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DUBAI THALI MEALS authentic value for money Indian food

What are Dubai Thali Meals all about then?

UPDATE DECEMBER 2022: NEW THALI LUNCH ALERT

We really liked our Andhra (from Andhra Pradesh state) style thali in Discovery Gardens near the Jebal Ali side of Dubai. It’s called GODAVARI and serves both vegetarian and non vegetarian thalis. Be prepared to wait for a table at the weekend. Definitely worth the trip.

VEG AND NON VEG MEALS FROM GODAVARI RESTAURANT ANDHRA STYLE

Nice place to sit and super grocery shopping at the nearby Flavours supermarket! Blueberry boxes for AED 3 and Strawberries for AED 6!

Dubai Thali Meals are from India mainly. They are a complete meal served to you in separate little bowls all on one, tray style plate. Dubai Thali meals are cheap as chips but hugely authentic, and very tasty too. They’re great for hearty eaters as you can often have refills of your favourite dishes.

Money Saving Deals DoinDubai Monica Kapila Andrha Thali
Andhra Style Thali at Shree Krishna Bhavan in Karama

Quite often they’re also served on fresh banana leaves instead of china plates. Very sustainable and saves water and laborious washing up.

TIP

Do ASK for knives and forks if you need them else eat with your hands like everyone else!

TIP

In terms of timing, if you go on a Friday for lunch (much more sensible than boozy, overpriced brunches) then get to your thali place by about 12 or 12.30 pm else you may have to queue.

TIP

Rice is typically served at the END of the meal to fill you up, again you can have as much as you like IF you have room!

TIP

We like the Gujerati thali (Western India style) from Rangoli in Karama most of all. Decent place to sit and don’t forget to get some fresh eggless ice cream from Govinda’s restaurant next door after you’ve finished your spicy thali. Try flavours like guava or custard apple!

MONEY SAVING DEALS DOINDUBAI MONICA KAPILA Thali at Rangoli Karama Cafe
Gujerati Style Thali from Rangoli in Karama

If you fancy making your own easy peasy vegan ice cream with just 3 ingredients then listen to how easy it is on our vegan ice cream podcast.

Just 3 ingredient vegan ice cream

Other Thali places include Venus Restaurant (Karama) Shree Krishna Bhavan (Karama) and Saravana Bhavan branches in Al Barsha near Mall of Emirates and Karama.

If you’d like seafood then try Dhe Puttu for your thali also Karama side of town. I still suggest you call before hand and CHECK they are serving thalis when you want to go. Often the a la carte items may not be available when it’s Thali Time!

Money Saving Deals DoinDubai Monica Kapila Thali Meals Venus Karama
South Indian Thali from Venu restaurant Karama

Expect to pay between aed 10 and aed 25 or so for a Dubai Thali meal

You can also get and should try South Indian dosas as well if you’re at one of these restaurants. We like the dosas at Sarvana Bhavan with branches in Karama and Al Barsha not far from Mall of the Emirates. Or you could go to Bombay Chowpatty at Mall of Emirates itself if you’re shopping.

A great alternative Friday breakfast brunch idea for the family. VERY REASONABLY PRICED TOO so treat your family and friends but leave your designer gear at home, it’s casual and comfortable style here.

Dosa at Bombay Chowpatty Mall of Emirates

Want MORE? Then follow us on @DoinDubai INSTAGRAM for more up to the minute ideas and do check out our Money Saving Deals page that links to the Dubai Eye Podcast

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BEST AFTERNOON TEA SPOT – Winners have been decided

Where’s the best afternoon tea spot in Dubai ?

Hotels apart, I can highly recommend TWG tea as a best afternoon tea option. A Singaporean brand serving tea from over 30 different countries. It’s a quality spot for a catch up, a cup of tea and some classy cakes. We first spoke about them on Dubai Eye 103.8 Food News on the Ticket.

Best Afternoon Tea Spot DoinDubai

Want to try this Best Afternoon Tea?

Then you can as TWG Tea has given us a generous prize of not 1 but 3 Afternoon Teas to give away, each worth AED 220! If you don’t live in Dubai, don’t worry as one of their outlets is based  in Abu Dhabi.

Best Afternoon Tea Spot in Abu Dhabi and Dubai

TWG Tea is based in the Yas Mall in Abu Dhabi. There are also branches in Dubai Mall and Dubai Festival Centre. Expect to find Green, Black and even Blue tea, all carefully sourced from over 800 tea estates around the world!

We loved tea blend number T6018, the Silver Moon tea from their Exclusive Tea Blend list. It’s the owner’s favourite too!

Watch the video to see the beautiful tea caddies available at TWG.

I was familiar with countries like China, India, Sri Lanka and Turkey producing tea, but have found it’s grown in the UK too! Yes it surprised me too, as did learning  that New Zealand, Mozambique and Iran also produce tea.

Sutton seeds UK  offer you some advice on growing your own tea.

Recently I found James Wong’s blog where he talks about growing your own green tea; have a look. 

His latest book: How to Eat Better: How to Shop, Store & Cook to Make Any Food a Superfood is on my shopping list whilst in the UK this summer. 

What can you eat with your best afternoon tea?

The tea snacks included in the set teas sound exotic and traditional at the same time. Remember many of the dishes will have used a fine blend of tea in some way. For example a TWG Croque Monsieur consists of a toasted sandwich with french gruyere cheese, turkey ham and a side salad tossed with a 1837 Green Tea vinaigrette. There are pretty pastries too and don’t forget the TWG macarons !

best afternoon tea spot DoinDubai

Best Afternoon Tea Spot – How to WIN an afternoon tea worth AED 220

20th May 2017 THIS COMPETITION IS NOW C L O S E D – and the WINNERS are:

Jackie

Gilbert and 

Malavika 

Well done to all of you, emails of how to book your tea are on their way to you! 

Follow these steps to Win

  • Answer the question – entering your answer into the comment box below
  • Choose which venue you prefer –  Click on ONE of the pictures below representing a link to the Competition and Subscription entry page
  • When you have entered your name and email then complete your entry by opening the confirmation email  to confirm your subscription has been added to the WIN Tea for Two competition list.

*Clicking one of the pictures below will subscribe you to the DoinDubai Newsletter. DoinDubai SUBSCRIBERS who are already registered STILL have to go through the process to enter  the competition. Don’t worry you will not have multiple subscriptions, it just helps us to have all the  entries for this competition in one file. It is from the Subscribers list associated with this competition that we choose our winner 

NAME 4 COUNTRIES

THAT TWG SOURCES IT’S TEA FROM 

Double your chances of Winning by

  • Sharing this post on Facebook to D O U B L E your chances of winning Tea For Two worth AED 220 each
  • Liking DoinDubai on Facebook and Follow us on Instagram

We’ll let the randomiser pick a winner on the 19th of May 2017

best afternoon tea spot DoinDubai TWG DFC

*This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, Facebook, Twitter or any other social network.

DoinDubai.com Online Competition Terms & Conditions apply

 

 

 

We LOVED this tea caddy from Amazon! Great present..that’s around AED 30, amazing value!

 

 

 

 

 

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ZAFRAN INDIAN BISTRO

Zafran Indian Bistro isn’t new but it’s relaunched it’s Mirdif branch with a brand new look, feel and menu. We’ve eaten there twice recently and really enjoyed it both times. Read about what we ate so you can have a good idea of what to order for when you visit Zafran Indian Bistro. It’s a home grown brand, not an import and it’s part of Dubai’s Landmark Group. Go now while it still looks fresh and new.

Zafran Indian Bistro DoinDubai Street Food Chaat

What to Expect Food Wise at Zafran Indian Bistro

Gaurav, the operations manager at Zafran used to work for the Maurya group in India and is very familiar with traditional North West frontier type tandoor cooking. So quite sensibly the focus of the restaurant is on high quality, classic North Indian cuisine with a good selection of tandoori items, both non vegetarian and vegetarian.

We tried the tandoori platter which at AED 78 was more than enough for 2 to share. The seekh kebabs were particularly good, it’s great the restaurant doesn’t use any preservatives or food colouring, so no nasty artificially coloured kebabs here! I also recommend the street food items of aloo tikki (served on a bed of spicy chick peas) and the new to me dahi kebab. Both of these items are vegetarian.

Zafran Indian Bistro DoinDubai Aloo Tikki

Eat whatever you like the sound of for main courses if you still have room, portions are generous! I recommend the Bengali mustard prawn curry and a home style daal. I also liked the saag paneeer, again a classic North Indian combination, often seen on Delhi tables.

Zafran Indian Bistro DoinDubai Curries

For a bit of showmanship you may want to order the Zafran naan, the video tells you what’s it’s all about, and at this point greed got the better of us, but we managed to try the very good biriyani, both the vegetarian and chicken varieties.

Where is Zafran Indian Bistro located 

The restaurant is located on the 1st floor of Mirdif City Centre, right next to the Platinum Fitness First gym.

Get some expert opinions on the food at Zafran Indian Bistro 

Don’t take my word for it, get a few more views on what’s good and why here. A group of us had a special set meal here and we all had a slightly different take on what worked well.

THE TEZZY FILES thought: 

THE VEGETARIAN SOUL thought:

MEGS BLOGGED thought:

DINEOUTDUBAI thought:

OMNOMNIRVANA thought:

THE SHAZ WORLD thought:

And we also spoke about our experience on The Ticket Dubai Eye 103.8 with Mark and Stef, LISTEN to the PODCAST here:

PODCAST 20 SEPTEMBER 2016

If you’d like to organise a Blogger Managed Event for your organisation, then email me, Monica at doindubai@gmail.com

Thank you Monica.

 

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LETEN DUBAI MALL

Leten Dubai Mall is a real find 

A great addition to our choice of mall eateries: Leten Dubai Mall. I really liked the ambience of Leten Dubai Mall, but I thought it would come with an expensive price tag to match! I was wrong. Welcome to good pan Asian food, sensibly priced in a very smart setting.

Leten Dubai Mall DoinDubai Ambience

The Food at Leten Dubai Mall

We had dinner at the mall early on a Friday evening and we knew it was good as it seemed to be popular with smart Chinese shoppers! Expect modern pan Asian dining options here that span China, Thailand and Singapore. In fact Leten is an outpost from an original branch in Singapore. We LOVED our duck pancakes especially as they shredded up the duck at the table. That’s not so common here in Dubai, but it’s how we’re used to eating duck in London.

Leten Dubai Mall DoinDubai Shredded duck

We also liked our Siam glass Thai noodle salad to start with. This had dried shrimp, peanuts and cherry tomatoes all tossed in a spicy lemon dressing with glass noodles as the base. This is a great choice is you’re avoiding meat or going gluten free. You can easily omit the shrimps if you’re vegetarian.

Leten Dubai Mall Glass noodle salad

But we also had to try the Singaporean noodles as it was a speciality of the restaurant and a Singapore chain! We weren’t disappointed!

Leten Dubai Mall Singapore Noodles

These were served with prawns, chicken and lime and good value for AED 45.oo

Where is Leten located

Leten Dubai Mall is located on the second floor of the Mall in Fashion Avenue. Tel: +971 (0)4 3253244

Special Offers at Leten Dubai Mall

Leten Dubai Mall has some really good value meal deals as well, with options that range from just AED 49.00! That beats even food court prices. I liked the fact there are plenty of vegetarian only choices as well. So you might want to try a vegetarian noodle meal that consists of classic chow mein, stir fried morning glory with garlic and some stir fried edamame and garlic. All for AED 49! That’s not all, the combination meals (combo meals) are all served with complimentary soft drinks or water.

Leten Dubai Mall Paintings

Thank you Monica.

 

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