Ranked by TableJourney editorial score.
Harees is cracked wheat and meat beaten together for hours into a savoury porridge, salted, topped with ghee, and eaten in Dubai at Ramadan and at weddings.
Harees is one of the oldest dishes still cooked in the UAE, recorded across the Arabian Peninsula long before the pearl trade and shared with Armenian harissa and Levantine hareesa. Wheat and meat go into the same pot with water and nothing else, then cook for three to five hours until the grain collapses and the two can be beaten with a wooden pestle into a single smooth mass. The labour is the recipe, which is why it belongs to occasions rather than weeknights: Ramadan iftar, Eid, weddings and condolence gatherings. Dubai households still send trays of it to neighbours, and the only seasoning at the table is salt, ghee and sometimes a spoonful of sugar or cinnamon.
2 editor picks for Harees in Dubai, ranked by editorial score. All Dubai signature dishes · Harees across every city.
Also in: Abu Dhabi.
Arabian Tea House has poured karak chai and served Emirati breakfasts since 1997 in a courtyard house built in the early 1920s in Al Fahidi, Dubai.
TipAsk for a courtyard table under the big tree; the Emirati breakfast tray comes with khameer and chebab baked in the house tanoor.
Al Fanar Restaurant & Cafe on the Al Seef waterfront serves Emirati seafood and heritage recipes for a brand founded in 2011, and is in the Michelin Guide.
OrderGrilled seafood, Traditional Emirati bread
Harees makes more sense with someone from Dubai explaining it. These are the classes and tours we have checked, with booking links.
5 hours
Experience the magic of the Arabian desert on a private dinner safari to Mleiha.
Day trip · 10 hours
Embark on a breathtaking journey from Dubai to Oman’s stunning Musandam Peninsula with our Khasab Full-Day Dhow Cruise, now including seamless round-trip transfers (SH...
1.5 hours
Feast on a 3-course meal of your choice 50 meters above the streets of Dubai, and enjoy a unique dining experience in the sky. Eat at a table suspended by a crane abov...
.jpg){kind=link}