This is your queue jump pass to skip ahead of the crowds…

There’s a lot going on in this fast-paced city of ours, with new openings, fresh special offers, and a relentless hype machine behind it all. Because of that, it can be difficult to take it all in and sort the destinations of note from the noise. To help, we break down what’s hot and what’s not with a monthly guide to what’s trending and genuinely worthy of your attention. From dishes you should be eating to places you should be visiting…

What’s Trending

The cocktail

While some of you were celebrating Brat Summer with your spiked Fruit Shoots and Panini sticker books, a significant section of the rest of us were enjoying the more refreshing, sophisticated (I absolutely refuse to call it demure), Spritz Summer. Yes the fizz was back in biz for 2024, and leading the gang was the glamourous, thirst-quenching citrus trap, limoncello spritz. Where to try? Roberto’s in DIFC’s version is available for just Dhs40 as part of their aperitivo offering.

@robertosdubai

The sandwich

The sandwich was invented in the 18th Century by a British Earl because, and we kid you not, he wanted a portable snack that meant he didn’t have to get up from a card gaming table. The man revolutionised food forever because his parents never set the equivalent of screen time boundaries. Whatever the muse, his creation spawned an endlessly branching tree of unique and beautiful forms, until reaching its snacking zenith. The salt beef sando. Exemplified in Dubai by Maxzi, Al Quoz (Dhs55), the Sandwich Earl reborn.

@maxzithegoodfoodshop

The Menu

Found on the rooftop of Satwa’s Eden House – Moonrise is the glittering opus of Chef Solemann Haddad. The 12-step menu is a sensorial hyperleap through a cosmos of 90s Dubai nostalgia, and it’s just been refreshed with some new weapon-grade courses. It’s an oft-booked-out, boutique operation with one table for 12 diners, operating across two seatings five-nights-a-week. At Dhs950, it’s not going to feature in our ‘dining on a shoestring’ round-ups any time soon, but considering Moonrise is one of the best ‘Dubai restaurants’ on the planet that, my friends, is a 24-karat bargain.

@moonrise.xyz

The view

Unless you’re stubbornly prepared to make pirate faces as the sweat stings your eyeballs, September humidity means that alfresco dining is still a little while off. So where do you go if you want dinner with a view? Martín Berasategui’s ode to the beauty and depth of Basque cusine, Jara at The Lana is a stone-cold stunner of a restaurant with city views to match. To eat – get the monkfish (Dhs595). To drink – order an El Patron (Dhs85) tequila-based cocktail with lime, mango and padron peppers.

@jarabymartinberasategui

What’s not trending

Hot honey

I can hear you shouting at the page and I don’t care. I’ve seen what some of you do with ketchup. Hot honey is having a moment in Dubai right now – and its primary deployment seems to be in generous dribbles over pizza. Likely by the same people that consider cereal an acceptable dinner food, using it as a proxy because they were pineapple-shamed out of ordering a Hawaiian. I genuinely cannot get my head around literally sugarcoating one of Italy’s greatest gifts to mankind to the extent that it’s essentially transformed into a mildly spicy flan.

Obnoxious volume

Maybe it’s an age thing. Ok, it’s almost definitely partly an age thing – but if I’m going out for food with friends, the background volume of the playlist/saxophonist/mariachi band needs to sit below the threshold where you’re required to WhatsApp friends to communicate. I’m not against Apple Watch ‘loud environment’ notifications where they make sense. Crank up the decibels in late-night bars, clubs and beach raves, I’m on board and signed up to that. But there’s absolutely no need for a taco restaurant to serve Berghain flashbacks at 7pm on a Tuesday.

Images: Provided