Gigi Rigolatto Dubai

La Dolce Vita, Transplanted to Jumeirah

When J1 Beach unveiled its 500-metre licensed beachfront district on the old La Mer South site in late 2024, Gigi Rigolatto was the first venue to open its doors — and it set the aesthetic tone for every beach club that followed. This is the Dubai outpost of the wildly successful Saint-Tropez original, operated by Paris Society (the Accor-backed group behind Monsieur Dior, Girafe in Paris, and Loulou) in collaboration with RIKAS Hospitality Group. Italian football legend Andrea Pirlo is a partner and brand ambassador, and his presence gives the venue an effortlessly masculine, family-first Italian sensibility that sets it apart from the cooler, more self-consciously chic neighbours along the strip.

The space itself is a small wonder. Franco-Mexican architect Hugo Toro — whose work on Monsieur Dior and Brach Paris made him one of hospitality design's rising stars — has created what amounts to a love letter to the Italian coast. Architectural elements nod to the pastel villas of Capri, the bleached stone of Puglia, and the green-and-white tiled patios of Amalfi. A lush garden anchors the middle of the venue, studded with olive trees and bougainvillea, and the pool sits at the heart of it all, ringed with plush sunbeds, four VIP cabanas (named after Italian islands — Ischia, Ponza, Capri and Elba), and a tiled Bellini bar that feels airlifted straight from the Via Appia.

The food is the reason people come back. Chef Gabriel Boscaro oversees a menu that resists the temptation to be "Italian-ish" and instead goes straight for the source material: hand-made tagliolini with black truffle, a whole veal Milanese that arrives table-side and is carved in front of you, wood-fired pizzas with 48-hour fermented dough, and an entire section devoted to vitello tonnato, crudo and burrata that changes weekly. The wine list leans deep into Italian regions most Dubai lists ignore — Etna reds, Campanian whites, Valpolicella Ripasso — and the pastry chef's tiramisu has developed a cult following among regulars.

What makes Gigi unusual among Dubai beach clubs is that it genuinely welcomes families. The kids' circus (yes, a real designated children's zone with supervised activities on weekends) is one of the few serious attempts in the city to build a grown-up beach club experience that doesn't exclude people with children. Mums and dads sip Aperol spritzes on sunbeds while the kids make friends over gelato and dress-up boxes. After 7pm the mood shifts: the DJ turns up, the Bellini bar fills with the post-work crowd, and the garden becomes one of Jumeirah's most civilised sunset hangs.

If you're deciding between the J1 Beach venues, Gigi is the one to start with. It's the most complete — great food, great design, great music, strong family credentials, and the kind of breezy Italian warmth that's rarer than it should be in Dubai dining. Compare all Dubai beach clubs →

Dining at Gigi

The Gigi Dubai menu is a proper Italian trattoria card — no fusion trickery, no trendy deconstructed dishes. You start with a section of crudi (thinly sliced raw fish dressed with olive oil and lemon), move through antipasti heavy with burrata, Parma ham and vitello tonnato, then choose between fresh pasta (the tagliolini al tartufo is the signature), wood-fired pizza, or a whole-fish-to-share from the grill.

The drinks programme deserves its own paragraph. The Bellini Bar takes its name seriously — the Gigi Bellini uses white peach purée flown in from Italy during season and a prosecco blend developed for the venue. The wine list runs to 180+ labels with an Italian backbone (Tuscany, Piedmont, Sicily, Campania) and a rotating "Region of the Month" flight that is worth ordering blind.

All-day dining runs from noon. Saturday's Italian Brunch (1pm–4:30pm) is one of the more sought-after bookings on the J1 Beach strip — sharing-style platters that keep arriving, a live pasta station, and enough limoncello to float a small boat home.

Menu Highlights