The shawarma is sliced tableside, of course. Not off a sputtering cart wrapped in foil and sweat, but from a bespoke stainless-steel spit in an open kitchen where the ventilation is as crisp as the toum, a creamy garlic paste. Street food — falafel, foul, grilled meats wrapped in taboon or tucked into pillowy pita — has long been the beating heart of Middle Eastern cuisine. But now, it’s having a glow-up.
Across the Gulf region, MICHELIN-recognized restaurants are leaning into nostalgia with tasting menus that wink at the classics and small plates that tip their hats to the corner stand. Falafel? Fermented and double-fried, perched on smoked yogurt foam. Shawarma? Wagyu. Fries? Sumac-dusted, confited in duck fat. What’s emerging is not a parody of street food, but its evolution: the same soul, plated with tweezers.
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DUBAI
Orfali Bros
At this One-MICHELIN-Star Al Wasl darling helmed by three Syrian brothers, the street food of Aleppo gets the couture treatment. A dish called Come With Me to Aleppo tastes like a homecoming: lamb shoulder, lacquered and lush, reimagines the shawarma stand as tasting-menu theater. Elsewhere, fattoush, traditionally a salad, is reimagined as a deconstructed, herbaceous mille-feuille. This is Levantine nostalgia filtered through a tasting spoon.StreetXO
Chef Dabiz Muñoz does not do subtle. The Spanish provocateur’s MICHELIN-selected Dubai outpost is all neon heat and maximalist plates, but buried beneath the theatrics are familiar street food archetypes — if you squint hard enough. A foie gras shawarma, for instance, slides onto the table under a puff of smoke, while spicy hummus shows up topped with chorizo and kimchi. It’s not traditional, but then again, neither is Dubai. Street food, in Muñoz’s world, isn’t elevated — it’s detonated.
ABU DHABI
Erth
If Abu Dhabi had a culinary embassy, it would be One-MICHELIN-Star Erth. Located near the Al Hosn cultural site, it’s Emirati to its bones but postmodern in expression. Traditional dishes like saloona (stew) and harees (wheat porridge) are reduced, refined and plated with Scandinavian restraint. The famed local dumpling, luqaimat, is barely sweetened and reimagined as a textural study. This isn’t food you’d find at a roadside cart — but you might recognize it in your grandmother’s pantry, before the team turned it into edible poetry.Hakkasan
Yes, it’s technically Cantonese. Yes, it’s in the Emirates Palace. But One-MICHELIN-Star Hakkasan knows its audience — and that audience loves a little za’atar with their dim sum. The restaurant bends toward its setting, weaving in dates, saffron, rose and other regional flavors with unexpected ease. A wagyu kebab might arrive looking like a dumpling and tasting like a kabsa.Talea by Antonio Guida
Italian, yes — but not unbending. Chef Antonio Guida’s One-MICHELIN-Star Talea approaches Middle Eastern flavors with curiosity, openness and charm. His focaccia arrives with labneh. Risotto takes on saffron and dried lime. It’s not so much reinterpretation as naturalization — classics wearing regional tailoring.RELEVANT: Meet the iconic Emirati dessert that you can't stop eating
DOHA
IDAM by Alain Ducasse
One-MICHELIN-Star IDAM by Alain Ducasse reframes Middle Eastern staples with all the trappings of a fine French salon: camel meat slow-cooked to confit, date molasses glossing foie gras, and harissa whispered into a vinaigrette.Bayt Sharq
MICHELIN-selected Bayt Sharq plays the heritage card, and plays it well. The Qatari kitchen serves classics like machboos (rice cooked with meat) and madrouba (rice porridge), but what lands on the table is no ordinary souq-side supper. Plates are manicured, spices coaxed into clarity, and the plating sits somewhere between tradition and tableau vivant. The flavors stay close to home — but they’ve clearly been to finishing school.SMAT
MICHELIN-selected SMAT (“taste” in Arabic) leans into its Qatari roots but speaks with a distinctly modern accent. Shawarma becomes a tartlet; balaleet (sweet vermicelli) is reimagined as a dessert canapé. Local seafood is grilled with a Nordic sense of drama — splayed, sauced and speckled with edible petals. This is street food in the age of Instagram: always camera-ready, never unconsidered.ALSO FEATURED IN: Dine near Doha's iconic landmarks
Illustration image: SMAT
