172 of 175 places fit
A Pakistani family has made Peshawari chapli kababs here since the 1990s, spicy, mild or mixed with egg, for about 5 or 6 dirhams each with roti.
Falafel and shawarma on the ground floor of Corniche Tower, so you can carry dinner straight across to the beach.
A rooftop over the Ajman Corniche with sea views and some of the cheapest shisha on this list, listed from Dh15.
An Australian specialty café with beans from about a dozen origins and an open terrace on East Boulevard, opposite the Vida hotel.
Kunafa made with your choice of ricotta or akkawi cheese and syrup scented with rose or orange blossom.
Pakistani weekend breakfast: halwa puri, nihari, paya and aloo paratha from 6am, for about 20 to 25 dirhams a head.
The only thing on the menu is kunafa, with cheese, cream, almond or pistachio.
Kunafa reworked with mango or Nutella, if you want the dessert without the usual cheese.
Aljada's food truck park: Ozzy Burgers' smash burgers, Pickl, and The Reformatory Lab's wagyu, chicken and cauliflower pies that its other branches don't sell.
Chef Mariam Almansoori cooks Emirati women's family recipes, such as grilled jeder (lamb shank with tamarind) and chicken maragooga; it was named the Gulf's best Emirati restaurant at the 2025 BBC Good Food ME awards.
Order the fwala tray, Gerbou's take on an Emirati afternoon spread, or the chicken machboos; one of the Orfali brothers' picks for its habbat al hamra dessert.
Seafront tables a few steps from the sand, with grilled lobster and the catch of the day.
A two-week winter market in Sharjah with a row of food trucks, one of the few in the emirate.
A Dh25 flat white at the quieter Khawaneej branch, away from the Jumeirah crowd.
Beans roasted on a Loring machine travel over your head in clear pipes to the bar, and the bread comes from an open bakery using 48-hour sourdough.
Order buckets of chicken for sharing.
You eat a health-focused breakfast or lunch with the sea directly in front of you and the sun setting over it.
An Iranian kebab house open since 1978 with a one-page menu of kebab-and-rice combos and walls covered in photos of decades of regulars.
Palma Saray Restaurant & Cafe serves Indian and global cuisine.
A floating restaurant on the UAQ lagoon, with water on every side of your table.
A Pakistani canteen that has fed Satwa for decades: mutton karahi, dal and a stack of hot naan for well under 30 dirhams a head.
A Pakistani canteen that has fed Satwa for decades: mutton karahi, dal and a stack of hot naan for well under 30 dirhams a head.
A Lebanese sweets house in Dubai since the 1970s: buy a mixed box of baklava and the cream-filled pastries to share.
A big casual Lebanese dining room where the shawarma, grills and mezze come out fast enough to feed a crowd without a booking.
Persian cooking with window tables over the Creek and old Dubai; order the kash-e bademjan, an aubergine dip, before the kebabs.
A tiny counter by the Gold Souk turning out some of the cheapest decent chicken shawarma in the city, around 8 to 10 dirhams a wrap.
Emirati machboos, seafood and lamb served family-style in a room done up like old Dubai, with a terrace over the Creek boats.
Shared seafood trays over spiced rice and jesheed (shredded shark with loomi and onion), on the creek.
Lamb machboos, harees and balaleet eaten on cushions in a courtyard tent, with a Michelin Bib Gourmand behind it.
Karama's tea institution since 1998, where you order the 'biryani chai' or the gingery disco chai for a couple of dirhams.
Karama's tea institution since 1998, where you order the 'biryani chai' or the gingery disco chai for a couple of dirhams.
A Lebanese bakery of more than 35 years that bakes manaqeesh and wraps shawarma around the clock.
Karak for about two dirhams with an egg, cheese and Chips Oman sandwich on samoon bread, the full cafeteria order in one stop.
Karak for about two dirhams with an egg, cheese and Chips Oman sandwich on samoon bread, the full cafeteria order in one stop.
Shawarma on Al Diyafah since 1979, in pita, saj or the 'Mexican' version, with a fresh juice for well under 30 dirhams.
A Bedouin-style garden of rugs, lanterns and low sofas between the towers, with Middle Eastern and North African plates to share; Michelin lists it among Dubai's most romantic.
A full sit-down Middle Eastern dinner in an outdoor lantern-lit garden that keeps serving until 2am, 3am at weekends.
A 15-seat rooftop counter with a Michelin star, where everyone is served the same tasting menu at the same time.
Running since 1987, this is where Satwa goes for charcoal chicken, burgers and fresh juice from the same counter.
Running since 1987, this is where Satwa goes for charcoal chicken, burgers and fresh juice from the same counter.
A Palestinian menu designed for sharing, with 48-hour sourdough and the labneh crème brûlée with za'atar ice cream to end.
Weekend Palestinian breakfast with bread from its own 48-hour sourdough, labneh and za'atar, in a room hung with Palestinian art.
Open since 1990 on Jumeirah Beach Road, it is the drive-up classic for a shawarma and one of its layered fruit 'cocktails' served to your car window.
Open since 1990 on Jumeirah Beach Road, it is the drive-up classic for a shawarma and one of its layered fruit 'cocktails' served to your car window.
Coffee inside the resort's equestrian centre, with horses, oryx and gazelle in view.
Breakfast trays of shakshouka, labneh, falafel, khameer and chibab with karak at a farm that grows its own strawberries in winter and mills its own wheat.
RAK's drive-thru cafeteria for karak topped with crushed biscuits, Oman chips chapati and zinger parotta, from about 15 dirhams.
Yemeni mandi, mazbi and haneeth ribs on sharing platters, about 50 to 100 dirhams a head.
Dubai's first bean-to-bar chocolate factory, where you can order the aseeda fondant, a warm chocolate take on the Emirati wheat-and-butter dessert.
A ranch-style outdoor food hall with 29 food and drink concepts, from brisket to bubble tea, a footbridge from Al Khawaneej Walk.
An open-air night market where Filipino food stalls are the draw, with live performances most nights.
You drink in the warehouse where the UAE's first specialty roastery still roasts, with the bags you can take home stacked behind the bar.
They roast their own Ethiopian beans daily and serve them as straight espresso or milk drinks.
A Dh22 flat white made with their own Candyman blend, plus a Basque cheesecake that people come back for.
A kiosk baking cheese-stuffed bread in a deep pit oven, also with Oman chips or honey, for 3.50 dirhams.
Machboos, khabees and harees by the sea on RAK's old corniche.
Syrian falafel and Lebanese-style shawarma on RAK's busiest food street, from about 15 dirhams.
Vegetarian thalis, dosas, pani puri and paneer curries where most dishes are under 15 dirhams and a full meal is about 20.
Shisha on the sand with the sea and Ain Dubai in front of you, and a casual dress code.
Classic Nabulsi kunafa cut from a big round tray and served hot, a short walk from Mall of the Emirates.
Book the counter and watch the chefs build the ramen, with robata, sushi and a proper sake list, all at a Bib Gourmand price.
Evening shisha on a terrace that looks straight onto the Dubai Fountain shows, from a homegrown Emirati-founded café rather than a chain.
A table above Fashion Avenue that overlooks the Dubai Fountain, at café prices instead of a fine-dining bill.
A Karama café devoted entirely to eggs, with dozens of Indian street-style omelettes and egg bhurji with pav.
Home-style Levantine cooking at a budget price; order the Maryam fukhara, kibbeh baked in a clay pot with pomegranate molasses, for the table.
An Arabic restaurant in the mall that does mastic among its shisha flavours, alongside mint, watermelon and peach-grape.
Carpeted private rooms with floor seating, and grills, kebabs and lamb chops on big shared platters eaten by hand.
Budget shisha on RAK's corniche, open late; a second branch is in Dafan Al Khor.
A cheap, round-the-clock local shisha café with food and free parking outside.
Slow-cooked meats and home-style Emirati food in generous portions in the fishing town of Al Rams.
Billed as the oldest café in the UAE: karak on majlis benches by the creek while regulars play backgammon.
Gahwa with fresh luqaimat in a small heritage-style café by the old souq.
A weekend market in the park with street food vendors, a food truck seating area and local produce stalls.
The house Cream and Honey waffle and a lava cake, open until 1am in Fujairah city.
The rare proper espresso bar on the east coast, with rotating guest beans a few minutes from the Al Aqah beach hotels.
Shisha with sea views on the Fujairah corniche, and grilled seafood platters if you're eating.
You reach it by golf buggy across the reserve, past gazelles and oryx, for a seasonal menu built on local produce.
A New York-style steakhouse that RAK residents rate as consistent: steaks and seafood without surprises.
A long terrace right on the water with sea and Hajar mountain views, and a pistachio chocolate kunafa to finish.
Arabic breakfast or date pudding facing Khor Fakkan's bay and mountains.
Plaster walls and trough sinks, a brew-bar menu, and an iced hibiscus or cascara if you want something other than coffee.
Karak, juice and burgers at the end of Al Qudra Road, where cyclists and desert drivers stop.
Grilled seafood looking out to Dibba Rock, with fish (and sometimes turtles) in the water below the deck.
Food trucks set among monster trucks and Mad Max-style war rigs on the AUH Bound side, Americana trucks on the DXB Bound side, both a pull-off from the highway.
One of RAK's oldest dessert shops; order the fruit-and-nut plate with chocolate ice cream that is its best-known order.
The nearest truck park for Shamkha and Al Riyadh City, on the Sweihan road out of the city.
An Emirati-led café that sells curated design and lifestyle pieces next to the coffee bar, so you can browse while you wait.
Kunafa in several versions, with cheese, cream or mixed, made from fresh ingredients and cut to order.
Pan-Asian sharing plates on the Yas Bay pier, with fixed-price lunches and brunches that make splitting the bill easy.
Pan-Asian plates and a lounge bar on the Yas Bay pier until 1am every night.
Pier-side tables over the water at Yas Bay, looking across Al Raha Creek.
Cut-chai karak for one or two dirhams, open until 2am.
Al Ain's municipal food-truck park, about 15 carts and a mini-mart a few minutes from the zoo, handy for dinner on the way down from Jebel Hafeet.
Bib Gourmand seafood in sharing portions, steps from the Mina fish market.
Monday's 1.2kg tomahawk for sharing and Tuesday's unlimited sushi suit a hungry group.
Steaks, sushi and a DJ at Park Rotana until 1am.
An Emirati breakfast or machboos in Al Ain, where proper sit-down Emirati restaurants are few.
A themed dinner buffet each night (Monday is seafood) means nobody argues over the menu.
A Russian-style shisha lounge chain whose only Abu Dhabi branch sits at Yas Mall's main entrance, open until 2am.
Emirati breakfast and snack food, harees, khabeesa, chebab and luqaimat with date syrup, made to order in an Al Ain neighbourhood.
A Palestinian sweet shop open since 1980, with kunafa cut hot from the tray alongside baklava and basbousa.
An open-air hotel terrace over the marina and the Corniche skyline, with shisha and live crêpe stations rather than a smoky cafe.
Karak in ginger, saffron and plain, poured into a bigger cup than the cafeteria standard.
Big plates of Emirati home cooking, salona, machboos and khameer with cheese and date syrup, plus a karak made to a grandmother's recipe.
Nabulsi kunafa, cheese katayef and baklava in a shop open until 1am.
Long tables, live sport on the screens and pots of moules frites built for a crowd.
The kitchen and bar run until 2am, and late football matches play on the screens.
A downtown terrace that never closes, with shisha at AED 50 and red tea at AED 18, so a 3am session costs less than a cinema ticket.
A gelato shop with weekly specials you won't find at the mall chains.
Nasi lemak, roti bakar with soft-boiled eggs, and roti jala from 8am, with breakfast served all day.
Chandy's roti jala, laksa and nasi lemak earned a Michelin listing and still come in under AED 50 a plate.
An old-school Arabic sweet shop where kunafa, baklava and mamoul come by weight at the lowest prices on this list.
Khalifa City's long-running truck park, a ring of ten-plus trucks around a central courtyard with parking right next to the counters.
Classic kunafa given new flavours, worth the drive north if you live in Shahama, Rahba or Khalifa City.
A local roastery with a following among coffee people, where you choose a V60 by origin and flavour profile.
Sea views along the Mamsha Al Saadiyat beachfront.
A small roastery in the port where you buy a cup, drip bags or beans from the people who roasted them.
Floor-to-ceiling windows and a terrace near the top of the UAE's highest mountain, where it's noticeably cooler than the coast.
Dozens of hot and cold mezze to share, then shisha on the terrace.
Mezze and shisha on the terrace until 1am every night.
A backstreet neighbourhood cafe off the Corniche with several screens for football and shisha at any hour.
The name residents give first for Chips Oman: the Francisco parotta rolls chicken, cheese and chilli crisps together.
Lebanese sweets since 1989; the osmaleya is a kunafa-style cake of crisp vermicelli around cream or cheese.
A Lebanese and Turkish restaurant with a waterfront terrace on Khor Al Maqta where shisha is served every evening from sunset.
A waterfront cafe a short walk from Marina Mall where you smoke with the Corniche skyline and the marina's yachts in front of you.
The Dubai Turkish shisha restaurant's Abu Dhabi branch, with seasonal shisha blends alongside Anatolian breakfasts like shakshouka (AED 45).
You eat right in front of Surf Abu Dhabi's wave pool and watch surfers drop in.
Bib Gourmand Mediterranean on the Yas Marina terrace, with 2-for-1 drinks from 4pm to 7pm Sunday to Friday.
Mediterranean plates on the Yas Marina terrace until 1am on Fridays and Saturdays.
A terrace on Yas Marina looking straight over the moored yachts.
Emirati breakfast breads (regag with egg, chebab with date syrup and honey) from 8:30am, made by two sisters.
A Michelin-listed Emirati kitchen with a long menu of home-style dishes and a strong dessert list.
Two Emirati sisters turned a food truck into this kitchen, and a regag with egg is AED 26.
A Bib Gourmand Thai café, given the award for generous plates of green curry, har gow and mango sticky rice at modest prices.
Karak for about AED 2, in saffron, ginger or zaatar versions, plus a Chips Oman paratha to go with it.
Shawarma wrapped in thin saj bread starts around AED 20, and the bread basket refills for free.
A big Pakistani dining hall where diners report seating parties of 20, with karahi served in sharing pots.
A double-glazed glass box in the palm grove of Sheikh Khalifa's birthplace fort, serving date ice cream and pastries made with Al Ain farm eggs and milk.
The saffron Zafran chai is the house order, and the small is bigger than the label suggests.
They roast their own beans, and the V60 pour-over is the order that made them one of the city's first specialty names.
Manakeesh come straight out of the oven from 8am, with foul, fatteh and shakshuka on the breakfast mezze list.
Fresh manakeesh and grills until 12:30am on weeknights and 1:30am at weekends.
Manakeesh come straight out of the oven, and the long menu runs from breakfast foul to grills after midnight.
You drink coffee roasted in-house next to cars you can't buy from any showroom, including a Mercedes 300SL signed by Brad Pitt.
A dozen trucks parked along Marsana, from I Love Burgers and Boom Burger to Harr & Hloo's mashakeek grill and a zaatar-and-karak truck, a few steps from a free beach.
Grilled fish and mezze on a beachfront terrace, a short walk from the Louvre Abu Dhabi.
Lebanese breakfast mezze and egg dishes on a beach terrace at Saadiyat, from 9am.
A beachfront terrace on Saadiyat with the water a few steps away.
Sourdough-crust pizza on a terrace that looks straight out at the Gulf.
Lebanese-Armenian dishes in generous sharing portions, with round booths sized for a table of friends.
A full Lebanese-Armenian kitchen open until 1am, inside The Galleria on Al Maryah Island.
A long-running Pakistani dining hall where mutton karahi, mixed grill and fresh roti feed a table cheaply.
Emirati recipes reworked with modern technique, such as margooga ravioli and bzar-marinated short rib, next to the city's oldest building.
A Michelin-starred weekend breakfast at Qasr Al Hosn: khubz rigag with egg and cheese, and Emirati French toast with sidr honey.
Private cabins and floor-cushion majlis rooms suit a family or a crowd eating Emirati sharing dishes.
An Emirati and Kuwaiti kitchen that opens at 7am, with mutabbaq and harees on the menu.
Bib Gourmand Emirati and Kuwaiti cooking (majboos, harees, mutabbaq) in Michelin's cheapest price band.
A Michelin Bib Gourmand serving Emirati and Kuwaiti classics such as madhrouba, thareed and machboos, with majlis seating and private cabins.
FiLLi's tea and quick snacks are a standard UAE stop after everything else has shut.
Classic Tuscan cooking on the Corniche, with a kitchen whose chef won Michelin's Young Chef award.
Modern Lebanese cooking with harbour views from Etihad Towers, plus fixed-price menus so nobody has to choose.
Harbour views from the Etihad Towers, with Lebanese food to match.