10 Best Restaurants in Dubai

Himanshu Saini cooks 20 courses for 20 covers a night on the 5th floor of the St Regis Gardens in Palm Jumeirah, and the chaat course — six bite-sized riffs on Indian street food, served on its own bespoke vessel — is the dish every other Indian kitchen in the Gulf is now trying to answer. Around AED 1,295 a head before pairings, three Michelin stars, World's 50 Best #13. The room runs at the pace Saini sets and the wine list is built for spice, not against it. The anti-rec: if you want a quiet table, go elsewhere — this is a long, talkative, course-driven night.

Björn Frantzén exported his Stockholm playbook to the 17th floor of the Atlantis The Royal on Palm Jumeirah and earned three Michelin stars inside a year — the fastest three-star in the Gulf. Twenty-seven seats, AED 2,000 a head, the Frantzén satio tempestas pickled-vegetable course and the Tokyo-trained sushi handover have become the city's reference points for Nordic-Asian fine dining. Sweden meets Japan meets Dubai, executed with the rigour of a Michelin three-star and the budget of one. Skip it if you want a relaxed dinner; this is a four-hour piece of choreography that demands attention.

Niko Romito holds three Michelin stars in Abruzzo and runs this Bulgari Resort dining room on Jumeirah Bay Island as a precise distillation of his Casadonia thesis — pared-back modern Italian where every plate is reduced to three ingredients and a technique. Head chef Giacomo Amicucci leads the daily service; two Michelin stars confirm the standard. The signature absolute cauliflower with anchovy and saffron is the giveaway dish — it costs around AED 1,200 a head with the tasting menu and it is the most disciplined Italian cooking in the Emirates. Lunch on the terrace, with the marina at your feet, is the easier seat.

Jason Atherton runs a 22-seat chef's counter on the 45th floor of the Grosvenor House in Dubai Marina, and the Wagyu cube — pressed Australian beef, smoked bone marrow, caviar — is the dish that earned the second Michelin star in 2024. AED 1,250 for the tasting, AED 950 for the lunch menu, and head chef Tristin Farmer (formerly of Atherton's Pollen Street Social) directs the pass. It is the most theatrical fine-dining room in the UAE, and the open kitchen means there is no bad seat. Loud at peak; ask for the south-facing end of the counter and you get the Marina skyline as a backdrop.

Yannick Alléno is the most-decorated French chef working today — fifteen Michelin stars across the group — and his Dubai pavilion at One&Only The Palm is the colonial-villa twin to his Pavillon Ledoyen in Paris. Two Michelin stars on Palm Jumeirah, head chef Romain Polge at the pass, and the signature extraction-sauce langoustine and the rotating dessert library (a literal wheeled cart of 30 desserts) are the reasons it lands here. AED 1,090 for the seven-course Symphonie menu. The tropical-garden terrace is the prettier seat; ask for a banquette inside the villa if it's a working dinner that needs quiet.

Saverio Sbaragli took over the 27th-floor dining room at the Burj Al Arab in 2022 and earned the Michelin star within two years — the first star awarded inside Dubai's most photographed building. The langoustine-and-caviar tartlet and the Sicilian red prawn with smoked almond are the dishes the kitchen runs as signatures, AED 1,150 for the tasting. The view through the picture windows down onto Jumeirah Beach Road is the asset every other Dubai hotel restaurant is competing with, and the room handles it without resorting to spectacle. The anti-rec: the chartered-yacht crowd can drown out the cooking on a Saturday — book Tuesday or Wednesday.

Giovanni Papi runs the kitchen at Armani/Ristorante on the lobby level of the Armani Hotel in the Burj Khalifa — the only Italian fine-dining room in Downtown Dubai with a Michelin-Guide listing and two Gault & Millau toques. The orecchiette with lamb ragu and the langoustine tortelli are the kitchen's tells; AED 750 a head with wine, AED 450 at lunch. The dining room looks straight onto the Dubai Fountain — request a window banquette and ask for the 9pm show. It is the most adult Italian in Downtown, and the Armani service register (low-volume, low-light, low-drama) is the reason corporate dinners default here.

Surender Mohan runs the tandoor at Jamavar Dubai, the Address Downtown outpost of the Leela Group's Mayfair Michelin-starred original — and the kitchen earned its own star within a year of opening, the fastest Indian star in the Gulf. The malai stone bass tikka and the Sikandari raan (slow-cooked leg of lamb, AED 580 for the table) are the dishes the room is built around. The Lutyens-inspired dining hall on the ground floor of the Address Downtown is the most formal Indian setting in Dubai and the wine programme is built for spice rather than against it. AED 650 a head with the tasting; quieter than Trèsind, easier to book.

Solemann Haddad cooks 12 covers a night on a Satwa rooftop above the Mama Shelter, and Moonrise is the first Michelin-starred restaurant in the world plating cuisine he labels Dubai — Japanese omakase technique grafted onto Emirati and Levantine larders. The 14-course chef's-counter tasting runs AED 950 and the standout is the cured-mackerel zaatar maki and the camel-milk caramel close. Haddad is Dubai-born, French-trained, and the only chef in town cooking a menu that could not exist anywhere else. The downside is access: 12 seats, one nightly seating at 7pm, and the booking opens monthly on Instagram — not a walk-in proposition.

Dani García — three Michelin stars at his now-closed Marbella original — built Smoked Room inside the Address Beach Resort on Jumeirah Beach Road as a 14-seat crescent counter around an open fire. The Galician blue-fin tuna torchon, dry-aged over coals, and the Wagyu picanha with smoked bone marrow are the kitchen's two pillars; AED 1,100 for the fire-omakase tasting. One Michelin star. It is the most theatrical 90 minutes of dinner in Dubai and the only fire-only kitchen at this level in the Gulf. The trade-off: 14 seats, smoke in the air, no quiet conversation — it is a show as much as a meal.