Mezlai
The benchmark Emirati restaurant: harees, machboos, luqaimat, served in a palace dining room. Expensive, worth it once - book ahead.
Guide
Where to eat in Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi eats well: Emirati fine dining in a palace, the city's great seafood institution, Lebanese and Indian rooms that hold their own against Dubai. Real restaurants, honest notes.
Photos for Abu Dhabi are still on their way. Every listing below is real.
Emirati - the real thing
Al Fanar Restaurant & Cafe
Emirati home-style cooking in a 1960s-Bar-Dubai-themed room: thareed, margooga, fresh fish. The accessible introduction to the cuisine.
The institutions
Bu Tafish
Abu Dhabi's beloved seafood shack: grilled hammour, shrimp, rice, eaten with your hands at plastic tables. No frills, all flavour - the local favourite.
Li Beirut
The city's grand Lebanese room: mezze, grills, the Corniche view. The business-lunch standard.
Worth the splurge
Tamba
Progressive Indian in a glamorous room: the tasting menus are the move. One of the capital's best Indian restaurants.
Hakkasan Abu Dhabi
The Michelin-starred Cantonese import in the palace: dim sum lunch is the value play, dinner is the occasion.
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