OZU /UNITED ARAB EMIRATES /ABU DHABI /GUIDE
Where to eat in Abu Dhabi
3 h route4 stopsBest: At night. Dinner is late here and it’s eaten out all yearUpdated July 2026
The lime that flavours half the Gulf’s cooking is called loomi and it’s made like this: limes are boiled in salted water and left in the sun until they dry out completely, turn black and go hard as stones. That way they keep for years. They go into stews whole or ground, and what they bring isn’t acidity but a smoky citrus bitterness that resembles nothing else and that is the flavour of this part of the world.
That technique tells you where all this comes from: a coast with no refrigeration where things had to be preserved somehow, and a maritime trade that has brought spices from India and Persia for centuries. Emirati cooking is that: rice, lamb or fish, Indian Ocean spices and black lime. Here, unlike in the neighbour, it’s somewhat easier to find, because the proportion of Emiratis is higher and there are places that do it properly.
The route, stop by stop
4 STOPS- 01
Machboos
The central dish of this cooking: long-grain rice cooked with meat or fish, onion, tomato, a spice mix they call bezar here (turmeric, cumin, cinnamon, cloves, pepper) and the black lime, pricked and dropped in whole. The rice is made in the meat’s own broth, so it comes out coloured and with all the flavour inside.
And you should notice the resemblance, because it isn’t a coincidence: machboos is a first cousin of Indian biryani, Saudi kabsa and Persian plov. They’re all the same invention, adapted in each port. This coast has traded with India and Persia for a thousand years, and the food is the most faithful record of that traffic: the spices came by ship, the rice too, and here they were cooked with what there was, which was lamb, fish and dates.
Eating machboos in Abu Dhabi knowing that turns a plate of rice into a map. It’s eaten with the right hand and no cutlery, in the places that do it properly.
- 02
The date, which isn’t a dessert
The date doesn’t close the meal here as a sweet: it works as a staple food and a social rite. When you enter a house or an office you’ll be offered dates and Arabic coffee, gahwa, served in a handleless cup, drunk bitter and with cardamom, and always accepted even if you don’t fancy it, because refusing is rude.
There’s a protocol worth knowing: the cup is held in the right hand, it will be refilled as long as you do nothing, and to signal you don’t want more you shake it slightly from side to side before handing it back. If you don’t, they keep filling it.
And on dates: there are dozens of varieties and they aren’t interchangeable, the same as grapes. Khalas is soft with a caramel flavour, medjool is huge and fleshy, sukkari is sugary. In a country that was for centuries a waterless desert, a fruit that gives calories, keeps for a year and grows on the only plant that survives this is the opposite of a treat: it’s the basis of survival.
- 03
What the city eats
As across this region, most of the people living in Abu Dhabi were born abroad, and that decides what’s actually eaten: Pakistani, Indian, Filipino, Egyptian, Lebanese, Sudanese. In the inland neighbourhoods, away from the Corniche and the hotels, there are small rooms where you have dinner for a fraction of what anything costs on Saadiyat.
The Lebanese deserves its own chapter because here it’s spectacular and it’s the easiest thing to order: a table full of small plates to share, hummus, moutabal, tabbouleh, kibbeh, grilled meat and freshly made bread that arrives puffed up. Everything goes in the middle and you eat with bread instead of a fork.
And a tip that holds throughout: in the Gulf, the best indicator that a place is good is a queue of people who live here at ten at night, not a view. Views, in this city, are charged separately and charged dearly.
- 04
Gulf fish
Before oil, these people lived off the sea: fish and pearls. Fish is still central and there’s a market in the city where you can buy it and have them cook it for you right there, which is the best way to eat it. It’s grilled whole, with spices and lime, or stewed with rice.
And there’s a matter worth knowing because it has substance: hamour, the Gulf grouper, is the favourite fish here and it’s seriously overfished. Local studies have warned for years that it’s caught far above sustainable levels, and there have been government campaigns urging people to eat other species. It’s on every menu regardless.
If you fancy doing something with that information, order sherry, safi or kingfish, which are in better shape and taste just as good. It’s one of the very few occasions when a menu decision means something, and here there is published data.
Frequently asked
What do you eat in Abu Dhabi?
Machboos, the central dish: rice cooked in the meat’s broth with spices and black lime. Loomi, a lime boiled and sun-dried until black and hard. It’s a cousin of Indian biryani and Saudi kabsa, and that resemblance tells a thousand years of trade with India and Persia. Dates and Arabic coffee as a social rite. And what the city eats: Lebanese, Indian, Pakistani and Filipino in the inland neighbourhoods, away from the Corniche.
How is Arabic coffee drunk?
In a small handleless cup, bitter and with cardamom, held in the right hand, and always accepted when offered because refusing is rude. It will be refilled as long as you do nothing: to signal you don’t want more, shake it slightly from side to side before handing it back. It comes with dates, which here aren’t a dessert but a staple food.