Dubai’s Top Restaurants for Unforgettable Dinners

This is one of the classiest spots in the DIFC featuring a Bohemian ambiance of early 20th-century Paris. Tables are equipped with buttons for instant Champagne orders, and night shows include live music and cabaret dancers. Performances are held daily from Wednesday to Saturday, from 8 pm to 3 am, and guests with a 500+ dirhams check are welcome. The menu offers classic French brasserie fare with a contemporary twist by chef Rory Duncan, who joined the restaurant team in the spring of 2024. Top choices for a midnight dinner include beef tartare, onion soup, and Lobster Thermidor. Advanced booking is required.

This haute cuisine restaurant is the creation of Englishman Jason Atherton, who is renowned in Britain for his successful project, Pollen Street Social. In 2011, it was named the country’s best restaurant by the Good Food Guide. Atherton is also a regular participant in popular culinary TV shows. This restaurant in Dubai is a premier destination for a dinner with a narrative: the tasting menu, consisting of 17 courses (with a vegetarian option available), begins at the bar with aperitifs, continues in a room featuring an open kitchen, and concludes in the chef’s intimate “library.” The final, seventeenth, course is a genuine surprise for the guests. Due to the limited number of spots, advanced booking is essential.

An immersive show-style dinner offers a perfect opportunity to enjoy genuinely unique culinary experiences and is truly one of Dubai’s most intriguing restaurants. Originating from the White Rabbit Family, this culinary concept transforms Krasota’s guests into participants of a unique performance. Twenty people are seated around a large round table surrounded by multimedia screens, and throughout the dinner they follow the themes presented in both the visual projections and the menu. The themes and tasting sets change with the seasons, but Vladimir Mukhin’s innovative cuisine consistently meets high standards. Booking a seat at the table is required.

This is a brilliantly executed concept of a modern American brasserie, making it one of the top choices for a family celebration dinner and possibly Dubai’s most popular venue for business meetings. It boasts a prime location, with the best branch situated in Zaha Hadid’s Opus Tower in the Business Bay neighborhood. The restaurant offers a comprehensive and diverse menu, including an extensive Raw bar section and an impressive selection of vegetarian dishes. The legant neoclassical interior features high ceilings, crystal chandeliers, and a refined marble counter.

One of Dubai’s premier dining destinations specializes in contemporary French cuisine and exceptional service. The establishment’s chef, Yannick Alleno, has built his career by opening top-tier restaurants at five-star hotels and luxury resorts, earning numerous prestigious culinary awards. In addition to the à la carte menu, Stay offers Emotion and Experience tasting sets. The Emotion set includes six courses, while the Experience set comprises seven, both ideal for a leisurely and meditative dinner dates for two. There is also a small yet delightful vegetarian menu featuring an outstanding risotto with portobello mushrooms. Advanced booking is recommended.

This is a Spanish steakhouse, our favorite among Dubai’s meat restaurants. In addition to the excellent service and superb selection of premium beef, with the Australian Wagyu 9+ being the standout, there is also the Smoked Room omakase bar that accommodates 14 guests. It offers an intimate setting with its own tasting menu, meticulously modeled after the renowned original in Madrid. This is one of the best places in town to enjoy a meal in a small group, with an almost intimate atmosphere surrounding the open kitchen and live fire used to prepare most of the menu’s dishes.

One of Dubai’s top restaurants in the classic contemporary fine dining format is among the main attractions to open in The Link restaurant gallery at the new One & Only One Za’abeel Hotel. Dubai’s La Dame De Pic is the fifth branch of the project by French chef Anne Sophie Pic, who inherited her culinary talent and ambition from her father, a renowned chef and owner of a stellar family establishment. Ms. Pic has developed her unique professional style and is recognized as the world’s most successful female chef. The restaurant offers three tasting menus, including a vegetarian option, and requires advanced booking.