MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025

#1 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025

#2 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Learning his trade at lauded New Delhi dining institution Indian Accent before moving to Dubai, chef Himanshu Saini has become the standard-bearer of modern Indian gastronomy in the UAE.

#3 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. It all started with chef Neha Misra's love of traditional Japanese ramen. The love evolved into a supper club – A Story of Food was the constantly-sold-out experience she ran from her home in Dubai for several years.

#4 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Within the perimeter of the Giza Pyramid Complex and with an immediate and unobstructed view of the last remaining ancient wonders of the world, Khufu's offers its guests a millennial take on a cuisine that stretches back millennia.

#5 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025

#6 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025

#7 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Kelvin Cheung moved to the UAE in 2021 after a 10-year-long stint in India to open Jun's.

#8 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Shams El Balad started as a small flower shop focused on design and sustainability. Over the course of a few years, it evolved into something quite unique: a family-run cultural space, concept store and charming restaurant serving food that is creative, seasonal and homey.

#9 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. As the quintessential Lebanese dining experience, Em Sherif offers guests a taste of traditional home cooking in a truly opulent setting designed to make you feel like you could be eating food served at the chef's own kitchen table.

#10 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Moonrise is arguably the hottest reservation ticket in a city replete with exciting new restaurants.

#11 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025

#12 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Founded in 2014 and headed by restaurateur and sustainability thought-leader Omar Shihab, Boca is a homegrown, DIFC-based restaurant.

#13 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Chef Ali Ghzawi’s story begins in his mother’s home with a deep love for her cooking.

#14 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025

#15 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025

#16 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Marble began life as a makeshift wooden stall on Prince Turki Road in 2018. Owners Abdulrahman Alsowailem and Meshal Alakeel built enough of a loyal following that they opened their own restaurant two years later – and have been serving solid dishes ever since.

#17 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. The dining experience, accommodating only 22 people at a time, is broken into three acts and enjoyed across three different spaces in the restaurant.

#18 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Set in a lovingly restored villa in the heart of Amman, Dara Dining by Sara Aqel offers its guests Mediterranean flavours and wines from regional producers with community-driven values. The light-filled space comprises both a wine shop and a restaurant surrounded by a lush garden.

#19 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Where Japanese cuisine typically shows restraint, Zuma offers excess. The restaurant essentially takes the technique and study associated with Japanese food and adds a serious dose of glitz.

#20 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025

#21 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. : Back in 2012, when the world was at the precipice of a street food revolution, nobody was talking about Egypt. For Egyptian-American businessman Chris Khalifa, it was essential to bring his home country into the conversation.

#22 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Before the Royal Mansour, Moroccan fine dining rarely stretched beyond much-loved but ubiquitous fare – the same cooked salads, tagines

#23 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. LPM is a grande dame of the Dubai culinary scene, having first opened its doors more than a decade ago.

#24 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Located in the upscale neighbourhood of New Cairo, east of the Nile, Kazuko offers delicately prepared contemporary Japanese cuisine.

#25 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Launched by well-known Dubai-based chef Izu Ani in 2018, Gaia is frequented by many a celebrity – from sheikhs to film stars and more. With a buzzing atmosphere no matter what day of the week, the restaurant oozes a relaxed Mediterranean mood.

#26 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025

#27 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Named after his children, Ayman Baky opened the original Sachi – which translates as ‘child of joy’ – in 2014.

#28 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Fire is the theme of this concept, where diners are likely to find dishes infused with the scents of hickory or pine.

#29 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. A pizzeria that isn’t New York or Napoli-inspired, Marmellata Bakery is 100 per cent Abu Dhabi in its DNA.

#30 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Part of the well-established Leylati Group, Kuuru has rapidly established itself on the Saudi culinary scene.

#31 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025

#32 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Globally renowned chef Massimiliano Alajmo brings the culinary delights of Italy to beguiling Marrakech with his restaurant, Sesamo. Both local ingredients and imported Italian delicacies are spun into gold by chef Riccardo Barni.

#33 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025

#34 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025

#35 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Cassandra Karinsky and Sebastian de Gzell bring a dash of Sydney-style, casual dining to the Red City’s Gueliz neighbourhood.

#36 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025

#37 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Located at the Four Seasons Dubai Jumeirah Beach Restaurant Village, Mimi Kakushi is a sleek, stylish space serving contemporary Japanese food.

#38 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Founded in London in 2007 as La Petite Maison, LPM has since converted its refined interpretation of French-Mediterranean cuisine and aesthetics into a global brand, consistently delivering crowd-pleasing classics in a convivial, laid-back ambience.

#39 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025

#40 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025

#41 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Probably the closest you’ll get to a true Japanese experience without leaving the UAE, TakaHisa is located at the Banyan Tree Dubai.

#42 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025

#43 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025

#44 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Le Golfe opened in 1955 in the coastal town of La Marsa, around 30 minutes from Tunisia’s capital.

#45 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025

#46 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Le Petit Cornichon masterfully blends the effervescent charm of a bistro with the artistry of high gastronomy.

#47 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Cairo’s Reif Kushiyaki is the first franchise of the Dubai-born, Japanese-inspired outlet for skewered grills.

#48 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025

#49 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Myazu marries traditional techniques with contemporary culinary creativity to bring dishes full of texture, aroma and vibrant flavours to the table.

#50 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Founded by Imad Obeid in 2021, homegrown Japanese restaurant Niri offers cuisine, service and design that is kept clean and seemingly simple.