6 Best Restaurants in Dubai

A 12-seat counter from British chef Jason Atherton, built around a single 17-course tasting menu that blends European technique with Japanese ingredients and presentation. It's consistently named among the best tasting menus in the city, and the small-format counter means every course is served and explained close up rather than from across a dining room. Booking well in advance is essential given the seat count alone.

A seafood restaurant built at the end of a wooden pier jutting into the Arabian Gulf, with the Burj Al Arab lit up across the water and Madinat Jumeirah's waterways behind. The setting does as much work as the menu, which leans into fresh seafood and Mediterranean technique, and it's routinely booked out for sunset tables weeks ahead. It's one of the most photographed restaurant settings in the city for good reason.

Sitting on the 122nd floor of the Burj Khalifa, Atmosphere claims the title of one of the highest restaurants in the world, with a menu of international and grill dishes served alongside views over the entire city and the Gulf beyond. The lounge level below the main dining room is a popular, slightly less formal way to take in the same view. Reservations are effectively mandatory, and a smart dress code is enforced.

A modern Lebanese restaurant built around family recipes and a lively, colourful dining room, with locations across the city including City Walk and Downtown. Reviewers consistently describe it as Lebanese cooking with the fundamentals done properly (mezze, grills and fresh bread) plus a little extra polish in presentation and service. It's a reliable group-dinner pick rather than a quiet, intimate one.

An Emirati restaurant set in a traditional wind-tower courtyard house in the historic Al Fahidi district, serving home-style Emirati dishes rarely found on typical tourist menus. The setting alone (low seating, courtyard architecture, traditional textiles) gives a sense of pre-oil Dubai that the glass towers elsewhere in the city don't. It pairs naturally with a walk through the surrounding Al Fahidi heritage neighbourhood.

A long-running Emirati café in the same Al Fahidi heritage quarter, built around a shaded courtyard filled with greenery and traditional low tables. The menu runs to Emirati breakfasts, karak tea and regional dishes served at a relaxed pace, making it a favoured stop for both locals and visitors wanting something unhurried. It's as much a rest stop between Old Dubai sights as a destination meal in its own right.