Dubai, UAE: Dubai’s Gerbou has been selected for the World’s Most Beautiful Restaurants List 2025 by Prix Versailles, a series of architectural awards presented every year at UNESCO. The list features only 16 restaurants around the world.
A collaboration between Atelier House Hospitality and Tashkeel, Gerbou reimagines Emirati cuisine through a lens, celebrating local artistry, craftsmanship, and tradition.
Designed by Kristina Zanic Consultants, the space reflects the warmth of Arab hospitality, with interiors and a menu inspired by the UAE’s culinary heritage.
Atelier House Hospitality and Tashkeel unveil a dining experience that draws inspiration from Emirati traditions while embracing influences and artistry.
The venue is nestled in a renovated 1987 Dubai building. Gerbou’s interiors and exteriors merge tradition with aesthetics. The custom-made door handle, which integrates patterns of palm trees, desert sand, and ocean waves, serves as a gateway into the Gerbou experience.
Once guests step inside the venue, they are greeted by a tan leather sofa made from camel leather complemented by embroidered plush pillows, featuring Ghaf trees. Designed dining chairs made from naturally fallen Ghaf tree trunks shaped in the form of the arches of Gerbou; a wooden table inlay with patterns of Sadu weaving, which honours UAE’s Bedouin culture; fish scale lights symbolising the Emirati community’s connection with the sea; as well as a front desk made from naturally fallen Ghaf trees.
Designed by Tasmeem Tashkeel, the Ghaf Tree Front Desk is left in its raw, untouched form, paying tribute to the UAE’s landscape as well as reflecting the restaurant’s commitment to using local materials.
Sitting atop the desk is a bronze sculpture, made by artist Alice Andrea Ewing. This structure features a protected species in the UAE, the Eurasian collared dove, symbolising protection and preservation, and a desert rose, representing beauty and resilience. Offering a welcome, the front desk and sculpture offer their respect to the land, its flora and fauna.
As guests are welcomed in, a Herbarium chandelier hangs above them, a tribute to the world, harmonising with Gerbou’s nature-inspired philosophy and its homage to the nature of the region. Produced through a glass-making technique, the chandelier features dried foliage crystallised in glass. This masterpiece reflects Gerbou’s respect for the world and understanding of its environment.
According to Her Highness Sheikha Lateefa Bint Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum (Director of Tashkeel): “Gerbou is a testament to the power of collaboration—where design, craftsmanship, and gastronomy come together to create an experience rooted in the UAE’s cultural identity. Through Tashkeel’s collaboration with Atelier House Hospitality and Kristina Zanic Consultants has culminated in a space infused with artistry through culinary arts and design that speaks to heritage while embracing innovation. This partnership reflects our ongoing commitment to championing local talent and materials, ensuring that every element tells a story of authenticity and heritage.”
