Dubai eats like the 200 nationalities who built it: Iranian chelo kebab in Bur Dubai, Keralan biryani in Karama, Pakistani karahi in Satwa. Underneath sits a genuine Emirati kitchen of machboos, harees and date-sweet chebab.
Whitewashed courtyard under a wind tower serving Emirati breakfast: balaleet (sweet vermicelli over thin omelette), chebab pancakes with date syrup, khameer bread and karak chai. Opens 07:30 daily; the shaded courtyard tables fill by 10:00.
The 2017 replacement for the old Deira fish market: 400 seafood stalls of hammour, sheri, kingfish and Omani lobster under one roof, plus date and dry-goods halls. Hand your catch to the cleaning counter, then the upstairs cooks fry or grill it.
Iranian kebab house trading since 1978 with every wall papered in customer photographs and framed sheikhs. The order is chelo kebab koobideh or joojeh with saffron rice, raw onion, grilled tomato and doogh. Cash-friendly, queue after 20:00.
Pakistani canteen open since 1978 and running until 03:00, the unofficial staff canteen of half of Dubai. Mutton karahi, chicken jalfrezi, dal fry and tandoori roti arrive within minutes at pavement tables on Al Satwa Road.
Interiors rebuilt as a 1960s Dubai home, complete with sand floor and a vintage Land Rover, serving the Emirati canon: machboos laham, harees, thereed with rag bread and luqaimat drenched in date syrup. Open 08:00 to midnight.
A former fishermen's shack beside Jumeirah beach with no printed menu: you pick from the day's catch in a tray, it is coated in a turmeric-chilli masala, fried and served with rice and paratha on plastic tables facing the sea.
Malabar Keralan cooking in the low-rise Karama grid where Dubai's South Indian community eats: fish moilee in coconut milk, Thalassery biryani cooked with short-grain kaima rice, kerala parotta and chicken 65. Loud, fast and full at 15:00.
Aleppo-born Mohamad Orfali and his brothers run the kitchen that has topped MENA's 50 Best Restaurants list, plating Syrian technique through a modernist lens: wagyu kibbeh nayyeh, aubergine 'Bala Kalam', and a dessert counter of its own.
The Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding runs sit-on-the-floor Emirati meals under the motto 'Open Doors, Open Minds'. Local hosts serve balaleet and chebab, then answer any question about religion, marriage or food customs.
Lebanese street institution since 1979 with a neon-lit pavement terrace on Satwa's main strip. Chicken and beef shawarma carved off vertical spits, falafel, manakish za'atar and fresh mango or avocado-honey juice from the front counter.
Speciality roastery inside the converted marble-factory warehouses of Al Quoz, roasting on site and pouring single-origin filters alongside a cardamom-heavy take on Gulf coffee. Surrounding units are galleries, so pair the cup with a walk.
The 2008 izakaya that set the template for Dubai's licensed dining scene: robata-grilled miso black cod, sushi counter and a first-floor bar mixing yuzu and shiso cocktails for the finance crowd spilling out of DIFC at sundown.