The 100 Best Places to Eat and Drink in the United Arab Emirates

Fifteen seats, a rooftop on The Palm, and a tasting menu that moves you around the room as the courses progress, lights dimming on cue. Chef Himanshu Saini runs this intimate fine dining experience as a journey through Indian culinary history, regional and precise, with a service team that treats the whole thing as choreography. It holds three Michelin stars and a spot on the World's 50 Best list, and the room is small enough that it actually feels like a secret.

Björn Frantzén holds three Michelin stars at three separate restaurants, and this is one of them. FZN is a 27-seat fine dining room inside Atlantis, The Palm, designed to feel like a private apartment: canapés in a Scandi sitting room, then a move to the open kitchen counter or one of four tables for a Nordic-Japanese tasting menu. Forbes Five Star, three Michelin stars, and a spot on MENA's 50 Best. Only 27 people per night get in, so plan accordingly.

Three Syrian brothers run this casual bistro on Al Wasl Road, with a two-storey open kitchen that makes the cooking the whole point of the room. Small plates pull from Syrian tradition, pan-regional Middle Eastern cooking, and whatever else the brothers feel like eating, which turns out to be quite a lot. The pastry team upstairs handles desserts with French technique and a straight face. It holds a Michelin star and sits on the World's 50 Best list.

Jason Atherton's fine dining room on the 45th floor of Grosvenor House seats just 22 people and runs a 17-course French-Japanese tasting menu in three acts, moving guests between spaces as the evening unfolds. The chef's table, four seats facing the open kitchen, books out fast. Ankimo, uni, and soba carry the Japanese thread; French technique holds it together. It holds two Michelin stars and a Forbes Five Star.

A converted Jumeirah villa where the open grill isn't decor, it's the whole argument. This is a modern fine dining restaurant built around wood fire, with oak, hickory, and hay chosen for the specific character each one lends to meat, seafood, or vegetables. The room has that minimalist industrial look, the kitchen is fully visible, and the drinks list is zero-proof but seriously considered. It holds a Michelin star and a spot on MENA's 50 Best.

An old-school institution in DIFC where regulars rattle off their order without glancing at the menu, which tells you most of what you need to know. LPM is a French-Mediterranean restaurant and bar with white walls, bright art, and a Mediterranean breeziness that somehow survives the Dubai setting. The bar sits at No. 60 on The World's 50 Best Bars list, and the cocktail program draws on Jean Cocteau's life, which is a more interesting premise than it sounds.

The terrace faces the marina, and on a clear evening it's the kind of view that makes you feel the bill was someone else's idea. This is a fine dining Italian restaurant inside the Bulgari Resort, holding two Michelin stars, where the team flies much of its produce in from Italy and the pasta and fish dishes carry that weight quietly. The room is sleek and intimate, the staff warmly Italian, and the tasting menu is the way to go.

A colonial-style mansion at the very tip of the Palm, with tropical gardens trailing down to a private dock, sets the tone before you've looked at a menu. This is a formal French fine dining restaurant from Yannick Alleno, holder of two Michelin stars, where the cooking layers classical technique with genuinely modern ideas. The room is opulent without making you sit up straighter, and the service reads the same way, polished but not stiff.

The bar program here landed at No. 36 on the World's 50 Best Bars list, which is a lot for a restaurant inside a Four Seasons to live up to, and yet the kitchen keeps pace. Mimi Kakushi is a contemporary Japanese dining room and cocktail bar where sushi, wagyu, and donabe rice pots share the evening with drinks that have made the global circuit. The crowd arrives dressed for it, and the room obliges.

For the final course, the electric lights go off and the room is lit by moonlight, which tells you something about how seriously Solemann Haddad takes the whole thing. This 15-seat rooftop counter serves a 12-course tasting menu twice nightly, with each dish plated right in front of you. The kitchen threads Middle Eastern ingredients through Japanese technique in ways that feel personal rather than studied. It holds a Michelin star and a spot on MENA's 50 Best.

Doors slide open on their own as you approach, which sets the tone nicely for a fine dining room that takes itself seriously without apologizing for it. Heston Blumenthal's Dubai outpost runs the same menu as London, centuries of British cooking reimagined with very good ingredients. The Meat Fruit arrives looking like a mandarin. A pineapple spins on a spit in the open kitchen. It holds a Michelin star and a Forbes Five Star.

Sharks and stingrays glide past the floor-to-ceiling windows while you eat, which does make it harder to focus on the sommelier. Ossiano is a fine dining tasting menu restaurant inside the Atlantis on Palm Jumeirah, built around an aquarium housing tens of thousands of marine animals. The ten-course menu traces explorers who sailed the Atlantic, with courses finished tableside for effect. It holds a Michelin star and a Forbes Five Star.

Neha Misra ran a sold-out ramen supper club from her home for years before the demand outgrew her dining room. Now it's a casual izakaya and ramen shop where the noodles are still made from scratch, the broth runs rich and creamy, and the duck ramen uses every part of the bird. A Michelin Bib Gourmand and number two on MENA's 50 Best list. The ramen counter, with a view of the kitchen, fills up fast.

Thai food reimagined through a Dubai lens, Manāo is a mid-range sit-down restaurant that earned a Michelin star within five months of opening, which is the kind of overachieving that makes everyone else look bad. The team's background spans Thailand, India, and Syria, and somehow that collision produces something coherent and genuinely exciting. The room draws curious food lovers who actually did their research, not just people who wandered in off the street.

The name translates as "Maryam's dining table," and the room commits to that promise, with Palestinian art on the walls and bread baked fresh throughout service. This is a Levantine restaurant where sharing is the default and portions make that easy. The Michelin Bib Gourmand and a spot on MENA's 50 Best list follow the chef's reputation for threading centuries of Middle Eastern culinary tradition through genuinely inventive technique, including a labneh crème brûlée topped with za'atar ice cream.

Lattice screens, booth seating beside a backlit blue bar, and a soundtrack loud enough to count as a second course: this is Hakkasan's version of a Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant. The global chain's Dubai outpost leans into the party-venue energy without apologizing for it, serving reimagined Cantonese classics alongside a few Dubai-only additions. The room is moody and deliberately glamorous, and service keeps pace without breaking a sweat.

Anne-Sophie Pic's fine dining room sits in the cantilevered section of the One Za'abeel tower, 25 floors up, with a white marble bar at the front and an open kitchen behind. The Modern French cooking leans into delicate spicing and unexpected combinations, the kind of restraint that takes more effort than it looks. A Michelin star and a Forbes Four Star for anyone keeping score.

A small plates spot tucked into an old fishermen's building at Jumeirah Fishing Harbour, 3Fils does contemporary Japanese with a loose pan-Asian hand and a pared-back room that makes no attempt to impress you with its décor. The waterside terrace is where everyone wants to be, and the queue to get there is a known quantity. A Michelin Bib Gourmand and a spot on MENA's 50 Best list keep the wait honest.

Kelvin Cheung's restaurant sits on the Boulevard with the Burj Khalifa filling the window, which seems almost unfair given how much is already happening on the plate. The cooking blends Chinese-Canadian, South Asian, and American threads into something that reads as its own thing: prawn toast with Singapore coconut curry, karaage and waffles, za'atar tempura. Teal marble, dark wood, bronze accents. A spot on MENA's 50 Best list.

Three separate kitchens, a sweeping staircase, and brass-and-aged-steel walls that lean into the drama: Zuma is a contemporary Japanese restaurant that treats restraint as someone else's problem. The robata grill and sushi counter share space with a main kitchen, and the grilled meats and seafood are where the room's energy lands. It holds a spot on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants, and the terrace handles post-dinner drinks when Dubai's evening air cooperates.

Marble floors, a glass-fronted kitchen at the center of the room, and a window table with fountain views of Downtown Dubai make the setting hard to ignore. This Italian restaurant sits inside the Armani Hotel on the lower floors of the Burj Khalifa, and the cooking leans traditional, with Sicilian ingredients getting careful, colorful treatment. A Forbes Five Star property, and the kind of place where the tasting menu exists for a reason.

Rubber ducks cover every available surface at this Serkal Avenue sushi bar, which sets the tone nicely: serious craft, zero solemnity. The long counter puts the open kitchen front and center, and the hand rolls, made to order with yellowtail, scallop, or wagyu, are the reason to pull up a stool. It landed at number 15 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants list, which the ducks seem unbothered by.

Chefs in baseball caps run an open kitchen overlooking Al Bateen marina, where the yachts provide the backdrop and umami-rich Japanese-leaning dishes do the work. This is a casual but buzzy contemporary restaurant where wagyu sandos and otoro nigiri share the menu with UAE-nodding desserts finished tableside. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, and it placed on MENA's 50 Best list. Dressed-down room, high-end ingredients, no attitude.

Counter seats facing the chefs are the move at this fine-dining Japanese restaurant on Bluewaters Island, where a wagyu specialist and a sushi master share the kitchen. The omakase leans on A5 Kobe beef and uni flown from Toyosu, shifting with the seasons. The team even partnered with the UAE's Royal Family on a honey garden, because apparently that's just something you do. It holds a spot on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants list.

Part yakitori grill, part sushi counter, part highball bar, Niri on Mamsha Al Saadiyat is a contemporary Japanese restaurant that refuses to pick a lane, which turns out to be the point. The chef works the counter most nights, and the sashimi is best eaten there. Tea-infused cocktails and Japanese highballs keep things going well past dinner. It landed on MENA's 50 Best list, and the prices won't require a loan.

The name is French slang for "at mine," and the vibe follows through: a restaurant on The Palm that runs more like a very well-catered house party than a formal dining room. The chef trained under Robuchon and Passard, and the menu mixes modern French technique with flavors picked up across several continents. It landed on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants list, which tracks with the energy in the room.

Boca was reportedly among the first restaurants in Dubai to serve Dibba Bay oysters, which tells you something about how seriously the team takes local sourcing. A modern Spanish restaurant in DIFC, it works with desert foragers and UAE farms alongside a 400-label wine list and a beverage program that gets as much attention as the food. It holds a spot on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants list.

A Michelin-starred fine dining room perched on the 27th floor of the Burj Al Arab, where the floor-to-ceiling windows do a fair amount of the work before the food even arrives. The chef builds a French-rooted, Mediterranean-influenced menu around truffles, caviar, and precise sauces, with desserts that look almost too composed to eat. Staff explain every dish with genuine warmth, which helps when you're deciding whether to feel guilty about ordering a second one.

A light green dining room in a Dubai Hills business park, with an altar-like pass where chefs finish each dish in full view of the tables, sets the tone for what follows. avatāra holds a Michelin star for its multi-course vegetarian Indian tasting menu, where each dish arrives with its own story, which the team delivers with enough warmth to make the ritual feel earned rather than rehearsed.

Set inside the Qasr Al Hosn cultural site, this Michelin-starred Emirati restaurant takes its name from the Arabic word for legacy, which it wears without irony. Polished concrete and modern majlis seating set the scene for a kitchen that stays close to local tradition in its flavors, cookware, and ingredients sourced from farms across the Emirates. The result is the kind of place where the architecture and the cooking are actually telling the same story.

The sultry, low-lit dining room inside Emirates Palace signals immediately that this is not a casual Chinese restaurant. Hakkasan holds a Michelin star for its Abu Dhabi outpost, serving the same refined Cantonese menu the brand is known for globally: Peking duck, Chilean sea bass, and a Saturday dim sum service that draws the faithful in numbers. The wine list runs deep for a Chinese restaurant, and the service knows the menu well enough to actually help.

Eighteen counter seats on the fourth floor of the Bulgari Hotel, overlooking the Dubai skyline, is about as understated a flex as you'll find in this city. Hōseki is an omakase sushi counter run by a sixth-generation sushi master whose knife work the team tailors to each guest using fish imported from Japan. It holds a Michelin star, and service arrives in traditional kimonos, which somehow doesn't feel like a costume.

Grand chandeliers and a plush cocktail bar set the tone at this upscale Indian restaurant, part of a small international group that has earned a Michelin star here in Dubai. The kitchen leans into prime ingredients and careful spicing, with the Bhatti Ka Octopus and a Sindhi goat curry among the dishes that show the range. Neighbors heading to the Dubai Opera use it as a pre-theatre spot, which should tell you something about the dress code.

Fourteen seats around a single semi-circular table, an open fire, and a chef narrating every move: Dani García's intimate fine dining counter inside Leña runs what he calls "Fire Omakase," eleven courses built around live flame and grill. The room is deliberately dark, the pacing unhurried, and a Michelin star hangs over the whole production. Burnt pumpkin purée and mandarin sorbet close things out with enough confidence to make dessert feel like the point.

Honey drawn from hives on the Emirates Palace grounds finds its way onto the dessert menu here, which tells you something about the kitchen's attention to its own backyard. This Michelin-starred Italian restaurant holds a Michelin star and takes its lead from chef Antonio Guida, whose reputation was built in Milan. The cooking leans into family-style Italian traditions, with pasta and seafood that read simple on the plate but land with some force.

The terrace infinity pool blurs into the Gulf beyond it, which sets the tone for this Michelin-starred Portuguese restaurant on the sixth floor of the Mandarin Oriental Jumeira. The kitchen leans into tradition, pastéis de nata and all, while nudging the flavors somewhere more contemporary. Service keeps the meal moving without making you feel managed, and the open kitchen gives the room a pulse.

Fresh tomatoes and lemons land on the table the moment you sit down, an invitation to eat before you've even opened the menu. LPM is a French-Mediterranean restaurant with a global footprint and the easy, convivial energy of a place that isn't trying to impress you, which is probably how it has outlasted so many flashier neighbors. Seasonal vegetables, fresh seafood, generous meat to share. It landed on MENA's 50 Best list, and the Sunday rosé brunch draws a devoted crowd.

Chef Gabriela Chamorro spent years flying Emirates routes before trading the cabin for a supper club in her own home, which eventually outgrew the living room and landed here: a Central American restaurant inside the Anantara Downtown Dubai Hotel, ranked among MENA's 50 Best Restaurants. Terracotta walls, a birdcage bar, and an open kitchen carry the warmth of that original setup into something considerably more spacious, with pupusas and clay-pot short ribs doing the heavy lifting.

The lakeside terrace, glass-enclosed and hovering over the water, sets the tone for a Levantine restaurant that treats home cooking as a serious project. Generational recipes share the menu with modern riffs on classic flavors, and the claypot dishes especially carry that slow, considered quality. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand and a spot on MENA's 50 Best list. The lunch soup-and-daily special is the kind of deal that turns a quick stop into a regular habit.

A no-reservations pizzeria at Souk Al Mina where people queue hours before the doors open, which tells you most of what you need to know. The pies lean on UAE-grown produce, figs from Liwa, local burrata, mushrooms from Below Farm, rather than chasing a New York or Neapolitan pedigree. The focaccia and calzone draw as much loyalty as the pizza. It landed on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants list, though the regulars were probably here long before anyone was keeping score.

The elevator ride up 122 floors of the Burj Khalifa is its own kind of theater, and the fine dining room at the top leans into every expectation: muted tones, impeccable uniforms, and views that make the city below look like a screen saver. The menu runs French-modern, with caviar and Wagyu doing the heavy lifting. A Forbes Four Star restaurant where the altitude is part of the point, and nobody is pretending otherwise.

The Candy Room at the end of the meal is the tell: this is a place that thinks dessert deserves its own dedicated space. Brasserie Frantzén is a sleek, moody restaurant inside Atlantis The Palm, where the kitchen draws on Japanese, French, and Scandinavian traditions in a way that sounds like a pitch but lands on the plate. Deep seating, low light, and a bar for lighter bites if you want to ease in.

Sour cream and onion dip served with Ritz crackers in retro ceramic bowls is a confident opening move for a Lebanese comfort food restaurant. Set inside an AlSerkal Avenue warehouse, Middle Child has two floors of dining and an open kitchen visible through the glass front, so the energy hits before you're even through the door. It holds a spot on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants as One to Watch, which tracks for a place that makes unpretentious food feel considered.

A wood-fired oven anchors the open kitchen at this cozy, character-stuffed casual restaurant from the brothers behind Orfali Bros. The menu skips between Syria, Japan, France, and Spain without apology, landing on things like a wagyu cheeseburger in a Hokkaido bun or a pizza-pide hybrid with brown butter miso. Deep maroon walls, geometric floors, and vintage Arabic pop on the speakers give it a warm 1970s den feel. It holds a spot on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants list.

The ice counter piled with market-style seafood is the centrepiece of this Mediterranean restaurant in DIFC, where you pick your fish and decide how you want it cooked. The room goes full Greek taverna, all white tones and monochrome walls, with terrace seats that make Dubai feel briefly like the Aegean. Chef Izu Ani's place on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants list hasn't quieted the room down any, and the crowd on a Tuesday looks much like the crowd on a Saturday.

A self-playing piano and arched ceilings set the tone at this Italian restaurant perched above the FIVE Palm Jumeirah's pool, where warm lighting and a well-dressed crowd keep things firmly on the glamorous side. The menu runs from eggplant parmigiana to a dessert riffing on a Bellini cocktail, classic and playful in equal measure. When Dubai cools down, the terrace earns its keep.

A Damien Hirst octopus greets you on the ground floor before a glass lift delivers you to a dimly lit, seabed-themed dining room and bar where every surface seems to be doing something. The Japanese and pan-Asian sharing plates hold their own against the décor, which is saying something. The balcony terrace has sweeping DIFC skyline views, and the bathroom has its own fan base on Instagram, independently.

Sunset views over the Arabian Gulf come with the territory at this seafood restaurant inside the Al Hamra Beach villas, where the kitchen leans into the local catch rather than hedging with an international menu. The dining room pulls in the coastal palette around it, all whites and blues, and the crowd tends toward guests who've already swapped their phones for sunscreen. A Forbes Four Star property frames the whole thing.

The terrace looks out over a lagoon where turtles are being nursed back to health, which sets an unexpected tone for what is otherwise a very polished Tuscan dining room: white tablecloths, warm lighting, grown-up crowd. The kitchen leans on estate-grown olive oil, honey, and vegetables from the original property in Tuscany, so the Italian provenance isn't just branding. A Michelin Selected restaurant.

Ninive bills itself as a contemporary urban majlis, the traditional gathering space of Bedouin community life, and the room commits to the idea: low tables, deep sofas, lanterns, and enough lush planting to make you forget you're inside a tower hotel on Sheikh Zayed Road. It's a Middle Eastern restaurant that leans into atmosphere as hard as it does the food, which makes it a reliable pick for date nights or a long, unhurried dinner with a group.

A DJ booth in a coffee shop is either a flex or a cry for help, and at Nightjar it reads as the former. This specialty cafe and roaster inside Alserkal Avenue's warehouse district does serious, geeky coffee alongside food that has no interest in playing it safe: lamb kheema toasties, house-cured salt beef sandwiches, rotisserie chicken. Black tiles, communal tables, and stickers on every surface set the tone before the flat white arrives.

The name pulls double duty: 21 grams is the supposed weight of the human soul and the latitude of the Balkans, which neatly previews what the kitchen is doing. This casual bistro on the second floor of Meyan Mall keeps things straightforward by Dubai standards, with an all-Balkan team cooking food from home. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks for a place more interested in the food than the spectacle.

The neon sign cuts through the Abu Dhabi night, and the crowd waiting outside tells you everything else. Al Mrzab is a busy, affordable Emirati and Kuwaiti restaurant where photos of old Abu Dhabi cover the walls and seating runs from private cabins to majlis cushions. The kitchen earns a Michelin Bib Gourmand for traditional cooking that doesn't cut corners. Save room for the khanfaroush, a hot, golden, made-to-order fritter finished with local honey.

The circular booths are the seats to fight for at this Lebanese-Armenian restaurant in the Galleria Mall, where the menu sprawls generously across both traditions and the portions are sized for a table that means business. It earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand for the kind of food that makes one visit feel like homework, the menu is that long. Good bread, grilled meats, and fresh salads anchored in eastern Mediterranean instincts.

Rugs on the floor, chandeliers overhead, and a menu built around the kabab shops of Tehran: Berenjak is a Persian grill that started in London's Soho and has since traveled well. The Dubai outpost at Dar Wasl Mall carries the same eclectic, slightly theatrical room and the same devotion to the skewer. The Michelin Bib Gourmand follows it wherever it lands. Open with a sharbat, a fruit-and-flower-petal Persian cooler, before the charcoal smoke takes over.

A gastrobar on Dubai Creek Harbour's promenade, with the skyline doing most of the interior design work through floor-to-ceiling windows. Bright wood, an open kitchen that keeps things lively, and a menu built around unfussy comfort food at prices that won't require a moment of quiet reflection. The Michelin Guide picked it up for a Bib Gourmand, which tracks with a crowd that comes back often enough to have a usual order.

Blond wood, cream walls, and a ceiling tall enough to suggest the menu won't bankrupt you: DUO is a Bib Gourmand all-day gastrobar rooted in a St. Petersburg restaurant group, transplanted to Dubai Hills Business Park. The kitchen runs Asian and European ideas side by side without needing to explain itself, and the oxtail pie with Taleggio does most of the persuading. Breakfast through dinner, with the kind of pricing that makes ordering a second round feel reasonable.

Named after a mango variety, this compact Malay grill in Jumeirah earns a Michelin Bib Gourmand for food that traces back to the team's family hawker roots in Singapore. The menu roams across Southeast Asia, and dishes like a six-hour rendang built on twenty spices show the kitchen's patience. The room is genuinely small, so bring people, order widely, and let the staff talk you through it, which they will want to do.

A casual Asian street food restaurant in JLT that grew out of a secret supper club, Hawkerboi channels the hawker markets of Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Myanmar into a relaxed neighbourhood spot. The team walks you through the menu with the kind of patience that actually helps. Dishes are generous and herb-heavy, built on the logic that more aromatics is never the wrong call. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

A contemporary Indian brasserie tucked into a villa on Al Wasl Road, earning a Michelin Bib Gourmand for sharing plates built around the flavors of India's street food. The keema pao nods to a long-gone Bombay institution, the kulfi falooda arrives in a cloud of dry ice, and the drinks menu borrows its characters from Khadak Street itself. Loud, colorful, and a little theatrical, in a way that feels earned rather than performed.

A ramen shop on the second floor of Mall of the Emirates, which is either a strange place to find serious Tokyo-pedigreed noodles or a perfectly logical one, depending on how you feel about air conditioning. The shoyu ramen is the draw, and the Michelin Bib Gourmand suggests the broth hasn't suffered from the journey. No reservations, but the counter usually has room, and service starts before noon.

Perched on Yas Marina with a terrace made for Abu Dhabi winters, Mika is a Mediterranean restaurant that earns its Michelin Bib Gourmand by doing the small things carefully: bread baked in-house, salmon cured on-site, limoncello made from scratch. The menu leans toward the Riviera, bright and unfussy, and the tiramisu named for Nonna arrives with the quiet confidence of something that has never once disappointed anyone.

The titular otoro nigiri tells you exactly where priorities lie at this casual contemporary Japanese restaurant near the National Aquarium in Al Qana. A large open kitchen anchors the relaxed, slightly funky room, with a team working under the influence of Dubai's Akmal Anuar. Ingredients travel in from Japanese prefectures, which is the kind of detail that explains the bill. The Michelin Guide has awarded it a Bib Gourmand.

Reif Othman's Wagyu Katsu Sando went viral before most Dubai restaurants had figured out Instagram, and the kushiyaki joint it anchors is the kind of bright, relaxed mall spot that punches well above its postcode. Robata-grilled skewers anchor the menu, but the room fills out with ramen and gyoza too. The Michelin Bib Gourmand and a sunlit terrace make the case quietly. Casual dress, lively crowd, and no need to book a month ahead.

An Indian tapas bar sharing a wall with its fancier sibling avatāra next door, Revelry leans into cricket on the screens, cocktails named after India's seasons, and small plates priced to let you order broadly and figure out what you like. The cooking is contemporary and gently spiced, tradition nudged toward the modern without drama. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand. Save room: the desserts take an unexpected turn.

Sitting beside the fish market at Zayed Port, this modern seafood restaurant in Al Mina souq is where the morning's catch gets a charcoal grill and a light touch of global spice. Portions are generous, the hammour off the grill is the thing to order, and somehow the kitchen also makes a very compelling case for chocolate pâte à choux. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and the service is as unhurried as the setting deserves.

Olive trees in cobalt pots, blue-and-white stripes, and enough snowy linen to make you forget you're on a man-made island in Dubai. Alici is a Southern Italian seafood restaurant that leans hard into Amalfi coast aesthetics, with sustainably caught Mediterranean fish and a crudo selection that sets the tempo. The terrace at sunset, with mega yachts catching the last of the light, does most of the selling.

Three floors of tropical greenery in the middle of DIFC, where the Amazon rainforest aesthetic gets taken very seriously and the bar keeps pace with the dining room. The Latin American menu wanders from sushi to grilled meats, which sounds chaotic but tracks with the Amazon basin's many communities. First-floor tables face the open kitchen; the panoramic terrace is the move for a cocktail before or after.

The white jackets on the waiters are the tell: this is a Cipriani, which means the whole operation traces back to Harry's Bar in Venice and carries itself accordingly. It's a full-service Italian restaurant in the DIFC, serving pasta, risotto, carpaccio, and veal Milanese to a crowd that likes its la dolce vita with a side of expense account. The Bellini, naturally, is on the list.

The pisco bar alone draws a crowd before anyone touches the ceviche menu. This Peruvian restaurant and bar sits inside the Four Seasons' outdoor Restaurant Village, where the room runs loud and candlelit and nobody seems to be eating alone. The kitchen works the Nikkei angle hard, with ceviches in several directions and a sweetcorn meringue pavlova that sounds odd until it doesn't. Cocktail credentials are no afterthought; the bar team placed among the regional top ten in the Spirited Awards.

The glass-brick DJ booth is the first clue that this is not your average hotel bar. Electric Pawn Shop is a neon-lit, music-forward cocktail bar on the ground floor of the H Dubai, dressed up in stainless steel, exposed brick, and a vague dystopian fog. The menu leans Asian-Mediterranean, but the real reason to come is the sound system, which takes itself very seriously, as it should.

A Battle of the Burgers competition win prompted this husband-and-wife team to pivot from supper club to counter-service burger spot, which is either brave or completely logical depending on how good the burgers are. Eleven Green lands closer to a sleek casual diner than anything fast food, with green banquettes, polished wood, and booths lit low enough to feel like a choice. A Discovery on The 50 list.

The baobab-inspired ceiling shifts color above zebra-print cushions and a crystal-encrusted champagne bar, and that's before anyone's opened a menu. Flamingo Room by tashas is a full-on restaurant and bar that leans hard into the spectacle, though the kitchen earns its share of the attention too. Crab and lobster croquettes and a salmon Wellington make a reasonable case that the food isn't just set dressing. The phones come out early and often here.

A 26-seat Peruvian restaurant tucked into JLT where ceviche is more or less the whole point. The chef built her approach around recipes from home, kept simple and original, and the fish arrives with the kind of acidity that makes you understand why Peru considers the dish a national treasure. The team checks your spice tolerance before you order, which is either hospitality or a warning, depending on how you answer.