Dish finder in Dubai

Spit-roasted chicken or beef in thin bread with garlic sauce, pickles and chips. Cheap, everywhere and open late.

Flatbread baked with za'atar and olive oil, or cheese, from a Levantine bakery. The default quick breakfast.

Fried chickpea and herb balls in bread with tahini, tomato and pickles. Meat-free and very cheap.

Hummus, moutabal, tabbouleh and fattoush with warm bread, ordered for the table at a Lebanese restaurant.

Lamb kofta, shish tawook and lamb cubes over charcoal with grilled onions and bread. A shared order.

The Emirati national dish: rice cooked with chicken, lamb or fish, dried lime and baharat spices. Look for it at Emirati cafés.

Yemeni slow-roasted chicken or lamb on fragrant rice, served on a large platter to share, often on floor seating.

Layered spiced rice with meat, from the Indian and Pakistani restaurants that feed half the city. Karama has the best value.

Local grouper, grilled or fried with spices; at the fish market in Deira they cook what you buy.

Wheat and meat slow-cooked to a smooth porridge, with ghee on top. Above all a Ramadan and Eid dish.

Smooth red lentil soup with lemon and cumin, the dish that breaks the fast at iftar during Ramadan.

Sweet vermicelli scented with saffron and cardamom under a thin omelette. An Emirati breakfast, sweet and savoury at once.

Yeasted pancakes spiced with cardamom and saffron, served with date syrup and cream cheese.

Crisp fried dough balls drenched in date syrup and sesame. Sold hot at markets and festivals, and everywhere in Ramadan.

Shredded pastry over soft cheese, baked and soaked in syrup, served warm by the slice.

Flaky layered flatbread with dry-fried spiced beef, from the Malayali cafeterias in Karama and Deira.