DoinDubai Magazine

An Honest Guide to Life in Dubai

Home | Best Dubai Cafes

Best Dubai Cafes

by Leave a Comment

What to Do In Dubai – without spending a fortune

If you get asked the question how would you reply to What to do in Dubai?

Where would you send people to eat and drink and see some of the real city but without spending a fortune? Ideas of meals and experiences giving you more for less.

Read on for my sensible but none the less delicious suggestions of what to Do in Dubai.

Why listen to me?

I’ve been a resident in Dubai since 2006 and and run an award winning food and travel blog and a podcast channel MonicMoments

I love good, healthy food and hate wasting money. So read on and make a list of what you and your visitors could Do In Dubai!

Love Indian Street Food? Then try a TERRIFIC THALI on your What to Do In Dubai List

Indian thali meals are cheap as chips but authentic, hugely authentic and very tasty. They’re great for hearty eaters as you can often have refills of your favourite dishes.

Click the link to Terrific Thali Meals here to find out more where these thali restaurants are which is our favourite!

Money Saving Deals DoinDubai Monica Kapila Andrha Thali
Andhra Style thali at Shree Krishna Bhavan
Money Saving Deals DoinDubai Monica Kapila Thali Meals Venus Karama
South Indian thali at Venus restaurant
MONEY SAVING DEALS DOINDUBAI MONICA KAPILA Thali at Rangoli Karama Cafe
Gujerati Style thali at Rangoli restaurant

Want some posh nosh in Dubai? Then pay a fraction of the price by trying some BUSINESS LUNCHES at top end restaurants

Business Lunches are a super way to sample Dubai’s fine dining restaurants on a budget.

Eating at lunchtime means you pay way less than you would at dinner time! Mostly available during week days, so that’s Monday to Thursday and sometimes Friday in Dubai at the moment.

See the pictures with captions below to places we really liked and would go again.

We also like the look of Fi’Lia Italian restaurant at the newish SLS hotel. A 3 course authentic looking business lunch for aed 99 with good views too.

ROKA at the ME hotel Business Bay
Money Saving Deals DoinDubai Monica Kapila Mina Brasserie Business Lunch Four Seasons DIFC
MINA BRASSERIE Four Seasons DIFC
Money Saving Deals DoinDubai Monica Kapila 99 Sushi Bar
99 SUSHI BAR Address hotel Downtown

So you’re a Culture Vulture and want to chat to local Emiratis about customs and traditions of the UAE? Then try the HERITAGE EXPRESS Moving Majlis experience.

We LOVED our experience of the Heritage Express moving majlis and learnt so much about Dubai despite having been a resident for some many years!

Click the link to Heritage Express Dubai for all details including which meals you can have as part of the experience, special offers and which sites you get to see on this fascinating tour.

Heritage Express Dubai DoinDubai Monica Kapila
Grab some friends and ride the Moving Majlis
Heritage Express Dubai DoinDubai Moinca Kapila Emirati Guides Moving Majlis
Hugely informative and very friendly stories from local people
Heritage Express Dubai DoinDubai Moinca Kapila Pose with a falcon
Pose with a falcon near the Jumeirah Mosque

You love FRESH FISH AND SEAFOOD by the sea then eat well for less in a lovely setting

Fresh Shrimps
Half a Lobster
Spicy Crabs

Great value and very tasty prawns, lobsters, crabs and fish straight from the fish market brought to your table cooked Middle Eastern Style. Just look at the location of our Fish Market in Jumeirah to find the location of the seafood restaurant behind it.

Good sayadiya rice and fresh rocket salad are what we recommend to accompany. Everyone we take here LOVES this great value seafood place by the sea in Jumeirah. If you find Dibba Bay Oyster Hut in Jumeirah 2 then you’ve found Azeema seafood too! The tables are set for outdoor eating now.

Tel 050 289 8181

Money Saving Deals DoinDubai Monica Kapila Dibba Bay Oysters Happy Hour
aed 8 per oyster Sunday to Wednesday 4 to 6.30pm

By the way the oyster hut at Dibba Bay Oysters serves oysters at AED 8 from Monday to Thursday from 4.30 to 6.30pm! Their hut is air conditioned too. Call to check before hand on 054 438 8537

NEW LOCATION at the Sheraton JBR! November 2022

You love food markets and a walk by the creek? Then experience DEIRA WATERFRONT MARKET and have lunch before you leave

Plenty of fresh produce well priced
Stroll along the creek behind the market
Eat some lunch before you head home

Group of girls on a big night out? Then research Dubai’s unique LADIES NIGHTS and have some beverages without breaking the bank

Don’t know what a Ladies Night concept is? Then LISTEN to this Ladies Nights podcast to be in the know. Depending on what time of year it is, there is ALWAYS a good Ladies Night in Dubai happening somewhere!

Just ask at your favourite hotel restaurants once you know which area you want to focus on.

Want to buy some fresh fish to take home or just love fish markets then check out our Fish Market in Dubai post here.

LIFE SHOULD BE A BEACH? Then try taking walking along the quiet bit of track beyond Jumeirah fish market near the sailing club

Stunning Sunsets, sand and sea all for free, take a picnic and do some paddle boarding or have coffee and snacks there.

Great walking track and a bike track now built. Want to know more about Paddle Boarding? Read our post on Paddling in Dubai.

Fish Market in Dubai Jumeirah harbour
MONEY SAVING DEALS DOINDUBAI DUBAI FITNESS CHALLENGE 2020
Try paddle boarding in Dubai near Sunset Beach

Want MORE? Then follow us on @DoinDubai INSTAGRAM for more up to the minute ideas.

by Leave a Comment

WALNUT GROVE An upmarket South African cafè in City Walk Dubai

Walnut Grove

Walnut Grove is a high-end cafè/restaurant from Johannesburg, South Africa that serves fresh, Mediterranean meals, juices, coffees and dessert style cakes.

Coffee Walnut Grove DoinDubai

Location of Walnut Grove

Walnut Grove is located on the ground floor of the newer section of City Walk in Dubai. City Walk itself is a mixed development of shops, restaurants, cafes and flats by established developer Meraas. There is easy parking in the basement. Walnut Grove is in one of the ground floor malls and you’ll be sitting near shops like American Vintage and Sandro. So it’s a bit like an indoor section of Marylebone High Street in London!

The food at Walnut Grove

We visited for lunch and ordered a Mamma Mia pizza and burrata salad. Both dishes were beautifully presented, extremely tasty and made to a high standard. Portion sizes are on the generous side but prices reflect that. So our 2 dishes could have fed at least three hungry people if not four with ease!

Walnut Grove DoinDubai City Walk Pizza

We asked for extra chilli oil to add to our pizza, this could have had a little more heat to it but was good nonetheless. I would have preferred a little less pomegranate molasses on my pizza but the combination still worked very well. We really liked the salty, flaky flat breads that came with our buratta salad.

Walnut Grove Buratta salad DoinDubai

We somehow found room for pudding and opted to share a portion of what looked liked a very fancy lemon meringue pie. Again this could have fed 4 people easily if you were having a dessert after a meal.

The lemon cream part of the pie was a little too sweet for me. The meringue was more of a cream than a meringue top.

Desserts in general are a little extra sweet in this part of the world I feel. So this is not a classic lemon meringue pie, it’s a much richer version.

Walnut Grove Lemon Meringue Pie DoinDubai

Prices at Walnut Grove

Mamma Mia Pizza     AED 95

Burrata Salad AED    AED 96

Lemon Meringue Pie AED 45

There are plans to open another branch in Dubai Mall later in 2018 or early 2019.

This would be a great place for breakfast if you had a walk at Al Kazzan park opposite this bit of City Walk, or if you were shopping in the mall. Service was friendly and competent. I would go to Walnut Grove again probably for breakfast.

Breakfast is served from 8am to 12pm and I recommend the Smashed Avocado on Sourdough toast for AED 69. I am sure this would feed two people! Coffee is roasted in Melbourne, Australia.

Lunch and dinner come from a different menu and that starts from 12pm lunch time till 11pm at night.

Website for Walnut Grove

by Leave a Comment

STOMPING GROUNDS

What is Stomping Grounds in Dubai all about 

Stomping Grounds is a California style Cafe in Jumeirah. I really liked the feel of this place. We came across it by chance on Friday morning after shopping at the Farmers Market on the Terrace. It serves breakfast, lunch and dinner and is a Speciality Coffee Hub. It’s really near the Espresso Lab which doesn’t serve food, just coffee.

Stomping Grounds DoinDubai House Brewed AED 20

Where is Stomping Grounds located 

Stomping Grounds  is in Jumeirah 1, just off the Beach road, very near the large, quite old blue building which is called Beach Centre. Turn off towards the sea, it’s in the residential neighbourhood here and very easy to find. Friday morning was packed out with some very fancy cars parked outside!

What to expect food and drink wise at Stomping Grounds 

Excellent coffee, both house brewed and special micro brew varieties. They have very knowledgeable staff who know their coffee!

I had a house brew cappucino at AED 20 and really liked it, I’d have it again at Stomping Grounds. They have fresh juice which is very reasonable at AED 18 for a small carafe but the cold pressed variety is pricier at AED 35.  There is a wide variety of breakfast items but in this occasion we chose the simple eggs and toast for a very reasonable AED 18. Add a generous avocado for an extra AED 12. A fresh fruit bowl seemed a bit steep at AED 45 but it is served with a side of yoghurt and honey,  although I don’t know its portion size though.

If you prefer tea, then try their Steampunk teas in  flavours like rooibos en spices these sound very exotic!

Stomping Grounds DoinDubai breakfast

Stomping Grounds would be a good place for 

I would come back to Stomping Grounds for breakfast again, it would be ideal for a school mums coffee morning if you’re looking for a place.

We’ll ask them for breakfast for 2 as a competition prize.  Go and try the coffee though if you’re in the area, it’s really very good. Although they only sell Voss water, they do offer and we drank filtered water for free, great stuff. Nice for a drink after a morning walk on the beach too.

Stomping Grounds DoinDubai drinks

 

Thanks Monica.

 

 

 

by Leave a Comment

FOOD NEWS DUBAI EYE 103.8 THE TICKET 24TH NOV 2015

PODCASTS to go with this radio slot are at the bottom of this post, scroll down if you just want to LISTEN! Welcome to this week’s Food News with Monica on Dubai Eye 103.8. Telling you the latest that Dubai has to offer this week on the Food Scene.   On Tuesday’s from 3.30 to 4pm. Meet the Ticket team and make a good choice of where to eat in Dubai. PODCASTS to go with this radio slot at the bottom of this post, scroll down if you just want to LISTEN!

Food News Tuesday on The Ticket

Food News A new Peruvian at the Sofitel in Sheikh Zayed Road INKA

The Sofitel hotel has a couple of new restaurants, one is Wakame, a Japanese, Asian restaurant that we were invited to the opening of last Wednesday, but as it was Diwali we couldn’t attend. They have another one open about a month now and we had lunch on Thursday is called Inka, and this is one to add to Dubai’s growing list of Peruvian restaurants. Open for lunch (from about a week ago) and dinner and they have a good lounge bar area with amazing views of the Burj Khalifa and downtown on one side and the sea and the world islands I think on the other. And if I had a category or radio show on the Dubai’s best restaurant tables then Inka would definitely feature on it!

INKA SOFITEL PERUVIAN BEST TABLE Food News

Do you know where the Sofitel is? Based on the 31st floor, Inka is a great introduction to Peruvian food, sensibly priced, a compound menu, not too difficult to choose from. What would you call a blend of Quinoa and Risotto?!

Looks like this and was so tasty!

INKA SOFITEL Quinotto

A great Ladies Night also starting on Wednesday, first cocktail is FREE then 50% off food and drink. I liked the herby granita in the Peruvian Mess dessert too. Their chef is Christian   from Ceviche in London’s Soho next to one of my London favourite’s Chotto Matte!

Food News A home grown concept that’s expanding with new branches PANTRY CAFE 

Not new, first branch opened in Al Wasl square in 2012 and now a brand new branch opened in Business Bay in fact it’s in Building 6 in Bay Square. A green, leafy ,neighbourhood square, they had a yoga class going on across the way, some large water features and a great community cafe! This area reminded me of Granary Square in Kings Cross in London.

Pantry Community Space Food News

We were invited to try their breakfast but as a little welcome they had tiered cake stand of goodies! I wasn’t keen at first as sweet breakfasts are not my thing at all, but oh my goodness! We took home the mince pies, some caramelized apple balls and some chestnut cream bite and I was extremely impressed!

Pantry Mince Pie Food News

Normal breakfast and lunch items of course, we shared some poached egg, avocado and smoked salmon and a good cappucino.

Pantry Breakfast Food News

They also had some sales going on, you could browse around for second hand/pre loved items and even get your nails refreshed for free! So I liked this. Special lunch menus as well, Dhs 65 and plenty of vegetarian choice too.

Pantry Cafe logo Food news

FOOD NEWS FIRST EVER ZOMATO FOOD BLOGGERS PARTY

We were at Velocity a sports bar at the JW Marriott Marquis in Dubai to attend the first ever Zomato Food Bloggers party and the South African CEO or Dubai boss met a fellow blogger in the bathroom who said “What’s your Handle?!” A top tip from a Zomato staff member was Pak Leyari based down an alley off Al Fahidi street in Bur Dubai’s Meena Bazaar area and I’m told you must order Double Masala Mutton Biriyani, but don’t go for the decor! What do you call a person that blogs on Zomato? The answer is of course A Zoman… ?!

ZOMATO PARTY Griffin JW Marriott Food News

Food News Tuesday’s mean it’s Ladies Night at Mercury’s at the Four Seasons

There is still a pair of Manolo’s to be won tonight as it’s one pair a month any Christmasy items on the menu?

 

I will add the podcast of this radio slot to the post here when it’s published. Next week, find out about my Top Picks for the Christmas and New Year meals.

Thanks

Monica

Here’s the PODCAST for this post

error: Content is protected !!