Verified in 2 cities.
Machboos is a signature dish of United Arab Emirates; we have verified places to eat it in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Machboos is rice cooked in the stock of spiced meat or fish with dried lime and saffron, regarded as a national dish across the Gulf states and a fixture of Abu Dhabi's Emirati kitchens.
Machboos, also written machbous or makbous, is the Gulf form of kabsa, a mixed rice dish whose origin is contested between Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The name comes from an Arabic root meaning to press, because rice, meat and spices cook together in one pot. Spices usually include black pepper, cloves, cardamom, saffron, cinnamon and black lime. The Michelin Guide says it can be served with meat or fish, slow cooked with dried limes and saffron, and Erth serves a modern take with lamb in a sweet and savoury sauce.
Where to eat in Abu Dhabi:
Where to eat Machboos in Abu Dhabi: the editor picks
Machboos is the Emirati rice dish at the centre of every Dubai family lunch: long grain rice cooked in the stock of the meat, stained with loomi and bezar spice.
Machboos belongs to the wider Khaleeji family of spiced rice dishes that reached the Gulf coast on the same dhow routes that carried Indian pepper and Persian rice into the creek. The Emirati version is defined by two ingredients: bezar, a house blend of cumin, coriander, turmeric, cinnamon and dried chilli, and loomi, the black dried lime whose sourness cuts the fat of the lamb. Pearl divers ate it out of a shared platter because one pot fed a boat crew, and the communal tray is still how it arrives in Dubai's heritage restaurants.
Where to eat in Dubai:
Where to eat Machboos in Dubai: the editor picks
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