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F&B, Corporate & Commercial

254 | La Donna Restaurant

Location
Portofino Hotel, The Heart of Europe, Dubai, UAE
Type
All-day dining restaurant
The idea

Round arches, pale oak, sage and cane.

La Donna is the all-day dining restaurant of Portofino Hotel, in The Heart of Europe, Dubai. Guests arrive through deep round arches of ribbed travertine, edged in brass, into a run of rooms that open one into the next.

Over the main hall, a barrel vault of ribbed pale oak runs the length of the room, above a wall of round windows planted with palms. Round marble tables stand on fluted bases, with cane-backed chairs upholstered in sage. A fluted sage counter and clusters of petal pendants mark the centre, on pale marble floors laid in a large geometric pattern.

Material palette
254 | La Donna Restaurant material palette — Ribbed travertine
Ribbed travertine

Entrance arches

254 | La Donna Restaurant material palette — Ribbed pale oak
Ribbed pale oak

Barrel-vault ceiling

254 | La Donna Restaurant material palette — Fluted sage
Fluted sage

Service counter

254 | La Donna Restaurant material palette — Cane & sage
Cane & sage

Dining chairs

01

Arches

Round openings of ribbed travertine, edged in brass, frame the rooms beyond.

02

Dining Hall

A ribbed oak vault over round windows, palms and sage banquettes.

03

Window Tables

Marble tables and sage chairs along the glazing.

About the project

Through the arches, towards the windows

Guests pass under the first arch and see the next room framed beyond it, so the restaurant is understood as a series of thresholds. The dining hall follows, its length emphasised by the vault overhead, with the service counter and pendants gathered at its centre. The walk ends at the window tables, where seats line the glazing and daylight arrives filtered through the palms.

Ribbed travertine shapes each entrance arch, a texture that reads clearly in raking light, and brass trims its edges. Overhead, ribbed pale oak lines the barrel vault and warms the hall. The service counter is fluted and finished in sage, a colour repeated on the dining chairs, where cane brings a light, open weave to the seating. At this restaurant in Portofino Hotel, Dubai, the palette stays soft from morning to evening.

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