For years, Good Burger existed as a “secret” delivery brand quietly run out of a taco kitchen – no dining room, no signage, no seats

It still managed to win What’s On’s Best Burger. Now, six years in the making, husband-and-wife founders Haider Al Assam and Luma Maklouf have finally opened the doors to Good Burger’s first restaurant – and they’re doing it without a single smash burger on the menu.

Here’s a fun pub-quiz question for Dubai food nerds: which burger won What’s On’s Best Burger without having a restaurant? Not a food truck, not a pop-up – nothing you could actually walk into. The answer is Good Burger, and in 2024 that win felt almost like a glitch in the system. A delivery-only brand, operating semi-secretly out of the Maiz Tacos kitchen in JLT, beating the city’s bricks-and-mortar heavyweights at their own game.

“It definitely felt surreal,” say co-founders Haider Al Assam and Luma Maklouf, the married couple behind both brands. “We always knew we had a great product and that every ingredient we used was the best quality we could source. Winning the award really solidified that Good Burger was not just another burger brand and gave us the confidence that it deserved its own standalone location.”

Two years on, that location exists. And the story of how it got here is one of the most quietly satisfying in Dubai’s homegrown food scene.

Good Burger

The burger that started at a BBQ

Long before Good Burger had a name, it had a signature. “Haider had always been making what is now known as the Boujie Burger at home for friends at BBQ gatherings, years before Good Burger was born,” the couple recall. “People constantly told us we should start a burger joint, but with Maiz Tacos being our main focus at the time, we never really thought we actually would.”

Then came 2020. With lockdown biting and the couple relying heavily on deliveries, the backyard burger finally got its shot. “When Covid hit, we felt it was the right time to diversify. That’s when we started Good Burger, initially as a way to help increase sales during a really tough period. Once Covid ended, it just continued to grow naturally after receiving such positive feedback from customers.”

What happened next was never part of a masterplan. “It started purely as a delivery brand, but people began asking for the burgers to be available for dine-in at Maiz Tacos JLT, even though it was still somewhat of a secret brand at the time,” they say. “Over the years, the delivery side continued to grow and expand, which eventually led to us opening our first physical location.”

No smash burgers – on purpose

Opening a burger restaurant in Dubai in 2026 takes a certain nerve. The market is, by the founders’ own admission, oversaturated – and the smash burger has conquered practically every corner of it. Good Burger’s response? Refuse to play.

“We do not serve smash burgers, which we believed was a strong USP that would help set us apart from many of the other concepts in the market,” they say. It’s a contrarian bet, but it’s paired with an obsessive rebuild of the product itself: “We have re-engineered the entire menu and added exclusives for that location, so now it’s guaranteed that anyone who comes in gets a great product that will make them come back.”

Pushed to pick the dish they’re proudest of, the answer starts diplomatically – “honestly, all of them” – before landing somewhere very specific: “If I had to choose one, it would probably be the Bistro Burger. Think of a steakhouse experience, turned into a burger.”

Good burger

Six years in the making – and it hasn’t sunk in

Ask the couple whether there’s been a moment in the first weeks where they looked around the room and thought we did it, and the answer is disarmingly honest: “It has not sunk in yet!”

“It’s sometimes hard to believe it’s six years in the making,” they admit. What has landed, though, is the response. “It’s our first time in a mall setting and just in a couple of weeks we had seen people come back four or five times. The footfall and sense of community has been amazing.”

The space itself – clean, bold, unfussy – was designed to look the way the brand has always felt. “Branding and aesthetics are what the eye sees first,” they say. “It’s a fun brand that has a diner, old-school look and feel with modern touches. It needs to be cool yet comfortable.”

Also read: Good Burger review: Dubai’s cult favourite lands its first permanent home at Damac Mall

Married to the business – literally

Good Burger is a family business in the most literal sense, and the couple are refreshingly candid about what building it together has done to their relationship. “It’s taken over, haha! Conversations are always about work – even at home – which is a challenge, but on the other hand it’s great to have someone to celebrate the milestones with.”

They’re equally clear-eyed about the industry they’re in. Does Dubai’s brutally competitive F&B market keep them up at night? “Always. Especially the burger industry. There are many great concepts out there. Location is everything, and even more so consistency. If that falls off, it’s game over.” Their formula for the brands that last is three words long: “Consistency, service, and quality.”

But they draw real confidence from the wave of homegrown Dubai concepts currently punching above their weight. “Independent brands often have an advantage over large international corporations because there is usually much more care, passion and attention put into the product and overall experience,” they say. “It definitely gives us confidence to see how well local concepts are performing and how much people in Dubai genuinely want to support homegrown businesses.”

“The world changes but good burgers don’t”

The new restaurant arrives with a new tagline – one that lands differently in 2026 than it might have a few years ago. “It’s actually a new tagline we introduced for this location, but it couldn’t feel more relevant,” they say. “The world is constantly changing, trends come and go, but there’s something reassuring about a really good burger done properly.”

As for what comes next — one restaurant, or the start of something bigger? “Too early to tell, but we dream big, so if all goes well I don’t see us stopping here.”

And the dream beyond that? To become the burger that people who grew up in Dubai remember. “That would be the dream!”

On the evidence of the first few weeks —- and the customers already on visit number five – it’s off to a decent start.

Where: Good Burger, Damac Mall, Damac Hills, Dubai

@goodburgerdxb