Many people go to Dubai to soak up the sun. I go to soak up the masala. In the past year, I have spent time in both India and Dubai, and without a doubt, I have eaten significantly better Indian food in Dubai than I have in a number of different cities across India.
Needless to say, part of that is because I am more confident eating at restaurants in Dubai, knowing that I probably won’t get sick. I think that if I were able to eat roadside kebabs and chaat in India, I might be singing a different tune.
But still, caution is the name of the game in some parts of the world given how easily food poisoning can be picked up. If you’re not from India, you are probably in my shoes knowing that one bad pani puri at a truck stop could ruin your trip for days afterward.
When people tell me Dubai is a glitzy desert wasteland with no culture, I tell them to go north, away from the business district, to Al Karama and Bur Dubai, where the curries are fiery and you feel like you’re on the streets of an Indian or Pakistani city. Here are some of the best Indian eats in Dubai, all of which are clustered in that neighborhood.
Bikanervala (Al Karama): The best Indian sweets in Dubai
Bikanervala is an vegetarian Indian outlet originally from Rajasthan. In fact, all but one of these restaurants is a branch of a restaurant originally opened in Mother India. At Bikanervala, you can get vegetarian chaat and dishes like chole bhatura and palak paneer, but the reason I go to Bikanervala is for the sweets. When you walk into the restaurant and turn right you are greeted with a glistening case of dessert options. My favorites are the rasmalai, fresh cheese curd bathed in saffron rabri with pistachio and rose water, khoya kesar burfi, a sweet made with milk solid and saffron, and the malai chap, spongy syrupy rasgullas topped with sweet cream.
Indian sweets go great with chai, but because of the intense sweetness of all of these, I recommend taking them with a masala tea without sugar. Anything with the telltale orange tint of saffron is great and you can’t go wrong with any of them. Bikanervala has other branches in Dubai, but the Al Karama is the largest of the ones I have been to and also has the best selection.
Biryaniwalla & Co.: Traditional Hyderabadi Dum Biryani in Dubai
Also on offer, as is the case with many traditional biryani joints, are kebabs which are tandoor roasted. I don’t really understand why these two foods are so often grouped together at restaurants. There is already a hefty meat component in the biryani itself so I don’t understand why there is the tendency to serve kebab alongside a biryani. I ordered the mutton dum biryani and it arrived with a hard-boiled egg on the side. Although the server tried to talk me into ordering a portion size which serves two people, I went with the single serving and it was still so generous that it was difficult to finish. The rice was fluffy and separated into individual pieces. The mutton was tender and well-spiced. The egg had been boiled far too long and the yolk was an unappetizing grey color so I skipped it.
Manchatti: A Dubai original serving Kerala classics
Manchatti is the only restaurant in this list which is originally from Dubai. They do food from kerala and every time I have been, I have ordered the same thing: chana masala, kingfish fry, and kingfish mango curry with parotta. The chana masala haunts my dreams. It’s heavy on coconut flavor and green chili flavor without being too sweet or too spicy. The kingfish curry is fantastically sour and with a great mango tang to it. The parotta are flaky and warm and better to order one by one so you can get them hot. Service is attentive and seemingly somewhat stone-faced, until someone asks you how the food is and they break into a big smile.
Calicut Paragon: A south Indian classic with almost 100 years of history
I was recently in Dubai for six days and ate at Calicut Paragon for three of the dinners. Calicut Paragon opened its first branch in Kerala in 1939 and has spread to the United Arab Emirates since, as well as opening about a dozen other branches in India.
My piece of advice for this spot is to get there early and to inform your waiter as soon as possible that you are interested in ordering the biryani and the crab thushar, because they are very popular and go fast. The crab thushar is a spicy coconut gravy-based crab curry, and is best soaked up with a couple of appam or puttu.
The biryani is absolutely phenomenal so different from Hyderabadi style. First of all, it’s not at all spicy and is instead heavy on rosewater and cardamom flavoring. Second, it is made with short-grain Sona Masoori rice as opposed to long-grain basmati. Still, it is served with raita like a traditional Hyderabadi biryani and with a coconut chili chutney and lime pickle, you can spice it up if you want to. We tried both the chicken and the fish biryani and while they are both superb, I’m more of a traditionalist and preferred the chicken. Beef and mutton are also available and mutton will likely be my next order when we return in the not-too-distant future.
The bottom line
If you come to Dubai for the food, the best option is to stay close to where the action is given that it’s quite time-consuming to move around given how bad the traffic is. I have always stayed at the Aloft Al Mina, which is within walking distance of all these places. Unless something changes in the coming years, the Aloft will likely be my choice of accommodation when visiting Dubai.
Another thing potentially worth pointing out is that there is no alcohol served at any of these locations. That’s Dubai for you. While many of us have gotten used to a Kingfisher or a Taj with our Indian feasts, that’s unfortunately not an option here. However, lassis, soft drinks and masala tea are plentiful at all of these places.
Over the course of some 15 or 16 meals during our last stay in Dubai, only one of them was not Indian. The Indian food in the city is simply spectacular and extremely reasonably priced as well.