Home cooking done with rigour and love. Yalla go to Yava…

When Yava opened in Wasl 51 in late 2021, it cast its net wide across the Mediterranean. But owner Basil Yassin has since gone home – to his family’s roots in Palestine – and let that lineage recolour everything.

“You won’t find batata harra on our menu,” he tells What’s On, with quiet confidence. What you will find are Palestinian home dishes: the things his family cooked not from recipes but from memory and instinct. That distinction, rather than lowering expectations, should raise them.

The room takes its palette from Jaffa – stony blues and weathered greens. Outside in the shared Wasl 51 courtyard, tables sit beside orange trees. It is one of the loveliest spots to eat in winter.

The food

Begin with Tante Nora, the tabbouleh named after Basil’s mother’s best friend – a woman who apparently never wrote her recipe down yet managed to nail it every time.

The Yaffawifa (Dhs57) is non-negotiable. It’s a spiral pie of crispy baklava-thin dough, minced beef, homemade labneh and chilli oil that’s both indulgent and delicious. It is the dish that you’ll happily retire your usual kibbeh order for.

We also loved the honey fatteh (Dhs66), a savoury riff on kunafa – playful, and fun.

But the maqloubeh (Dhs99) is the thing. That famous dish of the Arab diaspora – layered rice, eggplant and meat, typically flipped onto the plate to reveal itself – here arrives under a tagine lid, a lamb shank standing upright inside after four-to-five hours of slow cooking. When Basil lifts the lid tableside and removes the bone, the flesh falls apart like butter. The seven-spiced rice is properly glossy, with almonds toasted thick and dark atop. Make no mistake, this is the dish to come for.

The service

If Basil is there – and he almost always is – you win. He sits outside with the easy watchfulness of someone who cares deeply but knows not to hover.

What’s on the bill

Tante Nora (Dhs48), Yaffawifa (Dhs57), honey fatteh (Dhs66), maqloubeh (Dhs99)

Location: Wasl51, Al Wasl Road, Dubai | Times: Daily 8am to 11.30pm | Contact: (0)4 548 5733; @yavadubai