Azizi Riviera A Waitrose opens on the other side of Meydan
Riviera's weekly shop has always meant choosing a direction rather than a shop. There is now one more direction.
What opened at Nad Al Sheba Gardens
Nad Al Sheba Gardens Mall, a two-storey community scheme, opened in August 2026 inside the Nad Al Sheba Gardens residential district — east of Meydan, on the far side of the racecourse from Riviera.
The anchor
Waitrose, operating in the UAE under Spinneys' licence. Early tenants alongside it include Kokoro Handroll Bar and Bake My Day.
The rest of it
Cafés and restaurants, health and fitness space, and a nursery. It is a neighbourhood centre by design, not a mall.
Who built it
The community is developed by Meraas and owned by Shamal, whose CEO Abdulla Binhabtoor describes the district as a calm environment rather than a busy one. Nad Al Sheba Gardens sits about ten minutes from Downtown Dubai.
The distance is short and the route is not. Nad Al Sheba Gardens is close to Riviera as the crow flies but the racecourse and its approach roads sit between them, so the drive is longer than the map suggests and is worst on race evenings from November. Judge it on what it is: a two-storey community centre inside a gated villa district, which means a genuinely good supermarket, a handful of cafés, and very little else — the kind of place that replaces a grocery run rather than an afternoon. Whether it is worth the trip from Riviera depends almost entirely on whether you want the Waitrose specifically, because everything else in it exists closer to home.
Source: Retail & Leisure International checked against the source
More Azizi Riviera news
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The RTA runs four bus routes to Global Village for the season that opened on 14 October: 102 from Al Rashidiya, 103 from Union, 104 from Al Ghubaiba and 106 from Mall of the Emirates, with two electric abras inside the park. None starts in MBR City, and the nearest pick-up for Azizi Riviera is a Metro ride away.
The Abu Dhabi train opens
Etihad Rail's passenger service reaches Dubai on 30 September at Al Yalayis, roughly 57 minutes from Abu Dhabi — and about 40 kilometres from Meydan, where Azizi Riviera sits.
Ras Al Khor goes back to winter hours
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