The Best Places in Dubai

Martín Berasategui named this 18th-floor Basque restaurant after his eldest granddaughter, which is either charming or a lot of pressure for the kid. The room runs dark and brasserie-grand, with an open kitchen where everything moves over fire and charcoal. The terrace looks straight out at Downtown Dubai, and the Basque cheesecake has a following of its own. Dress like you mean it.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Dry-aged cuts sit on display in glass cabinets as you walk in, which tells you most of what you need to know about Leña. It's a grilled meats and fish restaurant on The Palm, the Dubai outpost of Spanish chef Dani García, where the black-and-orange room is meant to evoke charcoal embers. Croquetas come in tempura rather than breadcrumbs, the signature burger makes an appearance mid-meal, and dessert rolls out on a trolley. Grab the terrace when the weather cooperates.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A contemporary restaurant tucked into Dubai's Al Barari neighborhood, where most of the cooking happens over open flames, a wood-fired oven, or the rotisserie. The room is light wood and concrete, kept spare enough that the food does the talking. The chef duo behind it runs a tasting menu that moves through global culinary traditions, land, sea, and air getting roughly equal billing. A Michelin Selected Restaurant.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

About twenty miles outside Dubai, where construction cranes give way to polo grounds, this resort sits in a pocket of genuine green. Villas come with private pools, the larger residences have nine-foot privacy walls, and the spa runs Kerstin Florian treatments. The polo angle is the real draw: riding lessons, matches, and tennis for when you've had enough of the ponies.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A seat on the terrace puts the Burj Khalifa directly overhead, which is either romantic or completely distracting depending on your company. Inside, this Chinese restaurant splits between a Regency-style parlour and a darker, club-like library room. The classic menu runs from dim sum to sweet and sour chicken, and a set tasting menu exists for anyone who'd rather not negotiate. The team is charming and happy to guide you through it.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Horseshoe booths overlooking the marina at Port de la Mer set the scene at this Italian restaurant with an unusual angle: the kitchen folds Japanese technique into the menu alongside homemade pastas and pizzas topped with things like spicy duck and sriracha. The tiramisu arrives wrapped in soft meringue, which is either alarming or intriguing depending on your mood. A serious alcohol-free wine list means non-drinkers get something worth thinking about too.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The terrace looks out over a small marina of luxury yachts, which sets the tone pretty efficiently. This Mediterranean restaurant on the fourth floor of The Lana channels the French Riviera, from the sun-bleached dining room to a menu that drifts between Provence and Italy. Jean Imbert's name is on the door, and the kitchen leans into the showmanship, finishing the tuna tartare tableside. Pack something that wouldn't embarrass you on a superyacht.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Red paper lanterns and tiled walls set the mood on the ninth floor of FIVE LUXE JBR, where the windows frame Ain Dubai straight across the water. This is a contemporary Japanese restaurant covering a lot of ground, from raw fish and tempura to robata and teppanyaki, and the kitchen handles the range with genuine care. Counter seats open up an omakase option that draws the dedicated crowd who come for the chef's full attention.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Graffiti covers the walls, neon lights the bar, and the staff arrive in punk jackets with a friendliness that defuses all the attitude. Dabiz Muñoz, the Madrid chef behind DiverXO, dreamed up this loud, open-plan street food restaurant where the counter seats overlooking the kitchen are the ones to grab. The menu pulls from Europe, Asia, and South America in equal measure, and the molten white chocolate lava cake is not an afterthought.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Tucked onto a mezzanine in Dubai Mall's Chinatown quarter and easy to miss from the main flow, Tang Town is a dimly lit Cantonese restaurant where the mood runs deliberately low and unhurried. The menu leans into prime ingredients, pairing Peking duck with caviar and Wagyu across a broad spread of Cantonese and Sichuan dishes. Come evening, the small centre stage hosts Chinese dance performances, which is either exactly your thing or quietly charming either way.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

You enter through the back door of another restaurant, which is either a red flag or a very good sign. Inside, a U-shaped wooden counter seats twelve around an open kitchen, where the chef runs a kaiseki-style omakase, eight or twelve courses of modern Japanese cooking shaped around a monthly theme. The room runs on conversation between guests and the team, making it feel less like dinner service and more like a very controlled dinner party.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A curtain in a DIFC tower opens onto something closer to a New York brasserie than anything the neighborhood usually attempts. Inside, the space splits into two restaurants, Rockpool and The Salon, one built around an actual indoor pool, the other a grand open-kitchen dining room. Both run the same menu of seafood, steaks, and pasta, plus a traditional Sunday lunch for those who want the full commitment.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

A British brasserie on Bluewaters Island where the menu runs from Scotch egg to beef Wellington, with the odd Dubai flourish, like a Welsh rarebit finished with truffle, keeping things from getting too homesick-sincere. The upper floor has a proper bar counter and cocktails named after London postcodes. Sunday roast draws the kind of families who have decided, collectively, that this is their place now.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. World Coffee Map Dubai Coffee Map for First-Time Visitors
2. World Coffee Map Best coffee shops for work in Dubai

1. World Coffee Map Your Guide to Coffee in Dubai
2. World Coffee Map Best coffee shops for work in Dubai

1. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin

1. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin

1. World Coffee Map Your Guide to Coffee in Dubai
2. World Coffee Map Where to Drink Coffee in Dubai

1. World Coffee Map Your Guide to Coffee in Dubai
2. World Coffee Map 10 Best Specialty Cafes & Coffee Shops in Dubai

1. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery
3. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

1. World Coffee Map Where to Drink Coffee in Dubai
2. World Coffee Map Essential Coffee Shops in Dubai

A specialty coffee shop on Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Boulevard, close enough to the Burj Khalifa that tourists drift in looking slightly overwhelmed by Dubai and leave looking slightly more caffeinated. The room is modern and calm, the kind of place where laptops outnumber conversations. Pour-overs and lattes are taken seriously here, and fresh pastries round things out for anyone settling in for the afternoon.

1. World Coffee Map Dubai Coffee Map for First-Time Visitors
2. World Coffee Map Best cafes for reading in Dubai

1. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. World Coffee Map Dubai Coffee Map for First-Time Visitors
2. World Coffee Map Where to Drink Coffee in Dubai

1. World Coffee Map Where to Drink Coffee in Dubai
2. World Coffee Map Best coffee shops for work in Dubai

Fifty-one floors above the Palm, this bar pulls from Japan, Brazil, and Peru simultaneously, which sounds like a fever dream until you're holding a passionfruit-spiked cocktail with disco balls spinning overhead. The crowd dresses up and the DJs show up ready; on Thursdays, samba dancers take over entirely. It's a lot, in the way Dubai tends to be a lot, and the view gives everyone permission to lean into it.

1. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. World Coffee Map Dubai Coffee Guide for Travelers
2. World Coffee Map 10 Best Specialty Cafes & Coffee Shops in Dubai

Twenty-four floors up inside One Za'abeel, this specialty coffee shop trades Dubai's street-level bustle for a calm room with a skyline framing every table. The pour-over program gets the most attention, and the cold brew is serious enough to slow you down. It draws a mix of remote workers and people who simply wanted an excuse to be this high up with a good cup.

1. World Coffee Map Essential Coffee Shops in Dubai
2. World Coffee Map 10 Best Specialty Cafes & Coffee Shops in Dubai

1. World Coffee Map 10 Best Specialty Cafes & Coffee Shops in Dubai

The walls are lined with family photos, the celebrities among them suggesting this Persian kebab spot near Al Fahidi has been feeding the right people for a long time. An old-school institution, it runs on marinated mutton, chicken, and tenderloin served over saffron rice, and the portions are generous in a way that feels almost confrontational. Communal tables, no ceremony, and prices that make you look twice at the bill.

1. Eater The 27 Best Restaurants in Dubai
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. World Coffee Map Dubai Coffee Guide for Travelers

1. World Coffee Map Where to Drink Coffee in Dubai

1. World Coffee Map Your Guide to Coffee in Dubai

1. World Coffee Map Where to Drink Coffee in Dubai

1. World Coffee Map Essential Coffee Shops in Dubai

A minimalist coffee shop tucked inside the Wadi Alamardi mall, Cross Coffee draws the laptop crowd and the genuinely unhurried in equal measure. The pour-over and cold brew are the ones to order. It's a calm room by Dubai mall standards, which is either an achievement or a miracle depending on the day.

1. World Coffee Map Where to Drink Coffee in Dubai

1. World Coffee Map Dubai Coffee Guide for Travelers

1. World Coffee Map Essential Coffee Shops in Dubai

You walk in through a tiny vinyl record shop, which sets the tone perfectly. Honeycomb Hi-Fi is a Japanese small-plates-and-cocktail bar tucked inside a hotel, all wooden paneling, midcentury chairs, and Ojas speakers doing serious work. The menu runs wagyu katsu sliders and lamb gyozas, while the bar turns out highballs with the kind of theatrical flair that makes the people around you briefly stop talking.

1. Eater The 27 Best Restaurants in Dubai
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. World Coffee Map Dubai Coffee Map for First-Time Visitors

The wood-fired tacos here come two bites each, and the kitchen turns out around 800 of them a day, which tells you something about how seriously this beachside taco spot takes itself. Chef Shaw Lash brought a deep fluency in Mexican techniques and sourcing to Dubai, and the menu follows traditional styles she refined working in Mexican kitchens across the world. Casual, affordable, and a short walk from the beach.

1. Eater The 27 Best Restaurants in Dubai
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

A coffee shop tucked inside Dubai Mall that somehow manages to feel calm, which is no small feat given the mall's general ambition to be a city-state. Luna leans into specialty beans, with pour-overs and lattes that actually make you slow down. The Burj Khalifa fills the window, so the scenery does its part too. Laptop crowd mixes with shoppers who needed a break from buying things.

1. World Coffee Map Dubai Coffee Guide for Travelers

A whitewashed Greek taverna hidden in a car park basement off Sheikh Zayed Road, which sounds like a warning but lands closer to a discovery. The room runs to terra-cotta tones and an intimate, down-to-earth feel, and the menu covers the expected ground of tzatziki and souvlaki before slow-cooked suckling lamb and charred octopus make a stronger case for staying. It fills up fast at peak hours, so book ahead.

1. Eater The 27 Best Restaurants in Dubai
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. World Coffee Map Dubai Coffee Map for First-Time Visitors

1. World Coffee Map Dubai Coffee Map for First-Time Visitors

Phyllo-wrapped pies are the whole point here, made with enough butter to register on a seismograph, at this bright cafe tucked into Alserkal Avenue's arts-district sprawl. The maroon-and-stainless interior is cheerful without trying too hard, and the menu runs hearty and a little unexpected, with wagyu pastrami phyllo and pink pickled onions sitting alongside brunch pies loaded with salmon and trout caviar. The elderflower matcha is the kind of thing you order ironically and then reorder.

1. Eater The 27 Best Restaurants in Dubai

1. World Coffee Map Essential Coffee Shops in Dubai

1. World Coffee Map Your Guide to Coffee in Dubai

1. World Coffee Map Dubai Coffee Guide for Travelers

1. World Coffee Map Where to Drink Coffee in Dubai

Lobster rolls and oysters by the dozen pull most of the weight here, but the truffle pizzas have their loyalists too. The Maine is a brasserie-style bar and grill tucked into a DoubleTree, which undersells it: the bar runs loud and the room fills fast with people who came for a drink and stayed for dinner. The concept has since spread to Ibiza and Mayfair, which tells you something about the formula.

1. Eater The 27 Best Restaurants in Dubai

A restored Jumeirah villa turned into a family restaurant by a Jordanian mother and her two daughters, each handling a different corner of the operation. The sourdough uses only flour, water, and salt, which tells you something about where they stand on shortcuts. The rooms feel like someone's home because, in spirit, they are. It's the kind of place that makes restraint look easy.

1. Eater The 27 Best Restaurants in Dubai
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

A food hall perched at the foot of the Burj Khalifa, with the Dubai Fountains performing outside and cheerful pandemonium performing inside. Time Out's editors curated the vendors, so you get a credible mix of homegrown spots rather than the usual airport-court suspects. Tourists fill most of the seats, but the food holds up, and the drinks are among the more affordable you'll find anywhere in this city.

1. Eater The 27 Best Restaurants in Dubai

1. World Coffee Map Dubai Coffee Guide for Travelers

The circular bar on the 44th floor of Grosvenor House earns the name, with views over the marina that make it easy to forgive the champagne-bar origins and the flashier crowd that came with them. This is a cocktail bar now, properly, with lounge rooms off to the sides for anyone who wants to sit somewhere quieter and pretend they planned ahead. The jetset still shows up, but so does everyone else.

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

Hanwoo beef, Korea's most prized native cattle breed, is the whole reason this upscale Korean barbecue restaurant exists at the St. Regis on the Palm. It's the only spot in Dubai serving it, flown in directly from Korea and cooked over tableside charcoal grills with the kind of calm precision that makes theatre feel unnecessary. Warm wood, soft light, composed service. It landed at number 28 on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list, which for a Korean barbecue concept is a statement.

1. World's 101 Best #28 · World's Best Steak Restaurants

1. World Coffee Map Best coffee shops for work in Dubai

1. World Coffee Map Best cafes for reading in Dubai

1. World Coffee Map Best coffee shops for work in Dubai

1. World Coffee Map Best coffee shops for work in Dubai

1. World Coffee Map Best coffee shops for work in Dubai

1. World Coffee Map Best cafes for reading in Dubai

1. World Coffee Map Best cafes for reading in Dubai

The bar at this Japanese restaurant-bar in the Monarch Hotel runs impossibly narrow, which somehow makes it feel more like a scene than an inconvenience. Regulars wedged in shoulder-to-shoulder are usually debating which large-format bottle to order next, but the bartenders behind the counter are quietly serious about what they're doing. A high-energy cocktail bar with a mezzanine-level address and prices to match the postcode.

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide