What to eat in Dubai: 10 dishes and where to find them

What to eat in Dubai is decided far from the hotel towers: an Emirati breakfast tray in a courtyard in Al Fahidi, lamb machboos, a AED 10 chicken shawarma in Satwa and fried fish beside the fishing boats of Umm Suqeim. Do not leave without luqaimat in date syrup and a plate of hot kunafa in Deira.

The top end has just been mapped again: Michelin published its fifth Dubai selection on 6 October, and every star is in our Michelin Guide Dubai 2026 full list. This guide answers the other question, what to eat in Dubai between those bookings. The city's own cooking is Emirati, built on rice, fish, dates and dried lime; the rest arrived with the people who built the place, from Iran, Pakistan, Lebanon, Palestine and Kerala.

Addresses and prices were checked in October 2026 against the restaurants, the Michelin Guide and recent local listings. Prices are in dirhams (AED), per person and without drinks unless stated.

Dubai eats best where the room is plainest: a courtyard, a pavement table, a harbour shack.

What to eat in Dubai first: Emirati breakfast at Arabian Tea House, Al Fahidi

Emirati breakfast is sweet and salty at once. The centre of the tray is balaleet, vermicelli cooked with cardamom, cinnamon and saffron under a thin omelette, with chebab pancakes, khameer bread, date molasses, cheese, bajella (stewed broad beans) and dango (boiled chickpeas).

Arabian Tea House has served it since 1997 in a courtyard of white wicker chairs on Al Fahidi Street, in the old Bastakiya quarter, opposite the Musalla post office. The Emirati breakfast tray costs AED 80, according to a review by Halal Xplorer, and the listings give opening hours of 7am to 11pm daily.

Lamb machboos at Al Khayma Heritage Restaurant, Al Fahidi

Machboos is the dish most often called the national one: rice cooked in the stock of the meat or fish with baharat spices and loomi, the dried black lime that gives it a sour, smoky edge. It comes on a platter for the table.

Al Khayma Heritage Restaurant, at Villa 54-44 in the Al Fahidi Historical District, is on the Bib Gourmand list of the Michelin Guide Dubai 2026. The guide recommends the lamb machboos for sharing, notes that the bread is baked on site and describes the room as part restaurant, part museum, with tables under a tree in a covered courtyard. It opens daily from 8am to 11pm and serves no alcohol.

Luqaimat at Al Fanar, Al Seef

Luqaimat are small balls of yeasted dough, fried until crisp and covered in date syrup and sesame seeds. They are the standard end to an Emirati meal and the standard excuse for another pot of karak, the strong milk tea with cardamom.

Al Fanar, a group founded in 2011 whose rooms are dressed as 1960s Dubai, serves them at Al Seef, on the Bur Dubai side of the Creek, with a terrace facing the boats. The Michelin Guide lists the restaurant and gives its hours as noon to 11pm daily. A portion of luqaimat is priced at AED 28 at the group's Time Out Market counter.

Chicken shawarma at Al Mallah, Al Satwa

Shawarma is Dubai's real fast food: chicken shaved from the spit, rolled in thin bread with pickles and toum, the Lebanese garlic sauce. Al Mallah, on 2nd of December Street, the old Al Dhiyafah Road, began as a juice stand in the 1970s and still fills its pavement tables every night.

A wrap costs about AED 8 to 14 and fresh juices start at around AED 12, according to 2026 listings, which give opening hours of 7am to 3am. Order two; they are small.

Kebab khas at Al Ustad Special Kabab, Bur Dubai

Iranian traders shaped the Creek, and their kebabs stayed. Al Ustad Special Kabab opened in 1978 on Al Musalla Road, near Al Fahidi metro station, and is still run by the family of its late founder, Mohammed Al Ansari. The walls are covered in photographs of customers.

The order is kebab khas, chicken marinated in yoghurt, or joojeh kebab with saffron, both with saffron rice and flatbread; the meal starts with a free plate of fresh vegetables and mint yoghurt. 50 Best Discovery puts the average at about 13 US dollars a head, roughly AED 50. It serves dinner every day and lunch from Saturday to Thursday.

Chicken karahi at Ravi Restaurant, Al Satwa

Ravi is the Pakistani canteen that half the city claims as its own. Chaudary Abdul Hameed opened it in Satwa in 1978 and named it after the river that runs through Lahore. The dish to order is karahi, chicken or mutton cooked fast in a steel pan with tomato, ginger and green chilli, eaten with naan straight from the oven.

Mains cost roughly AED 15 to 30; tbreak's 2025 guide lists mutton handi at AED 24, chicken tikka at about AED 10 and a roti at AED 2, with opening hours of 7am to midnight.

Fried fish and prawns at Bu Qtair, Umm Suqeim

Bu Qtair started as a shack for fishermen and is now a plain dining room at Fishing Harbour 2 in Umm Suqeim, in sight of the Burj Al Arab. There is no menu to speak of. You choose from the day's fish and prawns, pay by weight, and they come back fried in a Keralan spice marinade with rice, a coconut fish curry and flaky parathas.

Listings put the bill at about AED 120 for two. There are no reservations, the queue at dinner can be long and it is wise to carry cash.

Fatet musakhan at Bait Maryam, Jumeirah Lakes Towers

Levantine home cooking is the other answer to what to eat in Dubai. Chef Salam Dakkak named Bait Maryam after her mother, and the restaurant, in Cluster D of Jumeirah Lakes Towers, keeps its Bib Gourmand in the 2026 guide. Fatet musakhan layers sumac chicken and onions over crisp bread and yoghurt; Michelin also singles out the Maryam fukhara, kibbeh cooked with pomegranate molasses in a clay pot.

Fatteh dishes cost AED 33 to 59 and grills AED 44 to 82. It opens from 10am to 10.30pm, and until 11.30pm on Fridays and Saturdays; no alcohol is served.

Kunafa at Qwaider Al Nabulsi, Deira

Kunafa is a Palestinian dessert from Nablus: mild white cheese under a crust of shredded or ground pastry, baked in a wide tray, soaked in syrup and cut to order while hot. Qwaider Al Nabulsi, on Al Muraqqabat Street in Deira, sells both the rough version, khishneh, and the soft one, na'ameh.

A portion with cheese costs AED 15, according to tbreak, and the shop opens from 8am to 2am. The falafel mahshi, stuffed and rolled in sesame, is the savoury reason to come.

Dubai chocolate from FIX Dessert Chocolatier

The pistachio bar the world now calls Dubai chocolate was created here. Sarah Hamouda founded FIX Dessert Chocolatier in 2021, and its bar Can't Get Knafeh of It fills a milk chocolate shell with toasted kunafa pastry, pistachio and tahini.

There is no shop in town. The bars are released on the Deliveroo app at 2pm and 5pm each day and sell out in minutes, at about AED 68 each; the alternative is the brand's counter at Dubai Duty Free in Dubai International Airport, on the way home.

Markets, neighbourhoods and when to go

• Al Fahidi and Al Seef: old Dubai on the Creek, where Arabian Tea House, Al Khayma and Al Fanar are within walking distance of each other. Go for breakfast, before the heat.
• Al Satwa: Al Mallah and Ravi are a few minutes apart and both stay open late; this is the cheapest dinner in the city.
• Deira: the fish hall of the Waterfront Market is open 24 hours, with a cleaning break on Friday around midday; Al Muraqqabat Street is the place for kunafa after 10pm.
• Karak tea costs AED 1 to 6 a cup at cafeterias all over the city.
• November to March is the season for eating outdoors; in summer, plan for air-conditioned rooms.

Frequently asked questions about eating in Dubai

Is Dubai expensive to eat in? Not for these dishes. A shawarma is about AED 10, a kebab dinner about AED 50, kunafa AED 15 and the Emirati breakfast tray AED 80. The price jumps in hotel restaurants and at the Michelin-starred end.

What is the national dish? Machboos, spiced rice with lamb, chicken or fish and dried lime, is the dish most often given that title, alongside harees, wheat and meat cooked to a porridge.

Can you drink alcohol with these meals? Mostly no. Alcohol is served in licensed venues, largely hotels; Michelin lists Al Khayma, Al Fanar and Bait Maryam as serving none, and the cafeterias pour juice and tea.

What should you eat with only one day? Emirati breakfast in Al Fahidi, shawarma in Satwa and fish at Bu Qtair at sunset: that settles what to eat in Dubai in 24 hours.

Where to book first

Three reservations are worth making before you fly. Al Khayma Heritage Restaurant, Villa 54-44, Al Fahidi, takes bookings directly by phone. Bait Maryam, Cluster D, Jumeirah Lakes Towers, fills up at weekends. Orfali Bros, in Wasl 51 in Jumeirah 1, promoted to two Michelin stars this week, has an OG tasting menu at AED 350, as What's On reported in June.

For the background to that promotion, read our preview of the Michelin ceremony in Dubai; for the newest names in town, see how Manna opened in Dubai and Riyadh.