Where does @ray.yafi dine out? 😋 The co-founder and partner behind @anormalday.ae and a host of F&B brands including @yellowblock.co the prettiest cheese and charcuterie boards, which is how I first stumbled upon her a few years ago, spills the beans.

In this month’s #WhereRestaurateursEat column, I asked this super woman to share her favourite restaurants encompassing:

🔪 Three in the UAE. She did squeeze in a fourth option 😜
🔪 One in her home country.
🔪 One located elsewhere internationally.

Click link in bio and stories for her top picks 🔗 This post landed in email inboxes this morning. Feel free to subscribe, if not already.

Nominations for female restaurateur-entrepreneurs are always much appreciated. They might not be on my radar, and could land themselves a feature here 🙏🏼

#UAERestaurantsUnite #foodiva Dubai Restaurants ...

Please meet real village halloumi, demolished back home in Cyprus over Eid 💛🇨🇾 Warm with the texture of burrata. No squeakiness! Brined. Raw (unpasteurised) sheep’s milk. PDO registered in the EU, so only Cyprus can stake claim to branding halloumi (like feta is to Greece, and Champagne to its namesake French region). At my favourite taverna in Cyprus - Mousikos in the village of Sotira on the east coast. Top tip: buy some vacuum-packed to take home (EUR4 a piece).

Swipe to see the best commercial supermarket brand @kkeses_dairy that I typically stash my fridge with. The blue labelled one is a mix of goat and sheep pasteurised milk which is strictly speaking the original halloumi blend. The green label is solely goat’s milk. And the red is a very mature sheep and goat milk halloumi - an acquired taste which you will either love or hate! Fresh Express used to import Keses into Dubai, but no longer, so I urge our supplier community here to fill this gap in the market 😜

I love baking halloumi whole in the oven, or foil-wrapped on the BBQ, with either @pureharvestsmartfarms cherry tomatoes (you won’t find better tomatoes here in Dubai!) or sliced apricots. The matured blend works well paired with watermelon, or grated over EVO fried eggs.

If you’re considering heading to Cyprus this summer, my most popular culinary travel guide is updated twice a year - link in bio 🔗

Καλή όρεξη (bon appétit) 😋 Halloumi - yay or nay?

[ #foodiva #CyprusDiva #Halloumi #LoveHalloumi #VisitCyprus @visitcypruscom @cypruseats Cyprus restaurants FooDiva ] ...

The hostess escorts us to our semi-banquette table, sandwiched so tightly between two tables, LPM-style, we can hear every word of the neighbouring conversation. I request another table for two that I spot with a little more room in the middle of a busy dining room, but I am politely told that’s reserved for an anniversary. Soon after we are seated and presented with the menus, the hostess returns to guide us to my desired table. My cover is blown. This kind of table hierarchy happens more often than not across many a Dubai restaurant, sadly. I just hope I didn’t rob the “anniversary couple” of a decent table.

We’re dining at @girl.and.the.goose by Nicaraguan chef @gabriela.chamorro505 who has whisked her home supper club of five years to a bricks and mortar restaurant, replacing the Peruvian, Waka, in the @anantaradowntowndubai (ex-Oberoi). She’s partnered with Rosy Hospitality of CQ French Brasserie and Couqley fame.

Central American cuisine is a first for Dubai and for me, spanning Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Belize and Panama. Countries that I have never visited even though I spent the early years of my life growing up in the neighbouring Caribbean islands. There’s a little known fact about me! The geography is well illustrated with a map on the menu and on the website, which is one of the most informative and user-friendly restaurant sites I have come across in Dubai. A best practice blueprint for restaurateurs.

Gabriela or Gigi, her nickname, is quick to point out in person (also confirmed on her website) that the menu marries her modern interpretation of Central American cuisine with her travel experiences as ex-Emirates crew. Only one dish is traditional, and despite its northern neighbour Mexico which I have visited, the cooking differs, she explains.

So how does Girl & The Goose fare across not solely food, but service, interior, atmosphere and price point? Thankfully, I pay the bill in full - with no freebie extras sent to the table. Link in profile for a read 🔗 This review landed in inboxes this morning - feel free to subscribe, if not already.

Have you tried Central American cuisine? 😋 ...

We have 23 new entries in the fourth edition of the @michelinguide Dubai, two three-star restaurants, two new one-stars, and two downgrades. That’s lots of twos! Revealed last night at an invitation-only affair in the @addressskyview that, for a change, I attended, rather than watch the live stream from home and pen notes. Pumped with adrenalin, I then pulled an all-nighter to write my opinion piece, and crashed for a couple of hours this morning ahead of editing. Et voilà 😋

A couple of important points to flag first:

⭐️ A reminder for chefs, publicists and media that stars are awarded to the restaurants, NOT the chefs. So a chef can leave a restaurant, yet the restaurant retains the star - like Ossiano this year, for example. And the chef does NOT take the star with him/ her. As Michelin itself has confirmed, the term ‘Michelin chef’ is factually incorrect.

⭐️ All five criteria followed by Michelin’s inspectors are centred around food only. Agree or disagree (I’m with the latter), the likes of service, interior design and atmosphere do not play a role in their decision to award stars - as verified on Michelin’s website.

Link in bio/ stories 🔗 to read my analysis, opinion and a list of questions for Michelin! This post landed in inboxes earlier. Swipe for pics and my video. Mabrouk to all the awarded restaurants and their teams 👏🏼

Would love to know your go-to restaurants that you feel should have made the cut 🙏🏼⭐️

@visit.dubai @dubaieats @gwendalpoullennec #MichelinStar25 #MichelinGuideDXB #michelinguide #UAERestaurantsUnite #foodiva Dubai Restaurants ...

I have one prerequisite for a staycation. A pool villa. An added bonus is a beach-fronted pool villa with the mesmerising sound of the sea lapping the shore. And that’s one of the many reasons I have returned countless times to @sixsenseszighybay on Oman’s northern Musandam Peninsula since my first visit in 2012 with my parents. Sometimes with loved ones for leisurely jaunts, and sometimes on press trips - most recently last month. Mind you, work trip itineraries are always jam-packed, pool time is limited. Aside from the five-star product, and the mere two and a half hour drive from Dubai, what’s so special about Zighy, affectionately named after the village that the resort supports with employment and sustainability donations?

Link in bio and stories to find out why. Plus a listicle of more go-to pool villa resorts in the UAE & Oman. And…a special edition of my Where Restaurateurs Eat column with @naim.maadad the chief executive and founder of @gateshospitality (think Folly, Jardin Des Arts, Bistro Des Arts and Reform) - as well as a partner in the owning company of Six Senses Zighy Bay.

Swipe for more pics and videos including moi hugging a kid goat. As you do. This post landed in email inboxes this morning. Feel free to subscribe, if not already.

Would love to know your fave pool villa resorts pretty please 🙏🏼💙

#FooDiva #OmanDiva Oman hotels Musandam hotels Pool villas ...

Where does @imansnazemi the chef-owner of @kishmishdubai dine out? 😋

In this month’s WHERE RESTAURATEURS EAT column, I asked this super woman to share her five favourite restaurants encompassing:

🔪 Three in the UAE. She may have added a delivery option too 😜
🔪 One in her home country.
🔪 One located elsewhere internationally.

Click link in bio and stories for her top picks 🔗 This post landed in email inboxes this morning. Feel free to subscribe, if not already.

As always, nominations for female restaurateur-entrepreneurs are always welcome. They might not be on my radar, and could land themselves a feature here 🙏🏼

#WhereRestaurateursEat #UAERestaurantsUnite #foodiva Dubai Restaurants ...

A long overdue restaurant crawl in Abu Dhabi, which I planned around my birthday earlier this month. Three days. Six diverse restaurant concepts. Six different cuisines. Thanks to my love for diligent research, as well as recommendations from you lovely lot, every meal was a triumph 😋

So here’s a round-up for your next visit - or - as I know some of you are residents, hopefully one or two you may not have tried. All are affordable concepts, and as we know, booze prices in the capital are more wallet-friendly than Dubai 😜

Have a read through the link in profile/ stories, which landed in inboxes yesterday 📧 Swipe to the last photo for a rare personal snap of 52-year old me with my favourite dining partner 🙏🏼

Any other haunts of yours worth seeking out in the capital? 🇦🇪

@ryba.ae @uae_restaurant
@marmellatalove
@kopitiambychandys
@craft_by_sidehustle @trotskie
@daipaidongad
@niriabudhabi
#UAERestaurantsUnite #foodiva #InAbuDhabi Abu Dhabi Restaurants ...

From when I first started reviewing, 14 years ago, I have always insisted that Dubai needs modern Emirati restaurants for the dining scene to be taken seriously on the global culinary map. More recently, international awards by Michelin and 50 Best feed into the bucket lists of visitors, and we want these guests to seek out Emirati cuisine as their first port of call - as should we, as residents. Traditional concepts like Al Fanar and Arabian Tea House, as wonderful as these are, are not enough.

Well we now have one such restaurant. @gerbou

The PR is quick to point out in an email: “While it is not authentic Emirati cuisine, the food served reimagines Emirati-inspired cuisine through a modern lens and while embracing global influences and celebrating local craftsmanship.”

To me and you, that’s short form for “modern Emirati cuisine.”

Having dined at Gerbou exactly six weeks after opening (escaping any recognition), the menu is much broader, spanning Khaleeji dishes, as well as influences from across the Arab world - entwined into both classics and contemporary fare.

In fact, the consultant chef and a poster child for Emirati cooks, the talent that is Sahar Parham Al Awadhi @saharyp did explain in an interview for my Conde Nast Traveler USA, UK & Middle East feature end of last year that the menu weaves in “Indian, Levantine and Mediterranean flavours” which she grew up with. Indeed it does.

And that’s all perfectly fine and necessary to maximise the appeal to a global palate. However, some have vocalised publicly online, and in private to me, the lack of cuisine authenticity. There’s a lesson here in managing expectations better with the right communication on Gerbou’s website and social channels, as well as by the front-of-house team. Now you know 😜

Gerbou is a collaboration between restaurateurs @atelierhousehospitality most well known for 11 Woodfire - and @tashkeelstudio Dubai’s art and design incubator.

The name translates to “welcome to our humble abode.” But there’s nothing humble about the grandest of entrances.

Link in bio/ story for the review.

Would you seek out Emirati food in Dubai? 🇦🇪 ...

Where does @morganegauvinduhamel - the co-founder of @odeondubai dine out? 😋 Firstly though, the hero photo shows my go-to dish at this French restaurant and deli, Royans Ravioles. IYKYK - and if you don’t, go now and thank me later.

For this month’s ‘Where Restaurateurs Eat’ column, I asked this super woman to share her five favourite restaurants encompassing:

🔪 Three in the UAE.
🔪 One in her home country.
🔪 One located elsewhere internationally.

Click link in bio and stories for her top picks 🔗 Her passion for these restaurants shines through in her responses 💖 This post landed in email inboxes yesterday. Feel free to subscribe, if not already.

Nominations for female restaurateur-entrepreneurs are always welcome. They might not be on my radar, and could land themselves a feature here 🙏🏼

[ #WhereRestaurateursEat #UAERestaurantsUnite #foodiva Dubai Restaurants ] ...

I struggle with many tasting menus, especially in Dubai. Why?

Sky-high price points. For one imported concept here, the exact same menu is AED400 more expensive than its home country.

Three to four hours (and sometimes more) of my life that I will never get back, thanks to snail-pace dining.

Long-winded storytelling for every single, bloody dish. I really don’t care if the chef’s grandma, or a jaunt to an obscure corner of the world have inspired the cooking. I can read about all that, and more, on the website. I just want to eat my food. In peace. And preferably warm. Unless we’re feasting on sushi and sashimi. But even then, the tale must be kept to a minimum. There’s only so much inane chatter I can stomach.

Good food should speak for itself.

And then along comes @manao_dubai An affordable, by Dubai standards, of AED450 for an 11-course tasting menu. Served in one and a half hours. A printed menu on the table, from arrival. Something several of these concepts don’t give you until, dare I say, the bitter end. A succession of different staff members explained the dishes, succinctly in seconds. The chef only popped out once to briefly present a dish, swiftly scuttering back to the open-plan kitchen. You wouldn’t even know he was the chef, unless you had stalked his good looks on Instagram.

Chef @abhiraj_khatwani is the [handsome] Indian chef whose cooking expertise was honed in north-east Thailand before opening The Yellow Monkey, a casual Thai gem at JBR that I used to frequent years ago until Covid shut its doors. @m.orfali of @orfalibros_bistro fame, the Midas touch chef has backed him to open a 34-seat restaurant in Wasl Vita, solely dedicated to a Thai-inspired tasting menu.

So how does Manao fare? 🔗 Link in bio/ stories for my review which scored a five out of five knife rating. The first restaurant in my 14 years of reviewing where I have dished out this pinnacle of a rating.

Is Manao the most affordable tasting menu in Dubai? Are you a fan of tasting menus? Or do you prefer à la carte dining?

#UAERestaurantsUnite #Foodiva Dubai Restaurants ...