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It’s no secret that Dubai is one of the food capitals of the world, with cuisines from all over the globe thriving in the city.

But when you’re in Dubai, you’re spoiled for choice and choosing which restaurants to visit is quite a task. We’ve compiled a list of four amazing restaurants in Dubai with very different cuisines — Italian seafood, Indian fusion, British-American, and Mediterranean — and some of the best dishes at these restaurants.

Alici

Alici was an interesting choice for someone who doesn’t eat seafood to visit, but rest assured, the restaurant has many options for people who don’t want a fishy diet.

One of my favourite things about Alici was its decor — think blue, Mediterranean, lemons, and fish.

From the very cute olive oil bottles on the table, to the pictures and fish on the walls, the decor at Alici was far from stuffy. With its dim lighting, the restaurant has a distinctly sultry feel to it — and it had a gorgeous view of the water from its balcony.

We ordered an assortment of things, starting with the house salad that could have been skipped. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t something I’d want to fill up on, not when the rest of the food was so good.

The bread was great and I loved their little olive oil containers that looked straight from the Amalfi coast.

The Fritto Misto for the table contained fried calamari, red prawns, sliced purple potato, zucchini, chilli jam, citrus and mayo and was something I stayed away from. Everyone else said it was very good.

The Tartare di manzo, nocciole e tartufo nero, or beef tartare, on the other hand, was a hit, with a wonderful nutty texture that melted in your mouth. That, of course, came from the hazelnut mayo, burnt leeks, potato chips and black truffle.

We also selected a truffle flatbread for the table, which was nice, but nothing spectacular.

For the mains, while others sampled seafood dishes, I opted for a creamy risotto with wild mushrooms and black truffle that I have no words to describe. Rich, creamy and packed with flavour, this dish was something I ended up forcing myself to finish while others erred on the side of caution and stopped eating when they were full.

I had no such compunction and decided I had to finish every bite of this risotto — it was that good.

I didn’t try the seafood dishes, but everyone else seemed to enjoy them. However, since this is a food review, I’ll include the pictures of things I didn’t eat as well.

The Salmone Grigliato featured a grilled salmon fillet atop vegetables.

The Garganelli con ragù di agnello e pecorino featured homemade garganelli pasta covered with lamb ragu and pecorino cheese.

One of the most surprising things about Alici was how amazing their desserts were. A crowd favourite was the Fondente Al Cioccolato which can best be described as a chocolate lover’s dream. Filled with dark chocolate and Nutella fondant and paired with liquorice ice cream, this was something everyone made space for, no matter how full they were.

One of my favourites was the lemon mousse with wild berries and vanilla soil. It was tart and creamy, and the berries added a juicy component to the dish. Inside the lemon mousse was a tart berry compote of sorts that balanced the dish perfectly. While everyone else was going wild over the chocolate dessert, this was my favourite.

We also ordered the lemon cheesecake with mandarin compote and the tiramisu, and both of them were great. However, they were eclipsed by the other two.

Duck & Waffle

A new and rather interesting addition to Dubai’s culinary scene is the 24-hour restaurant, Duck & Waffle. Serving what it describes as a fusion of British and American cuisine, this restaurant aims, as the owner described, to cater to everyone.

Its decor was a touch more casual than what you’d ordinarily see in Dubai and the menu was simpler than other fine dining restaurants.

There was indoor seating as well as outdoor seating, adding to their something-for-everyone theme. I especially loved the DJ-ing duck poster as you enter.

They have a fixed, all-day menu and set menus for lunch, breakfast, Sunday roast and weekend brunch. We chose from their lunch menu, which featured a choice between three starters, three mains and two desserts, as well as some items from their all-day menu. Some of the choices were obvious — who can resist a mango pavlova? — while others required some deliberation.

We started off with a salad, truffle fries and the potato and leek soup. The soup was alright, but, surprisingly, the salad was more of an attention grabber for me because of its dressing. The fries were loaded with parmesan.

From the mains, we had a choice of rigatoni, roasted sea bass and smashed burger, and I, of course, chose the rigatoni, which was very nice and creamy.

Some of the others got the burger, which they said was pretty good.

We also got the eponymous duck and waffle, which sounded a little strange but ended up being great. We were treated to the sight of the waiter carving the duck for us before assembling the duck and waffle combo. The roasted duck came topped with a fried egg, on top of a large waffle. The duck was succulent and roasted well, and paired nicely with the waffle and syrup.

The mix of savoury and sweet was decadent and I was glad we were sharing the dish, because I definitely wouldn’t have been able to eat this as a meal on its own.

We ended our meal with a wonderful mango pavlova that was light and airy, as any good pavlova should be, and torrejas, which was similar to a french toast, covered with maple caramel apples and cinnamon ice cream.

During our meal we met the owner of Duck & Waffle, Hadi, who told us about his hopes of creating a place where people could visit at any time of the day and get just what they’re looking for. With a pretty extensive and varied menu, I think he might be on his way to achieving that.

Khadak

Not to be confused with the Urdu word karak, Khadak is a new Indian fusion restaurant named after a famous street in Mumbai. It has been started by chef Naved Nasir, the former chef director at Dishoom, the London restaurant chain.

The ambiance at Khadak was lovely — it was like visiting a casual and comfortable home. The decor was homey with a twist — lots of light, warm-toned wood and statement pieces, like a colourful mural in the entrance that encompassed both the walls and the ceiling, and a wall of bells.

It was too hot to sit outside when we visited, but the seating area featured a wall with faded lettering in English, Urdu and Hindi that read “Dastan is the final word in storytelling”.

Our meal started off very strong with Morel Cheese Kulcha with Truffle Butter. This was creamy and delicious — a warm and lovely bite that was very unexpected but very welcomed. This is something you must get if you visit Khadak.

We also got some very fun mocktails, chosen from a cute menu advertising that the drinks were inspired by the people of Khadak.

Then came the Karari Kale Chaat, which was a hit — it was the perfect thing to have in Dubai’s rather oppressive heat. It featured a crispy kale tempura, drizzled with chutneys, yoghurt, and pomegranate and was a great addition to the table.

There was another chaat on our table — the Broccoli and Pomelo Bhel — which was also nice, but wasn’t as interesting as the Karari Kale Chaat. It was heavier than the first one, with grapefruit, pomegranate, broccoli, puffed rice and nuts.

The Radio Cafe Kheema Pao was nice enough but at the end of the day, it was qeema similar to what you’d get in any home in Pakistan. This was also my issue with the NM Chicken Shammi, which was just a shaami kabab.

I think both of these dishes were nice, and spiced well, but when you’re coming from Pakistan, you don’t really want to eat meals you’d be able to get back home for a fraction of the price. I think both of these dishes would have appealed far more to someone living in Dubai who perhaps didn’t have such easy access to them.

Something we’d been recommended to try was the Khadak Raan. It was a good, hearty meal but was a little on the saltier side and needed some naan to balance out the flavour.

The next item we tried was a little controversial, to me at least. We got biryani.

The Laccha Biryani with Bone Marrow Gravy was warm, comforting but it really wasn’t biryani. This is coming from a born and bred Karachiite, so take it with a pinch of salt. To me, biryani is spicy and certainly isn’t covered in obvious gravy, so I decided to evaluate this dish on its own merits. If you take away the biryani from its name, it was great. It was warm and comforting, and something I’d definitely order again. The gravy was rich and thick, spreading over the rice and mutton, and complementing them perfectly.

For the desserts, we had the Rasmali Baklava by Nadia Parekh, which is nice and light. I especially liked the addition of the kumquat chilli jam, which added a tart element to a dessert that was airy light, thanks to the thin phyllo sheets.

We also got the Chocolate Chikki by Nadia Parekh, which was rich with salted peanut toffee, and cardamom milk chocolate mousse. Compared to the rasmalai, this was decadent. A fun take on traditional chikki — or peanut brittle — this was like chikki meets Snickers bar and it was very good.

We also the Kulfi Falooda, which was nice but at the end of the day, it was just a kulfi falooda with a lot of dramatic flair courtesy of a smoke show. I realised after visiting all these restaurants that in Dubai people really like smoke shows with their food.

The one advice I’d have for anyone visiting Khadak would be to be more adventurous — sticking to things you know will just have you comparing them to food you get back home and that’s doing a disservice to the chef and yourself.

Somewhere

The fourth restaurant on this list is Somewhere, a Mediterranean restaurant, with a great name.

The restaurant itself is decorated in earthy tones reminiscent of the cultures it represents. The tall ceilings and curved walls were covered in a pinkish-brown terracotta colour, and complemented by white-washed vases and small statues, lending to the earthy, desert vibe.

When we visited, the patrons at the restaurant seemed to all be local, which lifted our hopes for a very authentic meal.

The menu was extensive and available in picture form if you asked a waiter for help. One thing for Pakistanis in particular to remember is that Mediterranean food is rarely spicy. It’s seasoned but its flavours are milder, something many of us tend to dismiss because we’re so used to bold flavours. The flavours at Somewhere weren’t bold, but they were definitely there.

We started off with a sweet potato salad that was topped with yoghurt, pomegranate and what appeared to be black gram or kaali daal. It was tart — thanks to the daal and pomegranate — but had the perfect crunch, thanks to the papar sprinkled on top. This was an instant hit.

The Wagyu Lahm Bajeen, essentially a beef kabab, was great. There’s just something about wagyu that makes it taste good no matter what form it’s in.

We also got the Black Angus Beef Hummus that featured hummus, beef chunks and pine nuts, drizzled with olive oil. This was good but it didn’t blow me away.

The Wagyu Kabab Bao was amazing — perfectly seasoned and in one of my favourite forms of carbs, a light and fluffy bao. The bao had Somewhere emblazoned on it, in a very nice touch. It was topped with crispy fried onions and is the perfect thing to order if you’re looking for a more fusion-style of food.

The Beef Shawarma Beetroot Rice was an interesting dish. We ordered it because almost every table seemed to have it, and it looked pretty cool. The purple rice stood straight up on the dish in a conical shape and was surrounded by beef. I did not like this at first and felt the beetroot aftertaste was far too strong. However, I am nothing if not hungry, so after trying a few more bites, I thought it wasn’t bad. Another few bites in and I decided I actually liked it. It tastes like a rice bowl you’d get at a healthy restaurant — light on the sauce, heavy on the vegetable flavour — but it wasn’t bad.

We also ordered the far less exciting looking Shish Taouk, which was actually nice and true to the original. It came on skewers, sans rice, but after the beef kababs, we were too full to do justice to it.

The real winner of the night, however, was the dessert. The French Coffee Baklava was recommended to us by our waiter, and it would have been a real pity if we had missed out on it.

A base of spongey cake covered in coffee ice cream, light phyllo layers and what I think was fried kunafa, this was an amazing dessert. The coffee was not bitter at all, nothing was too sweet and overall, it was light and amazing.

We also ordered the Kunafa croissant, but that was just okay. To be fair, I think everyone is done with pistachio kunafa desserts and nothing could measure up to the French Coffee Baklava.

Disclaimer: This trip was sponsored by Dubai Economy and Tourism. All the meals and activities were paid for by Dubai Economy and Tourism.