More than 200 nationalities call Dubai home, and its dynamic dining scene reflects its multiculturalism. Nowadays, culinary ventures are moving away from establishments inspired by celebrity chefs and into an appreciation for history, authenticity, and innovation.
Here are nine Dubai food-related concepts that make the city’s culinary diversity more accessible and exciting than ever.
Frying Pan Adventures
Arva Ahmed founded the food tour company Frying Pan Adventures with her sister, Farida, in 2013 with the desire to change people’s perceptions of what was, at the time, a celebrity-chef–centered Dubai food scene. On a tour, travelers can try dishes like hot-from-the-oil samosas and spiced karak tea, among other fare, from places that most visitors would never encounter. Ahmed’s walking tours, which include the “Little India Food Tour” and “Dubai Souks and Creekside Food Walk,” connect with the immigrant communities that have made the United Arab Emirates (UAE) home over the decades.
“These places offer a sense of discovery that’s hard to find in an age where everything is documented online,” Ahmed says.
Canvas Gelato
Ice cream-making didn’t come naturally to Canvas Gelato founder Ahmad Al Marri. “I always wondered why nobody in Dubai was making gelato or ice cream from scratch, so I decided to experiment at home with a few recipe books,” he says. One five-day course in Dubai and an advanced gelato course in Bologna, Italy, later, and Canvas Gelato opened in 2017.
Canvas’s menu feature flavors such as Arabic coffee and karak chai and biscuits, but Al Marri also enjoys experimenting with unusual combinations, looking outside the dessert realm for ideas. “If a flavor combination works in a salad, there’s no reason it shouldn’t work in another dish,” he says. French duck-fat caramels inspired one of his quirkier recipes, an ice cream infused with caramel made from smoked beef tallow and candied beef bacon. “Some of our unusual flavors work really well,” says Al Marri. “Others are more of a learning opportunity, to say the least.”
“I know it sounds cheesy, but life is my biggest inspiration,” says chef Sahar Parham Al Awadhi.
Photo courtesy of Gerbou
Gerbou
Emirati cuisine has long been overlooked, but restaurant Gerbou aims to change that—and Sahar Parham Al Awadhi’s desserts are a large part of the reason. Al Awadhi says her chebab cheesecake “really plays on nostalgia” as it’s based on an Emirati breakfast pancake, with creative additions including saffron and cardamom biscuits, whipped white chocolate, and local date syrup. She developed her Emirati aseeda, a classic dessert made from organic pumpkins grown in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, with rosewater, saffron, and cardamom, resulting in a dish that “feels like home.”
Chef Kelvin Cheung describes his food as “my life on a plate.”
Photo courtesy of Jun’s
Jun’s
“Growing up in North America to immigrant parents, I lived in a dual world,” says chef Kelvin Cheung, who spent his childhood in the kitchens of his father’s Hong Kong–style Cantonese restaurants in Toronto and Chicago. As a result, the dishes at Jun’s have roots in North American Asian food, a cuisine Cheung says uses easy-to-source ingredients and nontraditional flavor combinations.
At Downtown Dubai restaurant Jun’s, the third-generation chef serves dishes such as heirloom carrots with smoked labneh, a vegetarian homage to the bagels with smoked salmon and cream cheese that his mother fell in love with after immigrating to North America. Another is lobster pani puri with fragrant Macanese curry. “Macanese curry is a staple of Hong Kong café culture and was one of our family favorites to bring back a taste of home,” he says. Become a regular, and the fortune cookie at the end of your meal might have a personalized message inside.
“Mirzam is 100 percent made in Dubai and is rooted in stories from the Spice Route,” says Mizram chief chocolate officer Kathy Johnston.
Photos courtesy of Mirzam Chocolate
Mirzam
There’s a sense of magic in Mirzam’s factory and café in the industrial Al Quoz neighborhood. It’s where premium cocoa beans are turned into chocolate in an almost alchemic process. Mirzam’s bars, truffles, pralines, and caramels feature secret family recipes and ingredients valued by Arabian spice traders, as well as locally grown produce. “Our new Tamr Truffles are made with UAE-grown dates, quinoa, and olive oil, allowing us to use under-sized local dates which are becoming more common due to climate change,” Mizram chief chocolate officer Kathy Johnston says. The result is a plant-based caramel filling, gently spiced with ginger, fennel, and pomegranate.
Lento
“Not a burger joint” is how Emirati chef Faisal Naser describes Lento. His burgers are excellent, and his Thursdays-only fish burger—made with battered local hamour—served with a side of minted mushy peas, has become local legend. But he’s keen to showcase other dishes inspired by the food he grew up eating in the UAE, like his masala omelet paratha roll and Palestinian-style falafel served in sourdough pita.
“Dubai’s food scene is all about passion, innovation, and a commitment to quality,” says Naser.
Orfali Bros Bistro
Orfali Bros Bistro is only four years old yet has had a huge impact on Dubai’s homegrown dining scene. Run by brothers Mohammad, Wassim, and Omar Orfali, the restaurant was originally intended as a culinary space where, according to Mohammad, “we break the rules but respect tradition.” It’s a recipe that resonates, and the restaurant is often booked weeks in advance with diners flocking to the bistro for umami éclairs with porcini emulsion and cacao nibs, and Wagyu beef kebabs with sour cherry and pine nuts.
“The cuisine reflects our personal experiences, emotions, and memories,” Mohammad Orfali says. The food has clearly captured international attention: The restaurant received a Michelin star in 2024, as well as the top spot on the MENA’s 50 Best Restaurants list.
Kinoya
Chef Neha Mishra of Kinoya thinks “in noodles and broth”—and Dubai diners can be grateful she does. Kinoya is a homegrown success story that has expanded to London’s luxury department store Harrods. But its origins are humble, beginning as a private supper club that evolved into a full-blown restaurant in 2021. Mishra attributes Kinoya’s popularity to no corners being cut: Chicken-based broth is made from locally sourced ingredients, and vegetables come from local farms. There’s much for non-meat-eaters to celebrate here, and the umami-packed vegetarian ramen is a favorite. Mishra developed Kinoya’s vegetarian ramen after her youngest son was born, when all she wanted was “a bowl that would make me feel nourished.”
Al Naqa Lao Kebab House
Aphisith Phongsavanh’s Al Naqa Lao Kebab House, in the Singaporean hawker-center–style Neighbourhood Food Hall, cooks up a bold and punchy cuisine combining Lao and Thai Isan flavors with Levantine and Persian influences.
The dishes were born out of Phongsavanh’s childhood curiosity for the massaman curry he knew from his aunt’s restaurant in Toronto. “I was fascinated by how different it was from all other curries with its flavors of cinnamon, fennel, nutmeg, and cardamom,” he says. These spices had traveled with traders from West Asia to Southeast Asia, but the combination of them all seemed to have found its way into one dish. “I wanted to create a cuisine that blended West Asian ingredients and techniques with Southeast Asian. It was a dream I just couldn’t let go,” he says.
The dream has evolved into a casual restaurant that draws fans with its roasted eggplant dip made with shrimp paste, coconut milk, and date molasses, and juicy kebabs infused with lemongrass, lime, and the heat of chopped chile.
