Emirati food is one of the most underrated things about Abu Dhabi. It's slow-cooked, spiced with saffron and cardamom, built around rice and meat and shared platters. If you're looking for what to eat and where, this is your guide.
Harees is wheat and meat slow-cooked until they become one, thick and smooth with a whisper of ghee on top. It sounds simple because it is. It just takes hours.
You'll find it year-round, but Ramadan is its season, when restaurants build iftar menus around it and families make enormous pots. Al Mrzab is the reliable place to try it, a proper Emirati restaurant with no frills, generous portions and regulars who've been coming for years.
Machboos is the Emirati answer to biryani. Rice cooks in a spiced broth with meat or fish, and the ingredient that sets it apart is loomi, dried lime, which adds a sour, floral note you won't find anywhere else.
Chicken and lamb are the everyday versions, but order the fish machboos, made with hammour or kingfish, if you see it. For the considered version, Al Fanar serves one of the city's best Emirati menus.
Thareed is a layered stew, tender lamb or chicken in spiced broth poured over rigag flatbread, which soaks it up and turns soft and almost silky. It's meant to be eaten communally from one large dish. You'll find it at every significant Emirati meal like, weddings, Eid, iftar. Home-cooking restaurants such as Yadoo's House Restaurant are the best places to try it.
Luqaimat are small fried dumplings, crisp outside, pillowy inside, drizzled with date syrup. They're eaten hot and they disappear fast. During Ramadan they're everywhere, fried fresh as the iftar crowd gathers, and the smell reaches you before you see the stall.
Order a portion, eat them standing up, order another. The stalls around Mina Zayed are the place, in the evening when they're freshest.
Gahwa is Arabic coffee, and it's one of the first things you'll be offered in Abu Dhabi, in a home, at a business, at the start of a meal. It's light, almost golden, brewed with cardamom, served in small handleless cups called finjan. Hold out your cup for a refill. Tilt it gently side to side when you've had enough.
It always comes with dates, bitter coffee against caramel sweetness. Bait Al Gahwa at Qasr Al Hosn is dedicated to the ritual where you can sit, drink and understand how the Emirati day begins.
Abu Dhabi grows a wide variety of dates, from the oases of Al Ain to the Al Dhafra region, home of some of the region's most prized crops. Khalas is the one locals rate highest, smaller and less sweet than Medjool, more complex. Ask to taste before you buy, the sellers expect it.
You can buy dates almost anywhere, from supermarkets to dedicated date shops to the stacked stalls of the Dates Market at Mina Zayed. A box of khalas, or a gift set pairing dates with gahwa, is the easiest great souvenir Abu Dhabi does. It travels well, keeps for months and means something here.
Is Emirati food spicy?
It's spiced, not spicy. The flavour base is cardamom, saffron, turmeric, cinnamon and dried lime. Heat is very mild. Most dishes have no chilli at all. If you find Indian or South Asian food too hot, Emirati food is a good fit.
Can vegetarians eat Emirati food?
The traditional menu is heavy on meat and fish. That said, balaleet (sweet vermicelli with egg), harees can occasionally be made without meat, and vegetable sides are common. Most restaurants also serve mezze and dishes from neighbouring cuisines. Ask what's available that day.
What should I buy to take home?
Khallas dates from the Al Ain region, loose gahwa spice blends, and bottled date syrup all travel well. The Dates Market at Mina Zayed is the best place to buy all three.
Where is the easiest place to try Emirati food for the first time?
Start at Bait Al Gahwa for gahwa and dates to understand the hospitality tradition, then go to Al Mrzab for harees and machboos. Those two visits cover the essentials.
Is Emirati food halal?
Yes. All Emirati food is halal by default. Pork is not part of the cuisine, and alcohol is not used in cooking.
