Izakaya

Izakaya is the Japanese restaurant at JW Marriott Marquis Dubai in Business Bay, a warmly lit room that sits between a traditional izakaya-style bar and a modern fine-dining Japanese restaurant. The layout combines a sushi counter where master chefs work in view, a teppanyaki grill station for guests preferring the show-dining format, and a softly lit main dining room framed by dark timber and paper-lantern detail. The atmosphere is conversational and composed, tuned for a long dinner rather than a quick turnaround. The kitchen covers the wider Japanese canon with genuine technique. The signature sushi and sashimi are the consistent strength - rice is worked properly, fish is handled with restraint, and the cuts read clean and precise - and the crab-miso soup is the opener the regulars return for. Wagyu kushiyaki from the robata grill, carefully seasoned teppanyaki courses cooked to the table, and edamame served warm with proper salt round out the main mid-menu arc. Close with mochi or a plated matcha dessert, and pair from a considered sake programme overseen by a proper sommelier. Thursdays carry an unlimited sushi-and-sake offer that has become a weekly fixture for Business Bay regulars. Service is where Izakaya holds its regulars. The floor and counter teams are long-tenured, carry genuine menu and sake knowledge, and read tables well; birthdays and anniversary bookings are rewarded with a complimentary plated dessert, and the staff are practised at small warm gestures that fit the room. Guidance for first-time diners through the teppanyaki or omakase format is generous rather than transactional. Izakaya is priced at the upper end of Business Bay Japanese dining, with genuinely good value on the Thursday unlimited programme and on a seated teppanyaki booking relative to its DIFC peers. For a considered Japanese dinner with a sushi counter that takes the work seriously, a capable teppanyaki experience, or a weekly sushi-and-sake evening, it remains one of the more accomplished rooms in Business Bay. Reservations are worth making for the teppanyaki counter and for Thursday seatings.