In Dubai, Indians have the Midas touch!

Around 15 years ago when rich Indians began shifting to Dubai, the joke was that the really rich guys went to London and enjoyed the non-Dom tax benefits available to expat millionaires.

The not so rich fat cats were the ones who went to Dubai because life there was cheaper than in London.

 

No longer.

 

   One of the more unexpected developments over the last decade has been the slow collapse of London as a desirable city of residence for the world’s rich. Partly it is that the British government, facing domestic pressure, has sharply reduced the tax breaks available to foreigners who want to live in the UK. Even more important than the end of the non-Dom era has been the alarming rise in robberies and knife attacks on the streets of central London.

 

   Last week, in Dubai, I met many wealthy Indians who, while they still retained their homes in Mayfair or Belgravia, have shifted their primary residences to Dubai. All of them knew someone who had been the victim of a robbery or an assault in London – and many of the people I spoke to had firsthand experience of theft and violence.

 

   Nobody now wears expensive watches if they are going shopping in London. It can even be dangerous to use your mobiles on the street – somebody may snatch them from you at knife point. Women will not walk on the edge of the pavement near the road for fear that a motorcycle-borne robber will snatch their handbags.

 

   Most frustrating is the complete unwillingness of the police to be at all concerned. Either they are short staffed or they simply don’t care because the Metropolitan police hardly ever catch the perpetrators and as a consequence criminals are fearless.

 

   While London continues to decline, Dubai has benefited. Because it is one of the world’s safest cities with a liberal tax regime and a willingness to grant residencies (the Golden Visa scheme has been a game changer), it is not just rich Indians who have moved there, but wealthy people from all over the world. This has transformed Dubai into a sort of Middle Eastern Monte Carlo.

 

   For Indians, Dubai has one other advantage over London. It is much nearer to India so it is easier, both in terms of distance and time zones, to keep tabs on a business back in India and quick day-trips to Mumbai or Delhi for business purposes are not unusual.

 

   I imagine there is also a comfort factor. There are so many Indians and Pakistanis in Dubai that you can, for example, get into any taxi or limo and speak Hindi to the driver. It is the most sophisticated Indian city that is not actually in India.

 

   One consequence of all this is that Dubai is now more expensive than it used to be, but it is still cheaper than say London or Singapore. It is boom time for business in general and real estate, hotels and restaurants in particular. Some of these booming businesses are Indian-owned or Indian-run. The Taj group has three hotels in Dubai (including the wonderful Taj Exotica on The Palm where I often stay) and is planning more.

 

   Indian restaurants have also reached new peaks. The top Indian chefs are well represented: Vikas Khanna, Ranveer Brar and Vineet Bhatia all run restaurants in Dubai. And Dubai has created its own superstar chef in Himanshu Saini whose Tresind Studio is one of only three Indian restaurants in the world with two Michelin stars.

 

   New Indian or Indian-owned restaurants keep opening.

 

"The way things are going, Dubai is turning into a city of gold where Indians have the Midas touch."

   The largely Indian-owned Culinary Arts group from Singapore is on the verge of opening two much-awaited restaurants. One of them is Revolver, a larger, next-generation version of the original Revolver in Singapore. The other is Maison Dali, with Tristin Farmer, who was the chef at the three-Michelin starred Zen in Singapore.

 

  Dubai has always been a second home to London restaurants. Zuma, Coya, LPM, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal and Hakkasan all run successful Dubai operations. British chefs have usually done well here. Gordon Ramsay was one of the first major chefs to open in Dubai and his former protégé, Jason Atherton, now runs the two Michelin-starred Row on 45.

 

   It is unusual though for an Indian restaurant to come to Dubai by way of London. Jamavar is owned by the Nair family, formerly of the Leela group (they share the Jamavar brand with the Leela) and has a Michelin star in London. Samyukta Nair, who runs it is a celebrated figure in the British capital regularly featuring on lists of the most important people in the hospitality business and even on Best Dressed lists.

 

   Samyukta has opened a second Jamawar in Doha which has its own Michelin star to go with the London original. Dubai is Jamawar number three and is headed by the same Chef, Surendra Mohan, as London and Doha. It also has Chef Purushottam Naidu from the Bangalore Jamavar, who was a regular on the Culinary Culture list of India’s 30 best chefs before he moved to Dubai.

 

   The food merges Surinder and Purushottam’s skills and has the upmarket touches you would expect in Dubai: lots of caviar and perfectly cooked squares of A5 wagyu with an Indian gravy on the side. All of the food was very good and the restaurant was packed out on the night I went so obviously it was found early success in a restaurant-crazy city.

 

   Samyukta also runs the Chinese Mei Mei Mayfair on Curzon Street in London. She has opened an outpost right next to Jamawar and it fills a hole in the local market. While nearly every restaurant in Dubai wants to be Zuma-influenced modern Japanese, there are very few good Chinese restaurants.

 

   The Dubai Hakkasan has a Michelin star and the local outpost of the rapidly expanding Mott 32 chain has a certain glamorous cachet. But beyond that, the field is wide open so Mei Mei Mayfair should be able to hold on to the massive success it has already enjoyed in its first few weeks.

 

    For Samyukta’s father Dinesh Nair, son of the legendary Captain CP Krishnan Nair, the success of his growing restaurant empire is proof that there are not just second but also third acts in Indian lives.

 

   Dinesh made his first fortune in the garment business, sold it and joined the family hotel group adding a new dynamism and a food focus.

 

   When the Nairs sold the Leela group, Dinesh could have sat back and enjoyed his wealth. Instead he started his third act, joining up with his only child to open upmarket restaurants in the most expensive parts of London.

 

   Against the odds, Dinesh and Samyukta have pulled it off winning Michelin stars and much acclaim. Dinesh knows that Dubai, which is a very competitive restaurant market is a challenge. But like his late father he is a risk-taker who thinks big and thrives on challenges. And if the early success of the Dubai restaurants can be sustained then another triumph is on the way.

 

   It is always a pleasure to see Indians doing well abroad. Any visitor to Dubai will notice that Indians flourish in every day jobs: taxi drivers, nurses, shopkeepers, hotel staff etc. What is less obvious is that there is also a strong Indian presence at the top.

 

   Indians hold key jobs in banking. Real estate can be Indian dominated. Such large Dubai groups as EMAAR have Indians at the helm. Some of the biggest retailers, men like Yusuf Ali of the Lulu group, are Indians.

 

   The way things are going, Dubai is turning into a city of gold where Indians have the Midas touch.