Budget
Jabal Al Noor
The Jabal Al Noor chain of restaurants. A Middle Eastern take on fast food and its own unique variety of drinks with names such as "Lexus"," Burj al Arab", and "Sitara". AED 7-10 per item.
Karachi Darbar
The Karachi Darbar chain of restaurants scattered throughout the city.
Ravi Restaurant
It is a Pakistani Restaurant that provides cheap Pakistani & Indian food. Good for anyone with a spicy tooth. Ask for Chaand.
The Anjappar Restaurant and Ibrahimi Restaurant are famous for their wonderful delicacies.
Pak Liyari Restaurant is famous for excellent biryani.
Midrange
Yakitori House
Japanese cuisine, very popular with the Japanese expat community.
Karam Beirut
Excellent Lebanese food.
The Noodle House
Asian food.
800PIZZA
Traditional & authentic Italian pizza baked in wood fired Italian stone oven, thin & crispy crust.
Wafi Gourmet
Excellent Lebanese cuisine and ambience. In the cooler months the outdoor verandah is a pleasure. No alcohol served.
London Fish & Chips
Fish and chips.
Automatic
This is a chain of popular lebanese restaurants found all over dubai. famous for its lamb chops & friday lunch buffet. no alcohol served.
Al Dawaar Revolving Restaurant
Serving an assortment of cuisines, the highlight of this beautiful restaurant is that it revolves, giving a nice tour of the city.
Yum!
A wonderful noodle bar located at the InterContinental Dubai. Well priced, with excellent food.
Pars Iranian Kitchen
This is an open air Iranian restaurant where one can sit in traditional machans large bed-like seating and enjoy a fine Iranian meal. The speciality is the mixed grill which is served with live coal. After the meal, you may smoke a traditional sheesha pipe. No alcohol served.
Top end
Asha's
Indian Cuisine run by Asha Bosle. Good food but little expensive
Al Mahara
Part of the Burj Al Arab hotel, and as you would expect is also very high quality! Seafood.
JW's Steakhouse
This is the Marriott's signature restaurant. Highly popular with Dubai residents.
Manhattan Grill
Is a fine dining restaurant, its specialty are steaks. A suitable venue for romantic dinners and family gatherings.
Shang Palace
Exceptional Chinese food.
Kiku
Japanese cuisine. Very high quality and very popular.
Khazana
Run by famed Indian TV chef Sanjeev Kapoor. Drinks Served. Reservations recommended especially on Friday nights. Very costly, but fantastic service.
Cafe Chic
Beautiful nouvelle French cuisine, served in a comfortable and sophisticated atmosphere, run by Michelin star chef Michel Rostang. By far one of the best restaurants in town, but extremely pretentious as well.
Options
Also run by famed Indian TV chef Sanjeev Kapoor. Drinks served. Reservations recommended especially on Friday nights.
If you feel like having a meal fit for a king, but don't want to venture outside, Room Service (http://www.roomservice.ae/) can deliver meals from upscale restaurants to your residence for a price.
The top hotels in the city all have at least one restaurant serving most commonly some form of international cuisine - Italian, Japanese, Indian and so on. Quality tends to be high, along with price, but non-guests are able to reserve tables as well, thus allowing the rest of us to experience a bit of these hotels.
what to eat?
Shawarma is the most available food item on almost all streets and cheap! in Dubai. It is the Arabic equivalent of the Burger. It is meat that has been cooked on a skewer and then cut into thin strips and placed into a kuhbus pita bread with vegetables and dressing. It costs about AED 5 $1.30 for either the plain-jane variety or the more exotic Lebanese and Iranian varities. The Shawarma sold by Indian restaurants are arguably the cheapest.
Another local snacks is Fala-Fil Felafel, Falafel also available at about the same costs as the shawarma.
Most of the American fast food chains have set up shop in Dubai, including KFC, Chillis, TGI Fridays, Starbucks, and McDonalds. The beauty of the food in Dubai is that you will probably find cuisine for every taste.
For Indians and vegetarians, Dubai has a big selection of budget Indian vegetarian food. Dosa, vada, idlee, samosa, chapaati/roti, with generous servings of sabji cooked vegetable stew are available at throwaway prices, typically less than 10Dhs $2.5 per course. The more expensive stuff costs upto USD 5.00. Bur Dubai particularly Meena Bazaar area and Karama are the places that abound in these restaurants. Most of them are open from 7AM till 10PM or 11PM throughout the week.