Eat & drink

What a main course actually costs in Dubai

Dubai restaurants advertise themselves with words — casual, premium, fine dining — and almost never with a number you can compare. This table ranks 42 restaurants by their median main course, worked out from 3917 prices published by the restaurants themselves. It runs from AED 29 at Operation:Falafel to AED 350 at Gigi Rigolatto.

42 Dubai restaurants ranked by typical main course
Restaurant	Cuisine	Band	Typical main	Full menu range	Priced items
Operation:Falafel	Levantine street food	Under AED 90	AED 29	AED 2–360	192
Al Safadi	Lebanese	Under AED 90	AED 33	AED 1–400	186
Zaroob Dubai Marina	Levantine	Under AED 90	AED 33	AED 2–195	196
Din Tai Fung	Taiwanese	Under AED 90	AED 40	AED 6–98	145
Ibn AlBahr	Lebanese seafood	Under AED 90	AED 42	AED 12–380	81
P.F. Chang's	Asian	Under AED 90	AED 46	AED 1–102	56
Allo Beirut JBR	Lebanese	Under AED 90	AED 47	AED 4–273	225
Kinoya	Japanese	Under AED 90	AED 55	AED 5–135	66
Pickl	Cheeseburgers and fried chicken	Under AED 90	AED 62	AED 0–83	72
Kokoro Dubai	Japanese	Under AED 90	AED 65	AED 20–500	33
Wagamama	Japanese-inspired Asian	Under AED 90	AED 65	AED 4–175	136
Al Hallab Restaurant & Sweets	Lebanese	Under AED 90	AED 66	AED 5–380	283
Arabian Tea House Restaurant & Cafe, Al Fahidi	Emirati	Under AED 90	AED 73	AED 10–127	128
Eggspectation	All-day breakfast and brunch	Under AED 90	AED 73	AED 10–169	130
SALT	Burgers and sliders	Under AED 90	AED 73	AED 5–390	50
Al Fanar Restaurant & Café	Emirati	Under AED 90	AED 75	AED 5–399	94
Sufret Maryam	Levantine	Under AED 90	AED 76	AED 16–380	114
Markette	French crêperie and comfort food	Under AED 90	AED 80	AED 18–165	20
The Cheesecake Factory	American	Under AED 90	AED 80	AED 18–301	262
Cutfish Dubai	Contemporary Japanese	Under AED 90	AED 82	AED 3–295	86
Il Gattopardo Dubai	Italian	Under AED 90	AED 82	AED 18–770	54
Gitano Dubai	Modern Mexican	Under AED 90	AED 85	AED 20–370	41
Ninive Beach	Middle Eastern	Under AED 90	AED 88	AED 22–257	61
Bosporus	Turkish	AED 90–150	AED 95	AED 7–199	79
La Maison Ani	French	AED 90–150	AED 95	AED 22–420	74
Somewhere	Mediterranean	AED 90–150	AED 95	AED 9–395	60
Sexy Fish Dubai	Japanese-inspired / Asian seafood	AED 90–150	AED 108	AED 42–2,200	48
TOTÓ Dubai	Italian	AED 90–150	AED 117	AED 30–1,200	47
Isabella Cucina Italiana	Italian	AED 90–150	AED 125	AED 29–600	54
Jamavar Dubai	Indian	AED 90–150	AED 130	AED 85–1,050	26
3Fils	Asian	AED 90–150	AED 135	AED 15–385	98
Amaya	Mediterranean and international fusion	AED 90–150	AED 136	AED 39–435	89
Bombay Borough	Indian	AED 90–150	AED 145	AED 22–195	45
The Spaniel Dubai	British	AED 90–150	AED 145	AED 20–195	55
RARE Brasserie & Bar	Modern French brasserie	AED 90–150	AED 148	AED 18–315	37
Sakhalin Dubai	MediterrAsian (Mediterranean and Asian, with Russian influences)	AED 150–250	AED 185	AED 25–2,200	140
Maison Revka Dubai	Slavic-inspired fine dining	AED 150–250	AED 195	AED 45–2,900	57
African Queen	French-Mediterranean	AED 150–250	AED 196	AED 16–902	54
Aretha	Contemporary international, live music venue	AED 150–250	AED 220	AED 65–2,400	43
THREE CUTS Dubai	Steakhouse	AED 150–250	AED 242	AED 25–2,000	45
Sirene Beach by GAIA	Greek–Mediterranean	AED 250+	AED 335	AED 35–1,500	97
Gigi Rigolatto	Italian	AED 250+	AED 350	AED 25–2,800	58

What these numbers are, and what they are not

Every figure is arithmetic on prices the restaurant published itself, on its own site, its own menu PDF or the ordering channel it operates through. No restaurant states any of these numbers — they are ours, and we would rather say so than dress a calculation up as a quote. The date each menu was checked is on that restaurant’s page.

The typical main is a median, not an average: a single AED 2,900 king crab would drag an average into nonsense while telling you nothing about what dinner costs. The full range is the cheapest and dearest item on the whole menu, which is why it stretches so far — the low end is usually a side or a coffee.

Read the tax line before you budget

Dubai restaurants handle the 5% VAT, 7% municipality fee and 10% service charge differently, and some print prices that include only one of the three. On a large bill that difference is substantial, so each venue page quotes its own menu’s small print rather than assuming a convention. Where a restaurant prints nothing, the page says that too.

Delivery-platform prices, where those are the only ones a restaurant publishes, sometimes run above the same dish in the dining room. Those pages say which platform the prices came from and on what date — the sourcing rules are set out in our editorial policy.

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Common questions

How much is a meal in Dubai?

The median main course across the 42 restaurants ranked here runs from AED 29 at Operation:Falafel to AED 350 at Gigi Rigolatto. The figure is worked out from 3,917 prices the restaurants publish themselves.

Is eating out in Dubai expensive?

It depends entirely on which end of that range you eat at, and the words restaurants use — casual, premium, fine dining — do not map onto it reliably. That is why this page ranks by a number rather than a label.

What is added to a restaurant bill in Dubai?

Typically 5% VAT and a 10% service charge inside the printed price, with a 7% municipality fee added on top. Menus state this in small print. What each charge actually is, and which one is not a tax at all.

Do Dubai restaurants publish their prices?

Fewer than you would expect. This page covers the ones that publish a full priced menu on their own site or their own ordering channel. Prices quoted for the rest are third-party, and this site does not carry them.

How is the median main course calculated?

From the restaurant's own published main-course prices only — not starters, sides or drinks — taking the middle value. It is our arithmetic on their figures, and the page says so.