These are 10 of the best local dishes to try in Karama
But if you want to explore the off-beaten path, discover new cultures and try new dishes, then it's time to head to Karama, the curry corridor of Dubai.
One of the best things about wandering its streets? You could have breakfast, lunch and dinner and only have spent Dhs60 by the end of the day.
You might also like: The 10 best budget restaurants to try tonight in Dubai
Don't know what to order? We've rounded up ten must-try dishes from different cuisines that make Al Karama a food lover's paradise.
10 flavourful dishes to try in Karama
Lamb chops at Eric's
Price: Dhs30
Cuisine: Goan (Indian)
The lamb chops, tandoor-grilled to perfection, are crisp on the outside and juicy on the inside. It's served with this unassuming banger of a mint chutney. We're not exactly sure which is better, the meat or the creamy and fresh chutney.
Eric's is a cosy little Goan spot that brings all the laid-back charm of Goa right here. You'll see its Portuguese roots shining through the yellow walls, warm wooden interiors and the pretty bougainvilleas blooming around the place.
Open daily from 11am-3.30pm, 6.30pm-11.45pm. Sheikh Hamdan Colony, Karama, ericsdubai.com (04 396 4447)
Appam and tangy mango curry at Calicut Paragon
Price: Appam, Dhs2.25, curry, price varies based on your choice of meat
Cuisine: Kerala (Indian)
Appam is a flat, lacy pancake made from rice flour sourdough, and when it's freshly served on your plate, like it's done at Paragon, it will melt in your mouth. Order a tangy mango curry with Kingfish or prawns to accompany the appam, and you're sorted.
It also happens to be the favourite budget dish of Akmal Anuar, the founder of Goldfish Sushi & Yakitori and Osteria Funkcoolio.
Located right in the heart of Dubai's 'Curry Corridor' of Satwa, Karama and Bur Dubai, Calicut Paragon is a legendary Kerala restaurant that offers Malabari dishes in a homely setting.
Open daily, 7am-midnight. Karama, paragonrestaurant.in (04 335 8700).
If you like this: 10 best Indian restaurants in Dubai to book right now
Grilled shrimps at Sallet Al Sayed
Price: Dhs175/kg
Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Sometimes, simple really is best – and nowhere does that hit home more than with the grilled shrimp here. It's served with a fresh tomato salad, hummus and breads.
Smoky, spicy (but not in a burn-your-mouth way, just packed with flavour), this is the kind of dish you'll find yourself craving again and again. Stephen Flawith, founder of Pickl, even called it the best grilled shrimp in the UAE. We get the hype.
This laid-back Middle Eastern seafood joint keeps things fuss-free, serving up super fresh fish in the tastiest way possible. There's loads of fish on the menu from sherri to koffer, red snapper, sea bass, salmon, sardines and more.
Open daily, noon-midnight. Al Shafar building, Karama, salletalsayad.com (04 335 5722).
Beyaynetu at Zagol
Price: Dhs50
Cuisine: Ethiopian
Beyaynetu is a vegetarian lentil-based platter featuring injera – a sourdough flatbread – served with an assortment of vegetarian and meat curries.
It's simple, but the variety of rich flavours on it is palate-awakening, according to Kelvin Cheung, chef and partner at Jun's.
Zagol takes up a humble space in Karama, all done up with straw tables and colourful Ethiopian paintings, it's got charm for days. And when you swing by (which you absolutely should), don't leave without trying the Ethiopian coffee. Trust us on this one.
Open daily, 10am-11.30pm. Mabrooka 1 Building, Al Karama (050 323 1822).
Nasi padang with ayam baker at Daoper Kita
Price: Dhs40
Cuisine: Indonesian
Order the Nasi Padang Rendang and replace the rendang with Ayam Bakar, aka grilled chicken, to reduce the eye-watering level of spice (thank us later).
This chicken and rice meal comes with a side of sayur lemak (a coconut-milk-based vegetable curry) and egg sambal, which are just *chef's kiss*.
Dapoer Kita is an authentic Indonesian restaurant with a menu that features flavorful dishes that keep diners coming back again and again. From delicious chicken satay to nasi goreng and the comforting soto ayam. There's a daily buffet, fantastic service and a comfy space to enjoy the authentic cuisine.
Open daily 11am-10.30pm. Sheikh Mohammad Building, Al Karama, dapoerkita.com (050 453 9991).
Read more: 10 delicious restaurants in Al Karama worth visiting
Thali at Khandani Rajdhani
Price: Dhs53
Cuisine: Rajasthani (Indian)
Rajasthani thalis are loved across India for two big reasons: first, every single dish on your plate is freshly made and served steaming; second, the staff will absolutely spoil you with endless servings. And over fifteen minutes, you'll be served with over 27 curries and sabzis and pickles and a range of warm rotis and rice. If comfort on a cold night could take the form of a meal, this would be it.
Rajdhani only does one dish – the thali, but that's more than enough to travel to India and be back.
Open daily, noon-3.30pm, 7pm-11pm. Al Khafajy Building, Al Karama, @rajdhanimiddleeast (04 334 7977).
Idli sambar at Sri Balaji Bhavan
Price: Dhs15
Cuisine: Tamil (Indian)
Idli is a steamed bun made from rice flour sourdough that is best enjoyed with a steaming bowl of coriander-laced lentil and vegetable curry (aka sambar). Order the idli-vada set along with a filter coffee, and you're all set.
At Balaji Bhavan, the idli is soft-as-clouds and the chutneys are freshly made. Having this for breakfast will be the best thing you can do that day.
Plus, it's vegan and gluten-free (the kind that doesn't taste like cardboard).
Open daily. 7am-midnight. Karama park. (054 294 9897)
Kottu mix at Ceylonian Restaurant
Price: Dhs26
Cuisine: Sri Lankan
Kottu mix is a mish-mash of slivered parathas or hoppers tossed in a wok with onions, capsicum, coriander and meats of your choice. Think of a Sri Lankan version of fried rice. It's spicy, sticky and simply perfect for a quick and filling meal.
Ceylonian Restaurant offers Sri Lankan delicacies in a nice spot in Karama, walkable from the ADCB metro station. If you're asking for the most authentic sri lankan dish, we'd recommend the the hoppers and beef stew.
Open daily, 11am-11pm. Wasl Hub Block 2, Karama, @ceylonian.dubai (04 339 3010)
Chole bhature at Delhi Highway Restaurant Dubai
Price: Dhs26
Cuisine: Delhi (Indian)
If Delhi (India's capital city) had a national dish, it would probably be chole bhature. We won't go as far as to compare this version to the legendary bhatures served in crammed gullies of purani Delhi, but this one definitely deserves a shout.
This restaurant in Al Karama offers a real taste of the Mughlai charm, with Persian-inspired interiors that set the mood for family-friendly fun. The dishes are as lavish in presentation as they are in flavour. With avocados, broccoli pestos, tandoori tacos, mint pesto and more, the menu is elevated. So don't expect anything basic here. Even the chat is served on a beautiful platter.
Open daily, noon-1am. Al Karama. @atdelhihighway_dubai (04 220 8844)
Palada ice cream at Cintafresh
Price: Dhs26
Cuisine: Kerala (Indian)
Papa Scoop is an ice cream flavoured by a popular Kerala dessert, palada payasam.
Palada payasam is Kerala's answer to kheer (rice pudding). The rice, milk and sugar are slow-cooked together until the milk thickens and turns slightly pinkish, giving the payasam a rich and creamy texture with a delicate caramel-like flavour.
Cintafresh specialises in different kinds of palada-flavoured dishes: chilled palada shake, ice cream and the actual thing.
Open Sun-Thu 11.30am-midnight, Fri 10.30am-1pm, 2pm-2am, Sat 11.30am-2am. BK10 building, Karama, chatfood.io (04 422 9976)
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Metro
3 hours ago
- Metro
‘It was a slap in the face when Ed Westwick got the role I auditioned for'
Sitting at a booth in Soho Theatre's cafe on a Thursday morning, actor Jassa Ahluwalia tells the story of being out for dinner when he received an email about a job that felt like his 'Hollywood moment'. 'It seemed that everything that I'd been working towards was coming to fruition. The universe had beautifully conspired to land this perfect role in my lap,' the 34-year-old tells Metro. Pulling out his phone and opening his inbox, he leans forward to read the message out loud: 'Character breakdown – this is a large supporting character. Note: It is crucial to the narrative and the character's story arc that Brooke is convincingly accepted in aristocratic circles as white British. The character is currently written as having Indian heritage on his mother's side.' 'They were describing me ,' he recalls. Born to a white English mum and a brown Punjabi dad in 1990, Jassa couldn't believe his luck that the TV pirate series, Sandokan, set in South Asia, was being made and he had a chance to play the role of Lord James Brooke. 'It felt like the acting industry was listening, paying attention and caring,' he remembers, his eyes widening at the memory. His self-tape — a short video where Jassa spoke about his heritage and read lines — led to an invitation for a screen test, and in November 2023, Jassa made his way to Bang Studios, just a stone's throw from where he sits today. 'Even just talking about it, my stomach's remembering the emotion. I was tingling, I was so alive,' the actor says. 'It sounds ridiculous, but I was trying to find ways to stay grounded. They had a miniature Buddha with a little tea light in the loo. I had a moment with it, touching its feet while thinking of how far I'd come to get to where I was. I was saying 'Thank you'.' After hair and makeup, Jassa was guided to a room filled with casting directors and producers, all crowded behind a desk with monitors. Over 30 minutes, he performed a scene under lights and cameras, partly in Punjabi, which was, he says, requested by the room. As the meeting ended with hugs, the word 'perfect' was lobbed around, and Jassa felt things couldn't have gone any better. However, on December 15, he got a rejection email. It praised 'utterly wonderful' Jassa for his 'beautiful work', but told him they weren't going to be progressing with him. When Jassa asked for more detailed feedback, he says he was told there was 'nothing constructive to pass on'. 'It was heartbreaking. I didn't know how it was possible to nail it so hard and still not get the gig,' he admits. As an actor since his teens, Jassa was accustomed to the rejection process, so he picked himself up and moved on. That was, until he read in the press a few months later that the role he had auditioned for — Lord James Brooke — had been given to Gossip Girl star Ed Westwick. It was 'like a slap in the face', remembers Jassa. 'They wanted the guy from Gossip Girl that people knew, and all that specificity and vulnerability that I shared didn't count for anything. The whole experience made me feel unimportant – my mix was just a tick box for a second, but it wasn't actually important. 'A little bit of my love for the industry died at that moment. I thought, 'F**k this, why am I pouring my heart and soul into this business?'' Sandokan is a reboot of an Italian TV series that aired in 1976 and was sold to 85 countries. Fremantle-owned Lux Vide is now putting a new spin on it with Can Yaman taking the lead role. It will air on the Italian state broadcaster RAI and be distributed worldwide. Set in the mid-19th century on the island of Borneo, the native Dayak tribes are dominated by ruthless Brits. Sandokan doesn't initially pick a side, but when he marries the daughter of the British consul, Marianne (Alanah Bloor), he begins to fight against colonial powers with his motley crew. The synopsis teases that pirate hunter Lord James Brooke (Ed Westwick) 'will stop at nothing to capture Sandokan and win Marianne's heart.' Angeliqa Devi, who is Bengali, has been announced as playing Brooke's mother, Hita. Jassa says that 'unless there's been a radical change to the script' Ed's character is still mixed. To Jassa's knowledge, an important part of the plot is that people are made to believe that Hita is a servant, not Brooke's parent. The rejection felt extra painful, admits Jassa, because he struggled with an 'obsessive desperation' to succeed due to a complex relationship with his mixed identity. 'It's no coincidence that I associate performing with a feeling of belonging because of an early happy memory I have of dancing Bhangra as a kid on the streets in India,' he explains with a smile, showing a photo from the trip. 'I was always unconsciously trying to get back to that.' Jassa studied at a subsidised arts program in Leicestershire throughout his school years, which made him feel that an acting career was 'tangibly achievable.' His youthful optimism felt well-placed when he landed a role on the BBC coming-of-age series Some Girls, playing lovable bad boy Rocky in 2012. 'I had a few years of things snowballing with parts in Casualty, Peaky Blinders, Ripper Street and The Whale. I was around a crowd of people, like John Boyega and David Gyasi, who were bubbling then blowing up. I thought it was going to happen for me, and then… it didn't. 'There had been a shift in the industry towards trying to tell more representative stories, but my voice wasn't welcome in that conversation,' he says of the 2010s. 'It was surface-level, productions just wanted to look diverse.' Jassa became increasingly frustrated with a landscape where the role of mixed-race characters felt more like an exercise rather than a thoughtful process, despite being the fastest-growing demographic in the UK. He cites one episode of Line of Duty where they say one of the suspects is mixed race [in the opener of season five, Vihaan Malhotra is asked to describe the woman who has been blackmailing him], 'but they don't say what mix, but everyone is like 'cool, understood'.' In 2019, Jassa felt a desire to take action after a follower responded to a video of him speaking Punjabi on social media, expressing shock at his fluency due to him being 'only half'. The actor quickly replied that he was 'both, not half', which went on to become a popular hashtag, as well as a TEDx Talk, documentary, and a book deal. As he grew more vocal, Jassa also became increasingly keen to incorporate his heritage into his acting. 'I wanted to bring my Punjabi-ness to work, because for years it felt like it was going to limit me,' he explains. 'It wasn't somebody explicitly sitting me down and saying, 'You should never talk about your Punjabi heritage', but the little signals I got were that to get ahead, you need to conform as much as you possibly can.' When asked what needs to change to strip these attitudes, Jassa — who is a member of Equity, the UK's trade union for the performing arts and entertainment industries — has a list ready and reaches into his rucksack to pull out a notebook filled with pages of scribbles. Although, he barely needs to glance at them: equality, finances, and intention need to be addressed, he explains. 'In any recruitment process, you expect people to be treated the same. I was asked in my audition to riff in Punjabi. Was Ed Westwick asked to do that?' Moving to his next point, he says: 'It all comes down to money. We're living in a time where the arts are increasingly under attack, so people in power are making safer choices, which uphold what has gone before. 'We're not getting any radical shift forward in this climate, so audiences are being deprived of incredible, world-changing, creative work from talented people who need to prioritise feeding their families, so leave the industry. 'Ed's involvement was probably a lot easier to justify to the finance team than mine, but we need to be thinking of why we are telling stories. Is it a white presenting mixed character for exotic dramatic intrigue, or because they are exploring an underrepresented part of history with sensitivity and authenticity?' As Jassa gets more passionate in his point-making, his voice shakes, and the actor admits: 'I find it hard to balance my personal emotions with my rational union brain.' However, the reason behind it all is simple, he adds: 'These stories should be told because we should be reflecting the society we live in, so everyone feels seen.' More Trending As for Jassa himself, he's in a happy place and is focused on writing more books, spreading his message further to challenge misconceptions and making changes through his role in the union. As he gets set to cycle off to his next engagement, he says: 'Now that I feel I have found a sense of home within myself, I'm not craving it as much from performance. 'I am no longer content to quietly pass as white, I want to assert my Punjabi heritage. I want mixed people on screen as they are, not as ethnically ambiguous shapeshifters. 'Being a chameleon is part of the joy of being an actor, but I want to play with my true colours.' View More » Metro has contacted Fremantle's Lux Vide for comment . Follow Jassa on Instagram here. Do you have a story you'd like to share? Get in touch by emailing Share your views in the comments below. MORE: I sold a bikini on a preloved site – now I'm wondering who bought it MORE: We went out with London's 'pickpocket hunter' to watch him sniff out thieves MORE: I'm a part time witch and use my powers to get back at my exes
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Scottish Sun
16 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
I tried the Middle Eastern cruise trip with desert stays, five-star dining and wildlife safaris
The lifts at Burj Khalifa — naturally the fastest in the world — speed up to the observation deck on the 125th floor in just 60 seconds CELESTYAL CRUISE I tried the Middle Eastern cruise trip with desert stays, five-star dining and wildlife safaris Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) DUBAI brags of having the biggest, longest and highest of everything – but the widest highway in the world? Really? Absolutely, says Ali, the most excitable guide in the world — but only if he is talking about his own country. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 6 Enjoy the high life in ultra-modern Abu Dhabi 6 Relax with a sea view from the onboard pool 6 Take in a wildlife safari 'We have no taxes, VAT is five per cent, the government is rich, we are rich, we have the richest country in the world,' he effuses. We are going to the Dubai Mall, the world's biggest shopping centre, and the towering Burj Khalifa, the tallest (of course) building in the world, soaring 828 metres in the air. That's almost three times the height of London's Shard. The lifts at Burj Khalifa — naturally, the fastest in the world — speed up to the observation deck on the 125th floor in just 60 seconds. What Ali fails to tell us is that getting to the lifts means enduring the slowest queue in the world. It took us a frustrating 90 minutes of shuffling and waiting from one queue to another but, once at the top, you're in selfie heaven. We're in Dubai with Celestyal, a charmingly Greek cruise line that spends summers in Greece and Croatia and winters hobnobbing with the rich and, well, really rich, on one-week voyages around the Arabian Gulf. 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The scary stuff over, we're then wined and dined under the stars, our mouths feasting on local dishes while our eyes feast on entertainment in the form of a fire juggler and whirling dervishes who go into a trance-like state and twirl around and around for at least ten minutes without falling over. It's one of those don't-try-this-at-home moments. And very different to our next stop, Sir Bani Yas Island, a wildlife reserve off the shores of Abu Dhabi. Just 50 years ago, the island was deserted. But today it is home to millions of plants and trees, thousands of animals and 300 rangers to look after it all. It is also a mecca for cruise ships sailing the Arabian Gulf for the more liberal beach culture than on the mainland — bikinis! — and open-truck wildlife safaris. 6 Entertainment includes impressive magic shows 6 Souq up the atmosphere at a traditional market in Bahrain Credit: Getty 6 Celestyal offers a seven-night Desert Days cruise round-trip from Doha and visiting Dubai, Sir Bani Yas Island, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain Credit: supplied It's not up there with Africa (no lions, tigers or buffalo) but there are two cheetahs, loads of deer, gazelles, Barbary sheep from Morocco, cranes from Uganda, African Oryx and even 41 giraffes. It's a welcome respite after the excesses of Dubai, but things ramp up a gear again — literally — in Abu Dhabi with trips to Yas Marina F1 circuit, theme parks and SeaWorld. Or you can go for a cultural overdose at the Louvre (Abu Dhabi has its own version of the French museum) or the shiny Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, which glows spectacularly white in the sun. In Bahrain, our final stop before we return to Doha, a tour whisks us around a souk and fort, but my abiding memory is the mezze served for lunch. Plates of hummus, pitta bread, salad, kebabs, grilled sausages, chicken and more that just keep on coming. As does the wine. It's definitely the best mezze in the world (but shhh — don't tell Dubai).
