DESIGN TRAVEL · DUBAI
Reading time: 6 minDubai has no shortage of rooftops, but Tapasake is something stranger and better. It sits inside The Link, the world’s longest cantilever, suspended 100 metres above the city between the twin towers of One&Only One Za’abeel. LW Design’s response to that extraordinary setting was inspired: rather than fight the sense of floating, they leaned into it, and moored a super-yacht in the sky.
Some restaurants have a good view. Tapasake has a good address in the most literal sense possible, because the venue itself is a feat of engineering. It sits atop The Link, the vast horizontal bridge of One&Only One Za’abeel, which is currently the world’s longest cantilever, slung between two towers and reaching out over the city with nothing beneath it. To dine here, 27 floors and roughly 100 metres up, is to eat inside a piece of record-breaking architecture rather than merely on top of one.
That premise could easily have produced a gimmick. Instead it produced one of Dubai’s most considered high-altitude venues, thanks to a clever design decision. Faced with a space that already feels as though it is floating, the interiors, by LW Design Group, took their cue from the world of the super-yacht. The result is a restaurant and day club that behaves like a luxury vessel moored a hundred metres above the ground, and the conceit is so well judged that it turns the vertigo of the setting into the whole point.
The super-yacht in the sky
Step into Tapasake and the nautical language reads immediately, but never heavily. The floors are timber decking with subtle rubber inlays, echoing a ship’s deck underfoot. High-gloss walnut and teak furniture, twisted leather rope balustrades and sail-cloth accents build a refined maritime world, detailed enough to immerse you without ever tipping into theme-park pastiche. It is exactly the restraint you want from a concept this literal.
The design also flows effortlessly between inside and out. Terrazzo runs from the interior straight onto the open-air deck, so the eye never registers a threshold, and the plan is dotted with sunken cabanas, private pavilions and a central bar with its own DJ deck. Even the back bar is a design moment in itself, clad in iridescent chameleon-bead tiling that shifts and catches the light like moving water. Threaded through all of it are quiet Japanese notes, minimalist artwork, black lava rock, delicate tableware, that nod to the kitchen’s cuisine and sit surprisingly happily alongside the maritime theme. It is a lot of ideas held in genuine balance.
The Link, and the record-breaking pool
The centrepiece, though, is the water. Tapasake is built around the UAE’s longest suspended infinity pool, stretching roughly 120 metres and hovering about 100 metres above the ground within The Link. With glass facades and temperature-controlled water, it is at once an engineering set piece and an irresistible place to spend a day, the infinity edge dissolving into an uninterrupted panorama of Dubai’s ever-changing skyline.
This is where architecture and experience become the same thing. Because The Link is a cantilever suspended between towers, the views are genuinely unobstructed on both sides, and the pool appears to float in mid-air with the city arranged all around it. Few venues anywhere can offer this, and it is the reason Tapasake reads less as a restaurant with a pool than as a designed vantage point over the whole city.
From daytime calm to night-time energy
Like the best Dubai venues, Tapasake is really two places in one. By day it is bathed in sunlight and built for slowness, long lunches, poolside lounging, the gentle theatre of the skyline shifting in the heat. As the sun drops, it transforms. The lighting warms, the music builds, and live DJs and saxophonists turn the deck into a sophisticated, lively night-scene. The design does much of this work, the same space performing two very different moods, and it makes the venue as suited to a celebratory evening as to a quiet afternoon.
The flavours of Nikkei
The kitchen is as carefully composed as the interiors. Tapasake, a concept that began at One&Only Reethi Rah in the Maldives, celebrates Nikkei cuisine, the elegant fusion of Japanese precision and Peruvian vibrancy. Dishes arrive looking like small compositions: sashimi in artful arrangements, oysters brightened with a citrusy hit of aji amarillo, rolls laced with creamy nori seasoning. The cocktails carry the same inventive streak, from a Tonka Bourbon to a Hibiscus Cup, bold but balanced. It is food designed to match its surroundings, visually arresting and precisely made.
Service, by most accounts, lives up to the setting, attentive without hovering, and the layout actively encourages you to stay, drifting from poolside snacks in the morning to drinks under the stars at night. Two practical notes worth knowing: drinks service can slow at peak times, and shade is limited in the fiercest part of the day, so if you feel the heat, book a cabana or aim for the later, cooler hours.
Events, and essential visitor information
Tapasake keeps its programming lively, with regular fixtures such as “Ladies at 27” on Tuesday evenings, with free-flowing bubbles or wine and live music, and a social Saturday brunch of gourmet sharing plates. For groups, private hire options such as the Cuzco Cabana host up to 25 guests with bespoke menus.
For planning, the essentials are simple. Tapasake is on Level 27 of One Za’abeel’s Link, with complimentary valet parking. Pricing reflects the premium positioning: weekday pool passes have started from around AED 450 and weekend passes from around AED 500, with a portion typically redeemable against food and drink, while brunch packages have ranged from roughly AED 385 to AED 495 depending on the drinks option. The kitchen caters for vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free diets, so it is worth flagging any preferences when you book. Prices and packages shift over time, so confirm the current rates when reserving.
On timing, lunchtime brings quieter moments and clearer views, while sunset delivers the most dramatic skyline backdrop, the pool at its most photogenic as the city lights come up.
Final thoughts
Tapasake is more than a restaurant or a rooftop pool. It is an experience quite literally suspended above the city, and it captures what makes Dubai so compelling: the willingness to dream big, design boldly and follow through on the detail. The genius of it is how completely the design answers its setting, meeting a record-breaking cantilever and the UAE’s longest infinity pool with a super-yacht fantasy that makes the whole giddy premise feel intentional rather than gimmicky.
Following a full revamp in 2025, the venue returns with a refreshed take on its dining, design and experience, and on the strength of what it already was, it should reclaim its place among the city’s essential destinations and quite possibly reset the benchmark for what a high-altitude venue can be. Whether you are a first-time visitor or a Dubai regular, it earns its spot on the itinerary, not only for the views or the pool, but for the way it makes you feel: connected to the skyline, immersed in design, and part of something genuinely out of the ordinary.
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