The Restaurant with No Name

The Restaurant with No Name is a restaurant-meets-entertainment space, which has yet to have the finishing touches, as we’re told there’ll be tablecloths with tassels. What we do spy, however, are framed musical-inspired photos on the wall, and trollies ranging from a Caesar trolly to a Martini trolly.

Jason Atherton explains: “We want it to be a counter restaurant to all those restaurants that throw you off the table. You go to so many restaurants and staff start hovering with their iPad, basically saying, ‘get the hell out’. We just don’t want to do that. So, you can keep your table or move with ease from one space to another. 

It’s themed around New York, there’ll be Boston cocktails, steaks, fish and death by chocolate – all that type of good stuff.

We have a live singer from Wednesday to Sunday. We’ll be playing swing and jazz. There’ll be guys with velvet jackets and dickie bows, they’ll walk about with a microphone and kick up a swing.” 

Jason Atherton is clearly focused on quality over quantity. The food menu pitches itself as affordable luxury, and the cocktail menu starts from AED 60. He enthuses: “We’re trying to get the numbers correct and we’re not here to do 1,000 covers. I don’t want to rip people off and I want to make it super friendly on the prices. Some chefs could make more money working six hours a day. When it’s just for money and numbers, the love falls away from it, and as a consumer you can feel that.” 

If Jason’s foodie record is anything to go by, City Social should be on the MICHELIN inspector’s radar. His first solo project, Pollen Street Social in London, won a MICHELIN star within its first six months of opening. He concludes: “This is my dream. I just can’t wait for Dubai to see what I can do here”. Jason, we can’t wait, too.