Chinoy Haven

Mandarin piles it high, doesn’t sell it particularly cheap, and serves it averagely Discuss this article

From Time Out Abu Dhabi Eating Out 2010

If you’re a regular at Al Ain Palace Hotel, you probably still know this restaurant as The Mandarin. If it’s your first time, however, don’t be put off by its somewhat downtrodden location. You’ll find it next door to Cheers, a noisy bar popular with the local Filipino population that probably has the loudest sound system in the capital. You can sit and ponder that probability in Chinoy Haven while you wait for your food to arrive, if you can hear yourself think.

You’ll be doing that alone, of course: this place doesn’t exactly have customers queuing for a table. Its obnoxious neighbour and unimaginative interior ultimately overwhelm the fact that the food they serve is actually rather good. Neither overtly glutinous or sickeningly oily, as many Chinese restaurants in this city often are, the chef here deals in simple tastes, and the menu is large and uniformly decent. It’s not badly priced either, and a party of three or four can eat their fill comfortably and still have money left over for a trip to the dark side next door.

• Previous reviews
  • 01 January,2009- reviewed by Time Out Abu Dhabi staff

Time Out reviews restaurants anonymously and pays for meals. Of course, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or independence of user reviews.