Dubai, unrestrained: Inside the city that turned luxury into an art form (Part I)

There is a moment, usually somewhere between leaving Dubai International Airport and catching the first glimpse of the skyline, when Dubai begins doing what Dubai does best: challenging your sense of scale. Buildings rise with improbable confidence. Hotels resemble architectural thought experiments. Restaurants arrive bearing names recognizable from New York, London, Paris and Tokyo. Here, ambition is less personality trait than civic language.

Dubai has never been shy about luxury. The city helped redefine it for a generation of travellers, turning hotels into destinations and dinner reservations into events. But reducing Dubai to extravagance misses what makes its approach to luxury interesting. Because after several days moving between its hotels, restaurants, and desert, I began to understand that Dubai isn’t simply interested in having the best things. It wants to create experiences you will remember.

See also: How to spend 10 unforgettable days in Egypt

A room with a very different view

Culinara, located at The Link, gathers 11 homegrown culinary concepts beneath one roof, creating a dining hall built around local talent. Dinner that evening at Andaliman, One&Only One Za’abeel’s Indonesian restaurant, offered another perspective, celebrating the flavours of the archipelago while introducing contemporary touches.

The following night, dinner took me to Jun’s, where the philosophy is described as “Third Culture Cooking.” Chef Kelvin Cheung, a Scarborough (Toronto) boy, took our pallette across the globe and back with his carefully crafted tasting menu. The restaurant’s approach is deliberately difficult to confine geographically, bringing together flavours and influences against the unmistakably Dubai backdrop of the Burj Khalifa. It became an early lesson: in a city known for importing global luxury, some of its most interesting experiences refuse to fit neatly into a box.

Then came Atlantis The Royal.

Turning the hotel into theatre

Perched along the outer crescent of Palm Jumeirah, Atlantis The Royal seems designed to make an entrance before you’ve even entered it. Its distinctive stacked architecture rises above the Gulf like a collection of blocks suspended in the sky. There is water, fire, soaring public space and a sense that almost every sightline has been considered.

Checking in marked a transition in the trip. Dubai’s wellness side would temporarily recede and the city’s more famous appetite for indulgence would take centre stage. It began almost immediately at Nobu by the Beach, the world’s first pool and beach club by Chef Nobu Matsuhisa. The concept takes Nobu’s familiar Japanese culinary identity and loosens the tie, transporting it poolside with each dish challenging your palette in the best way possible. Lunch was followed not by sightseeing but rather by an afternoon on a lounger beside the pool. An afternoon of relaxation under the Dubai sun, taking in the sights and sounds of other hotel guests. And that, perhaps, is one of the underrated pleasures of luxury travel: permitting yourself nowhere else to be but by a pool overlooking the beautiful architecture and greenery.

Dinner as destination

By evening, another version of New York had arrived in Dubai. Carbone pays homage to the great mid-century New York-Italian restaurants, complete with theatricality and signatures including Spicy Rigatoni, Caesar Salad alla ZZ, Linguini Vongole and Veal Chop Parmesan. I’ve had the pleasure of dinning at Carbone in New York City and at it’s most recent opening in Last Vegas at the Bellagio Hotel. Yet there was something particularly special about doing so against the backdrop of the Atlantis Royal.

Now in another city, dinner might have been the finale. Here, it was followed by tea and mocktails at The Royal Tearoom, where an experience is built around rare teas, artisanal pastries and savouries. And as a tea person myself, one who usually has a go to post meal tea, the options were endless and hard to choose from. Again, in the best way possible. Despite being in the lobby of the hotel with guests coming in and out, the space was designed in such a fashion to accommodate for more intimate conversation. This contrast captures something essential about Atlantis The Royal. The resort can be spectacular when it wants to be, then unexpectedly intimate a few steps later.

The next day continued at Gastronomy, the hotel’s sprawling culinary destination featuring 17 live cooking stations (yes you read that right), before lunch at Estiatorio Milos. The latter embraces a very different philosophy: exceptional ingredients, Mediterranean simplicity and seafood selected from the restaurant’s market. But also, what must have been the freshest tomatoes (yes you also read that right) and exquisite seafood I’ve ever had. Mind you, one of the managers made sure to let me know the fish was flown in that morning. The restaurant’s signature Milos Special—paper-thin zucchini and eggplant served with Greek Saganaki cheese and house-made tzatziki—embodies the overall philosophy particularly well. The lobster however stole the show. Likely for two people, this gent couldn’t resist finishing it himself. Dubai may be famous for excess, but some of its best meals understand the power of restraint..except in my case when it comes to lobsters.

Leaving luxury behind—or so I thought

Then came the desert. In a city perpetually associated with building the future, it is easy to forget the landscape that existed long before the skyline. Platinum Heritage provided the bridge between those worlds with an excursion into the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve. A professional conservation guide led the nature safari, introducing the flora and fauna of the desert and explaining how Bedouin communities historically survived within this environment.

As afternoon became evening, the visual vocabulary changed completely. The towers disappeared. Traffic disappeared. The city that spends so much energy illuminating itself gave way to sand and an Arabian sunset. Platinum Heritage provided a falconry performance followed by an Emirati dinner, served in a traditional majlis and accompanied by Yola and drumming performances. A perfect way to cap off an evening in the desert stargazing at the incredible night sky. A reminder that no matter how big Dubai can feel, we are all still so small in the grand scheme of the cosmos.

Suddenly, luxury meant something different. Not another skyscraper. Not another beautifully appointed dining room. Rather space. Silence. Time. That evening revealed why Dubai remains more complicated than its reputation suggests. Yes, this is a destination that understands spectacle perhaps better than anywhere else. Atlantis The Royal alone could fill an entire trip with restaurants, pools and experiences and trust me you won’t find yourself complaining about that.

But the most successful version of Dubai doesn’t ask you to choose between modern extravagance and the culture and landscape that preceded it. It places them side by side. That is the curious pleasure of travelling here. Dubai can make an afternoon beside a glamorous pool feel essential and, hours later, make watching the sun disappear over the desert feel even more so. The city of luxury is very real. But as I discovered during the other half of my journey, so is another Dubai—one increasingly preoccupied not with how much you can experience, but with how well you can live.