SAONA brings Caribbean food with a Peruvian edge to voco Dubai The Palm in December

Palm Jumeirah is getting a new restaurant with a cuisine Dubai does not see often. SAONA, named after an island in the Caribbean, is due to open in December on the first floor of voco Dubai The Palm, the hotel on Palm West Beach. Its menu puts Caribbean cooking first and adds modern Peruvian touches, mixing traditional ingredients with newer techniques.

The kitchen is run by Executive Chef Richie Richards, who was born in Jamaica and has more than 20 years of experience in restaurants around the world, including Miss Lily's, the Caribbean restaurant group. The menu is built on his Caribbean roots, with Peru as the second influence. No dishes have been named yet.

SAONA is planned as a place to stay on after dinner. Resident DJs will play through the evening and the bar will serve its own cocktails, so the room moves from dinner into a livelier night as it gets later. It will hold 244 guests across a main dining room, a separate VIP lounge and large outdoor areas facing the sea, according to details reported by FACT Magazine and What's On this week.

The opening adds to a busy stretch for Palm West Beach, where hotels and beach venues line the western side of the Palm's trunk. Peruvian food already has a following in Dubai through Nikkei and Peruvian restaurants in DIFC and Downtown, but a Caribbean-led menu is far less common in the city.

The restaurant's own website says only that it is coming soon, with no exact date, opening hours, prices or booking yet. Readers who want to hear first can sign up to its mailing list on saonarestaurant.com, which runs through the SevenRooms booking platform, and follow the restaurant on Instagram at @saonadxb. voco Dubai The Palm is on Palm West Beach, Palm Jumeirah. Check the date before you plan a night around it: the opening is scheduled for December but has not been fixed to a day.