RFK Cuisine · Middle Eastern · Dubai
Best Middle Eastern Restaurants in Dubai 2026
Middle Eastern · Dubai · 6 rooms ranked · Updated June 2026
Compiled by the Restaurants for Kings editorial team · Published June 20, 2026 · Updated June 20, 2026
Three brothers from Aleppo cook out of a small bistro in Jumeirah, and for three years running the rest of the Arab world's chefs voted their room the best restaurant in the Middle East and North Africa. Orfali Bros is the headline, but it is also the argument: Dubai, a city where most of the population comes from somewhere else, has become the place where the whole region's cooking is gathered and made ambitious. A Lebanese matriarch lays out forty meze in a room dressed like an Ottoman parlour; a Palestinian daughter cooks her mother's recipes to the gram; an Emirati courtyard house in the old town still makes machboos the slow way. Ranked on the cooking, the room and what the bill buys, with the dish to order at each.
1.Orfali Bros Bistro
MENA's number-one restaurant three years running; book a week ahead for the most exciting Arab cooking in the region.
The Orfali brothers — Mohamad in the kitchen, Wassim and Omar on pastry and the pass — left Aleppo, and their Wasl 51 bistro in Jumeirah topped MENA's 50 Best Restaurants for three consecutive years before settling near the top in 2026. The cooking is Syrian tradition collided with global technique: a famous riff on kibbeh, a wagyu "K.O.B.E." dish, Aleppan spicing run through a chef's-table sensibility, and a pastry program (the brothers trained as pastry chefs) that closes the meal with some of the best desserts in the city. The room is small and deliberately unpretentious, which makes the booking hard — reserve a week or more ahead. This is the table to build a Dubai trip around, and the clearest proof of how far Arab fine dining has come.
Reserve a week-plus ahead; the kibbeh, the wagyu K.O.B.E., and save room for the desserts.
2.Em Sherif
Mireille Hayek's set-menu Lebanese feast in Ottoman splendour; book it when the table is large and the appetite is bigger.
Em Sherif began in Beirut as Mireille Hayek's love letter to Lebanese home cooking, and the Dubai outpost — three floors of jewel-toned, Ottoman-style opulence on Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Boulevard in Downtown — delivers the full ritual. There is essentially one way to eat here: the set feast, where the table fills and refills with dozens of hot and cold meze — hummus, tabbouleh, fattoush, raw kibbeh, stuffed vine leaves, grilled meats — until you surrender. It is generous to the point of theatre, best with a crowd and an empty stomach, and the room is dressed for an occasion. Book a few days ahead, bring a group, and pace yourself through the meze before the mains arrive. This is Lebanese hospitality at full, unapologetic volume.
Reserve a few days ahead, go with a group; the set meze feast, then the mixed grill.
3.Bait Maryam
A daughter's tribute to her Palestinian-Jordanian mother; book it for the most heartfelt Levantine home cooking in the city.
Bait Maryam — "Maryam's house" — in Jumeirah Lake Towers is Salam Dakkak's tribute to her mother, and it cooks Palestinian and Jordanian home food with a care that has made it one of the most loved rooms in Dubai; Dakkak's contribution to Levantine cooking earned her a SevenRooms Icon Award and recognition as one of the region's leading female chefs. This is not a polished set-piece like Em Sherif but something more intimate: warak enab (stuffed vine leaves) rolled thin, kibbeh, slow-cooked mloukhieh, and an upside-down maqluba brought whole to the table, all cooked to the exact measure of salt and patience that only inherited recipes carry. The room is warm and unflashy. Book a few days ahead, order family-style, and let the kitchen send what it does best. This is the soul pick on the list.
Reserve a few days ahead, order family-style; the warak enab, the kibbeh, the maqluba.
4.Ninive
A Bedouin-style tent in a garden between the Emirates Towers; book a cool-season night for mezze, oud and lanterns in the trees.
Ninive is the atmosphere pick — a Bedouin-inspired tent and majlis pitched in a garden tucked between the Jumeirah Emirates Towers, with lanterns strung through the trees, low seating, copper trays and a live oud player on a small stage. The cooking is pan-Arabian and Levantine comfort food made for sharing: warm and cold mezze, grilled meats, manakish and tagines, brought out in a steady, generous flow. It is built for a long, convivial evening rather than a chef's-table showcase, which makes it ideal for a group celebration under the open sky. Because it is open-air, it is at its best in Dubai's cooler months, roughly October to April. Book ahead for a weekend table, go with friends, and settle in for the night. The most romantic room on this list.
Reserve ahead, cooler months; a spread of mezze, the mixed grill, and the live oud after dark.
5.Al Khayma Heritage Restaurant
The old-town courtyard house for genuine Emirati cooking; go to Al Fahidi for machboos and luqaimat where the city began.
Genuine Emirati cooking is harder to find in Dubai than Lebanese or Syrian, which is what makes Al Khayma Heritage Restaurant worth the trip to the Al Fahidi historic district, the warren of wind-tower houses and sand-coloured lanes that is the oldest surviving part of the city. Set in a restored courtyard house, it serves the Gulf canon the slow way: machboos (spiced rice with meat or fish), harees, balaleet, thareed, and luqaimat — crisp dumplings drizzled with date syrup — finished with cardamom coffee. The setting, low cushions and a quiet courtyard, is as much the point as the food, and it offers a window into the Emirati table that the glossy towers rarely show. Walk in or book lightly, come hungry for the rice dishes, and end with luqaimat and gahwa. A genuine taste of old Dubai.
Walk in or book lightly; the machboos, harees, and luqaimat with cardamom coffee to finish.
6.Teible
The Jameel Arts Centre bistro cooking the UAE's own larder; book it for a modern, local take on regional food.
Teible, inside the Jameel Arts Centre on the Jaddaf Waterfront, is the quiet, contemporary counterpoint on this list — a daytime-into-evening bistro built around sustainability and the UAE's own producers rather than imported luxury. The kitchen writes what amounts to a love letter to local growers and fishers, turning regional and Emirati ingredients into a short, changing menu of clean, modern plates: house breads and labneh, local fish, vegetables from nearby farms, dishes that nod to the Gulf without the heavy hotel-banquet treatment. The room is pared-back and gallery-calm, a deliberate break from the region's maximalist dining rooms. It is the choice when you want Middle Eastern ideas cooked lightly and thoughtfully. Book ahead for dinner, and order whatever the kitchen has sourced locally that week.
Reserve ahead for dinner; the house bread and labneh, the local catch, the seasonal plates.
How Dubai eats Middle Eastern
Dubai's Middle Eastern scene is a map of the whole region rather than one national cuisine, because the city itself is. Lebanese cooking is the most visible — the grand meze houses like Em Sherif set the template for a celebration — but the most interesting cooking now comes from elsewhere: Syrian at Orfali Bros, Palestinian-Jordanian home food at Bait Maryam, and the slowly resurgent Emirati tradition at heritage rooms and modern bistros alike. A complete week uses the range: a creative chef's table, a blow-out Lebanese feast, and a quiet plate of machboos in the old town.
A few things to know. Middle Eastern meals are built for sharing, so they reward a group and a slow pace; the meze is the meal, not a prelude. Many of the best rooms are dry or serve limited alcohol, in keeping with the city's licensing — check before you plan the wine. The garden and terrace venues like Ninive are seasonal, at their best from October to April when the evenings cool. Tipping of around 10 to 15 percent is normal where a service charge is not already added. For the rest of the city's tables — its Indian, Japanese and fine-dining rooms — the Dubai dining guide maps it by neighborhood and occasion.
Where not to look for it
Skip these for serious Middle Eastern cooking
The mall food-court "Lebanese" counters and hotel-buffet "Arabian nights." The shawarma chains and the themed buffet nights trade on volume and spectacle, not the kitchen. For the real thing, take the table at Orfali Bros or Bait Maryam, or go to Al Fahidi for genuine Emirati cooking.
Orfali Bros for a casual, walk-in dinner tonight. The bistro is small and books a week or more ahead. When you want a great Middle Eastern meal without the wait, point yourself at Em Sherif's feast, Ninive's garden, or a courtyard table at Al Khayma in the old town.
Frequently asked
What is the best Middle Eastern restaurant in Dubai?
Orfali Bros Bistro is the answer by any measure — the Aleppo-born Orfali brothers' modern bistro topped MENA's 50 Best Restaurants for three straight years and remains near the top in 2026. It blends Syrian tradition with global technique in an unpretentious Jumeirah room. For a classic Lebanese feast, Mireille Hayek's Em Sherif is the grand set-menu choice, and for Levantine home cooking, Salam Dakkak's Bait Maryam is the most heartfelt. Choose by whether you want creative, classic or home-style.
Where do you eat traditional Emirati food in Dubai?
Genuine Emirati cooking is rarer in Dubai than Lebanese or Syrian, which makes Al Khayma Heritage Restaurant, in a restored courtyard house in the Al Fahidi historic district, the place to find it — dishes like machboos (spiced rice with meat), harees, balaleet and luqaimat dumplings, served in a traditional setting. Teible, the modern bistro inside the Jameel Arts Centre, takes a contemporary angle on local UAE produce and Emirati ideas. Between them they cover heritage and modern Emirati cooking in the city.
How much do Middle Eastern restaurants in Dubai cost?
It spans a wide range. A tasting at Orfali Bros runs roughly AED 400 to 600 per person before drinks, the splurge among these rooms. Em Sherif's set Lebanese feast is a fixed price in a similar band, with the table groaning under dozens of meze. Bait Maryam, Ninive and Al Khayma sit lower, around AED 150 to 300 a head for a generous spread of mezze and mains. Middle Eastern meals are built for sharing, so the per-head cost drops the more of you there are.
How far ahead should you book these restaurants?
Orfali Bros is the hardest table in this group — the small Jumeirah room books out a week or more ahead, and weekend seats go fast, so reserve early. Em Sherif and Bait Maryam fill on weekends and should be booked a few days out, longer for a large group. Ninive, an open-air garden venue, is seasonal and busiest in the cooler months. Al Khayma and Teible are usually easier and can often be had a day or two ahead. Most take reservations online or by phone.
What is the difference between Lebanese, Syrian and Emirati food?
All sit under the Levantine and Arabian umbrella but differ in emphasis. Lebanese cooking — Em Sherif's tradition — is built on a vast spread of meze, grilled meats and bright, herb-forward salads like tabbouleh and fattoush. Syrian food, as at Orfali Bros, leans on Aleppan spicing, kibbeh and richer, nuttier flavours. Emirati cooking, found at Al Khayma, is Gulf food — rice dishes like machboos, dried limes, and dishes shaped by pearl-diving and Bedouin history. Bait Maryam's Palestinian-Jordanian home cooking adds another distinct Levantine voice.
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