sequence. In a fixed menu the kitchen owns the clock; here the table does, and the pass has to keep a raw counter and a charcoal grill in step while orders arrive out of order. Timing stops being an abstract virtue and becomes the difference between a clean handoff and a table waiting too long for heat. The grammar is the brand’s: sushi and sashimi, prawn gyoza, soft shell crab, black cod, lamb chops, wagyu beef, plates intended to land across the table rather than in a fixed procession.

Raw fish, charcoal heat, shared plates

The program at Zuma Abu Dhabi turns on contrast. The raw side keeps the knife work visible in salmon, red snapper, sea urchin, crab rolls with avocado and tobiko, tuna and salmon tartare. The cooked side moves toward the robata, where seafood and meat take smoke and glaze without losing their center. Miso-marinated black cod arrives wrapped in hoba leaf; spicy beef tenderloin carries sweetened soy, sesame and red chilli; lamb chops sit comfortably beside the seafood rather than reading as an exception to it.

That structure gives the kitchen its rhythm. A table might begin with sashimi, add prawn gyoza, move to asparagus, ribeye beef, soft shell crab, then close around the black cod that has become one of the house signatures. The method is not kaiseki formality, and it does not pretend to be. Zuma's version of the izakaya is polished, communal, and exacting in a different way: dishes leave in waves, the grill has to meet the raw counter cleanly, and the pass has to keep generosity from becoming disorder.

The room around the pass

The restaurant sits within The Galleria on Al Maryah Island, but the room feels less like a mall dining room than a controlled evening service built around water, glass and a low, warm glow. The bar has its own pull, with high tables near the wine cellar and a back-bar energy that suits the craft-cocktail side of the house. In the dining room, the sound lifts as plates begin to cross the floor. It is lively rather than hushed.

From the pass, that room changes the work. A small-plates kitchen has to read appetite in motion: who is still eating raw fish, who is ready for the grill, which table needs the black cod now rather than after another round from the counter. The waterfront view gives the room its polish, but the kitchen's discipline sits closer to the bench, in the repeated gestures of cutting, glazing, firing and landing dishes while the room keeps moving.

A global form held locally

Zuma Abu Dhabi carries the international Zuma format without turning the food into a museum piece. The house has been recognized by Middle East and North Africa's 50 Best Restaurants and by the MICHELIN Guide, which points to seafood from the robata grill as a strength. Awards can frame a room, but they do not cook dinner. At Zuma Abu Dhabi, raw fish stays bright, charcoal-managed seafood is on offer, and black cod still anchors the table.