Mall of the Emirates has always had two personalities: the ski slope everyone photographs, and the dining scene that quietly does the harder work of getting you fed before or after. Between the Kempinski wing, the Sheraton wing, the Level 2 restaurant strip and the ground floor food court, there are now more places to eat here than most standalone dining precincts in Dubai manage, and the lineup keeps shifting. A Michelin Bib Gourmand ramen house opened in one corner, an Abu Dhabi cult favourite finally arrived in another, and by the end of 2026 a fresh wave of openings, including a Beirut import and a Persian kebab house with its own Michelin nod, will land too.
A quick note on the “ranked by reviews” idea, because it matters. Google ratings for these venues move week to week, review counts inflate and deflate with promotions, and any specific star figure printed today reads differently by the time you’re reading this. Rather than bolt a fake league table onto the piece, we’ve grouped restaurants by what they’re genuinely good at: cuisine, price bracket, atmosphere and what’s actually new. Where a restaurant carries a real, checkable accolade, such as a Michelin Guide listing, we’ve said so. For live star ratings, open Google Maps before you book; it’ll be more current than anything printed here or anywhere else.
How the mall’s dining is laid out
Ground floor holds the food court and a handful of bakery-cafes. Level 1 runs along the Ski Dubai side and mixes Middle Eastern, Georgian and casual Western spots. Level 2, home to VOX Cinemas and the Star Atrium, is where most of the newer, higher-spend restaurants have clustered. The Kempinski Hotel Mall of the Emirates and the Sheraton Mall of the Emirates Hotel both sit inside the same complex with their own restaurants, several of them licensed, which matters if you want a glass of wine with dinner since very few standalone mall units serve alcohol.
The newest and most talked-about
Antonia
The Abu Dhabi favourite opened its first Dubai branch here in mid-2025 and has been busy since, serving Roman-style pizza with the famously light, crisp base alongside a full Italian menu. It sits on Level 2 and reservations are worth making on weekends. [VERIFY: exact opening hours and current table-booking lead times]
XU Dubai
Inside the Kempinski, XU serves Cantonese cuisine with a design-forward dining room and has been featured in the Michelin Guide Dubai. It’s one of the mall’s genuine date-night options, split across lunch and dinner service.
Konjiki Hototogisu
A Tokyo import and Michelin Bib Gourmand holder, this is a proper destination ramen counter rather than a food-court noodle stop. Expect a queue at peak times; that’s the trade-off for a bowl built by a chef with a Michelin mention to his name.
Kempinski Hotel dining
The Kempinski Hotel Mall of the Emirates runs several of the more polished, licensed options in the complex.
- Vera Versilia, Italian, with a poolside sister venue, Vera by the Pool, for warmer months.
- Salero Tapas & Bodega, Spanish tapas and paella with live flamenco on selected nights, and a full bar.
- Eugène Eugène, a French brasserie known locally for its European-style afternoon tea as much as its evening menu.
- Olea, Mediterranean and Levantine dishes in a hotel dining room setting, good for a business lunch that isn’t a mall food court.
Sheraton Hotel dining
The Sheraton Mall of the Emirates Hotel, on the opposite side of the complex, has refreshed its own lineup. Besh Turkish Kitchen serves modern Turkish grill dishes, and OAnjo is a newer addition doing Nikkei-style Japanese-Peruvian food. Older guides still list O’Learys Sports Bar here; based on the hotel’s current dining page that venue appears to have been replaced by Spartan Sports Bar, so treat any O’Learys mention elsewhere as out of date. [VERIFY: confirm O’Learys closure directly with the hotel before publishing as fact]
Middle Eastern and regional standouts
| Restaurant | Cuisine | Level | Why it’s worth it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Al Hallab | Lebanese | Level 1, near Ski Dubai | Long-running Lebanese chain, strong mezze and grills, reliably busy at dinner |
| Tribes | Pan-African, Moroccan-leaning | Level 2, Star Atrium | Chargrilled meats and a lively room; one of the better group-dinner picks |
| HuQQabaz Garden | Turkish, shisha lounge | Level 2 | The mall’s only 24-hour restaurant, useful for very early or very late meals |
| Old Tbilisi | Georgian | Level 1, near Ski Dubai | Genuinely unusual for a Dubai mall; khachapuri and khinkali done properly |
Indian
Contrary to what some older write-ups suggest, Indian dining is not absent from Mall of the Emirates. Gazebo, a long-established North Indian chain, and Farzi Café, which plates modern Indian food with a fair amount of theatre, both operate on Level 1 and Level 2 respectively.
Italian beyond Antonia
Antonia gets the headlines, but Il Pastaio Trattoria on Level 1 does dependable handmade pasta at a lower price point, and Cipriani Dolci on the ground floor leans into the Venetian classics: carpaccio, tiramisu, the works, at Cipriani prices.
Asian beyond the ramen queue
Din Tai Fung, on Level 2 near VOX Cinema, remains one of the most consistently busy spots in the mall for xiao long bao and other dumplings; a twenty to thirty minute wait is normal at peak hours, so plan around it rather than fight it.
Steak and grill
For a proper steak, The Butcher Shop & Grill on Level 1 runs its own in-house butchery counter and does Australian wagyu alongside the usual cuts. Texas de Brazil on Level 2 is the rodizio option: unlimited grilled meats carved tableside, plus a salad bar with more than fifty items, better suited to a group that wants volume over a tasting-menu pace.
Casual and family-friendly
Shake Shack covers the reliable burger fix for families moving between Ski Dubai and the cinema, and several food court counters (below) are built for exactly that kind of quick turnaround. If you’re eating with young children, Level 1’s mix of casual counters near Ski Dubai tends to have shorter waits than the Level 2 restaurant strip.
Cafes and bakeries
- PAUL, the French bakery and restaurant chain, ground floor, reliable for pastries and a full breakfast menu.
- L’ETO, a Dubai-founded cafe group built around lighter, health-leaning dishes and elaborate cakes; good for a working coffee that isn’t a chain Starbucks.
- Jones the Grocer, part gourmet grocery, part all-day cafe, known locally for its breakfast spread.
- BRĒD, the newest arrival, opened in early 2026 as an artisan sourdough bakery with a neighbourhood, all-day-dining format; the first outlet of its kind in the region, so worth a look purely for novelty as well as the bread.
Food court, ground floor: the quick-turnaround options
For a fast, inexpensive meal between shops, the ground floor food court covers the familiar names: Texas Chicken, KFC, Burger King, Buffalo Wild Wings, Umami, Koryo Korean BBQ and Max’s All About Chicken, plus dessert counters including Krispy Kreme and Cinnabon. None of these need a write-up; you know what you’re getting, and that consistency is the entire point of a food court. [VERIFY: current food court tenant list, as this section changes most frequently of any part of the mall]
Coming in late 2026
Mall of the Emirates has announced a fresh batch of restaurant openings as part of a wider refresh, expected to land through the second half of 2026:
- Em Sherif Café, the casual-dining offshoot of the well-known Beirut fine-dining house Em Sherif, expected around December 2026.
- Berenjak, a Persian kababi concept that already holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand at its existing Dubai location; the Mall of the Emirates branch is expected around December 2026.
- Akiro, Saltfire and Nala, three further concepts confirmed for the mall’s dining refresh, with Nala expected earlier, around September 2026. [VERIFY: cuisine type, exact location and confirmed opening dates for Akiro, Saltfire and Nala, as these details were not published at time of writing]
Given how quickly Dubai’s opening dates shift, treat these as directional rather than fixed; we’ll update this section once doors actually open.
Practical tips for eating at Mall of the Emirates
- Alcohol is served mainly at Kempinski and Sheraton hotel venues (XU Dubai, Vera Versilia, Salero, Besh Turkish Kitchen, OAnjo and similar); standalone mall restaurants are generally non-licensed.
- Level 2’s restaurant strip and the Star Atrium get busiest from around 7pm on weekends; if you want Antonia, Din Tai Fung or Tribes without a wait, aim for an earlier sitting or book ahead.
- HuQQabaz Garden is the one genuine option if you need food outside normal mall hours.
- Parking closest to the Ski Dubai and Kempinski side tends to be less contested than the Carrefour/Sun and Sand side during peak weekend hours. [VERIFY: current parking zone recommendations, as mall car park usage shifts with ongoing construction and refurbishment work]
Frequently asked questions
What is the best restaurant at Mall of the Emirates?
There isn’t a single objective answer, and anyone giving you one number is guessing. For a special-occasion Italian dinner, Antonia and XU Dubai are the two most talked-about newer openings. For something more distinctive, Konjiki Hototogisu’s Michelin Bib Gourmand ramen and Old Tbilisi’s Georgian menu stand out precisely because so few Dubai malls have anything like them.
Is there vegetarian and vegan food at Mall of the Emirates?
Yes, though it’s spread across menus rather than concentrated in dedicated vegetarian restaurants. Indian venues Gazebo and Farzi Café both carry substantial vegetarian sections, and most of the Lebanese and Mediterranean restaurants, Al Hallab and Olea among them, have strong meze and salad options that work meat-free. [VERIFY: fully vegan-specific menu items at each venue, as these change seasonally]
Which restaurants serve alcohol at Mall of the Emirates?
Licensed dining is concentrated in the two hotels attached to the mall: the Kempinski (XU Dubai, Vera Versilia, Salero Tapas & Bodega, Eugène Eugène, Olea) and the Sheraton (Besh Turkish Kitchen, OAnjo, Spartan Sports Bar). Standalone restaurants in the main mall generally do not serve alcohol.
Is there Indian food at Mall of the Emirates?
Yes. Gazebo and Farzi Café both operate inside the mall, alongside the food court’s broader Asian options.
Which restaurant is open 24 hours?
HuQQabaz Garden is the mall’s only round-the-clock option, and it doubles as a shisha lounge.
Mall of the Emirates isn’t trying to be a single-cuisine destination the way some of Dubai’s newer dining precincts are, and that’s arguably its strength: you can genuinely get Georgian dumplings, Michelin-recognised ramen, Cantonese roast duck and a Roman-style pizza within a five-minute walk of each other, then finish with a coffee at a bakery that only opened this year. Treat this guide as a starting point, check opening hours and live ratings before you commit to a booking, and if you spot a closure, a new opening or a detail that’s slipped out of date, that’s exactly the kind of thing we want to know about and fix.
