Dubai: Love at first bite!
Dubai draws droves of tourists from the four corners of the globe for its world-class shopping experience, luxury hotels, and fine-sand beaches.
There is more to Dubai than that.
With 200 nationalities calling Dubai home, you get the ingredients of the region’s best dining destination. A melting pot of cultures braised a concoction of a culinary extravaganza representing the diverse flavors of its residents—from Albanian pie (Byrek) to Zambian finger foods, Dubai delivers an eclectic variety of the world’s finest cuisines.
We really like sampling exotic food beyond the realm of our local cuisine, and we are guessing you do, too. So lucky for all of us, we’ve rounded up the best Dubai restaurants to satiate your wandering taste buds.
We hope you’re hungry because we are dishing out a full-course meal—all cherry-picked by us—at the best restaurants in Dubai.
Let’s start with the appetizers.
Best appetizers in Dubai
Cheese Vada Pav at Al Rajwa
Located in Bur Dubai, Al Rajwa boasts a wide variety of salivating snacks. You can’t go wrong with the Cheese Vada Pav, a cheese-stuffed pav and topped with more cheese. Say cheese!
Shades at the Address Dubai Marina
Hors d’oeuvre with a cityscape view! Take your pick from a wide range of their great signature mezes from the Mediterranean to the Far East cuisines. Shades is a rooftop restaurant magnificently nested on the 4th floor of the 5-star hotel Address Dubai Marina, amidst the city’s gleaming skyscrapers and overlooking the Dubai Marina.
The Salad
Tashas
Tashas – Al Wasl Road, Al Safa– is a South African restaurant known for its wholesome menu and modern interiors. The menu features an extensive list of original salads, including their take on the Caesar salad, with a curious addition of anchovies. The butternut squash salad is another item on the menu worth nibbling on—relished with roasted butternut, and served on a bed of greens, with roasted tomatoes, nuts, avocado, and a side of feta or goat’s cheese.
Vapiano at Dubai Media City
Vapiano is one of the few restaurants in town that lets you custom-create your own salad to your liking. Salads are prepared in mere minutes in front of you in their open-plan kitchen, so you can have it to go or enjoy at their modern dining area.
Have you worked up an appetite yet?
Main course
It’s a challenge to find a restaurant in Dubai without the perfect view! Most restaurants serve food against a breathtaking view of the skyline, the beach, or at worst, overlooking an infinity pool.
Be forewarned: the views might distract you from enjoying your meal.
Ossiano: Dine & dive
Talk about an immersive dining experience! Ossiano is an underwater restaurant at the Atlantis Dubai that sets the stage for the most romantic place to dine in Dubai with your significant other. If you are more of a solo diner, the sharks, stingrays, and fish will keep you company as they glide past your table. Ossiano’s chefs will take you on a gastronomical journey like no other, as they put together a tantalizing menu of luxurious flavors inspired by Mediterranean cuisine.
Not that you need more convincing to book your table at Ossiano, the restaurant has earned multiple awards, including the 2020 BBC Good Food Magazine Awards and the 2020 TripAdvisor’s Travelers’ Choice Restaurant. Needless to say, this is what dreams are made of.
Al Hadheerah: Dine under the stars
For an authentic Arabian experience, head over this way. Al Hadheerah is situated at Bab Al Shams Desert Resort & Spa surrounded by a desert oasis—perfect for a quiet and peaceful dinner under the stars. Al Hadheerah serves authentic Arabian flavors, with live cooking stations.
Dessert
Got room for dessert? We do!
Madness Made in Dubai
This restaurant has earned its moniker! The Piñata, as the name suggests, is a mind-blowing presentation where it’s smashed before your eyes like a Piñata bursting out sweet treats, suspended over a bed of marshmallows, fresh strawberries, and blueberries. It’s all topped off with a copious serving of warm chocolate sauce.
Sugar factory
Sugar Factory’s Pistachio and Saffron packs a punch of unique flavors—all rolled into one. Served in a large cup that contains scoops of pistachio ice cream and a cardamom sponge—wrapped with toasted kunafa. Sugar Factory packs more sweet treats as creative as Pistachio and Saffron Sundae. Don’t take our word for it—try it out for yourself.
For the love of food, we’ve partnered with Eat app to help you get your hands on the top restaurant tables in Dubai. Soon enough, you will be able to book a restaurant table, powered by Eat app, through our dining activity category. Stay tuned for more!
We know it’s hard to encapsulate the best bites of Dubai in one single blog post—we barely scratched the surface of this foodie haven. We promise we will catch you up with Dubai’s hottest restaurants, the best street food, and more.
Wherever our taste buds take us, we will bring you the finest, Michelin-starred dining experience.