Traditional hearty meals delivered straight to your home

When you think of regional cuisine, you think of traditional hearty meals made with fresh herbs and pungent spices, or classic lighter dishes that are refreshing in their simplicity. Most importantly, for a lot of expats living in the UAE, it brings back memories of meals made with love.

A melting pot of cultures, the UAE is the perfect place to celebrate regional cuisine from Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and local delights as well. Expats looking for a taste of home and residents curious to discover the delicacies of neighbouring countries, are spoilt for choice.

From street-food delights, such as the Lebanese manakeesh or the ever-popular shawarma (meat and chicken wraps) to the more elaborate Palestinian maqluba (the upside-down pot of stewed meat, rice and fried vegetables), the Yemeni mandi and madhbi (traditional rice dishes slow cooked with meat) or the Emirati machboos, there is enough and more to choose from.

As the Middle East’s largest online food delivery platform, talabat understands the importance of regional cuisine, which is both rich in flavor and cultural significance. “At talabat, we find joy in bringing unique dishes from all over the world to our customers, making sure we cater to everyone’s taste. We’re proud to be from this region and to understand its cravings, and will always aim to offer the widest selection of savoury regional cuisine!” says Jeremy Doutte, Vice President UAE at talabat.

Supporting local partners

One of the main benefits of a platform like talabat is scalability – which means ordering volumes is possible here. This enables talabat to bring a large number of customers to restaurant partners. If a restaurant has a small fleet of only a few riders, then they are limited by what they can deliver themselves. However, by partnering with talabat, they are able to fulfil high order volumes from customers on the platform.

In addition to ensuring that a wide variety of regional cuisine is delivered to the homes of foodies across the country, talabat supports its local partners by going the extra mile and featuring these heartwarming cuisines on its own platform. Jeremy Doutte, says, “talabat usually promotes regional and local cuisines by launching a campaign that focuses on a particular cuisine for a duration of one week. A specific collection is created on talabat that includes a list of restaurants pertaining to that cuisine, which is then also marketed through our social media channels, providing our partner restaurants with more visibility.”

Strict safety measures

talabat also takes the safety of partners, customers and riders very seriously. To help restaurants stay operational during Covid-19, talabat continues to enforce the strictest measures of safety, such as Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) for all riders, contactless delivery and cashless tipping.

Special offerings

So, next time you are craving a regional delicacy, the following restaurants can satiate your desire for a freshly-made comforting meal.

Shaikh Al Mandi

This popular neighbourhood restaurant in Al Barsha serves a selection of mandi, madhbi and madfoon meat dishes. Their specialties are the Chicken Madhbi, served with rice, salad, sauce, and soup and the Haneeth Janp meat dish (a Yemeni style slow roasted lamb dish that literally falls off the bone and is a great crowd pleaser) served with rice, salad, sauce, and soup. The meat in the Haneeth Janp is cooked in olive oil with black pepper, cumin, turmeric, Arab spices, tomatoes, onions and saffron soaked in rose water.

Al Romansiah

This restaurant in Jumeirah Golf Estates serves a delectable Madfoon Lahm, served with rice, red spicy sauce, and soup. The lamb meat in the madfoon is marinated with al madfoon original spices and cooked in basmati rice and boiled onions.

Al Romansiah is running a 20 per cent discount on chicken dishes only, when you order on talabat.

Qasr Sabaa

A long-time UAE favourite, this place serves a selection of Yemeni Mandi, the best-selling ones being chicken mandi, chicken madhbi and Hadrami chicken. Their chicken madhbi is served with rice, red spicy sauce and soup on the side.

Qasr Sabaa is running a 35 per cent discount on chicken dishes when you order on talabat.

Logma

If you want to taste Emirati and Khaeeji cuisine, then head to Logma, a Dubai success story. It shares local culture through food and enlivens taste buds in a traditional Khaleeji setting. Logma is famous for its Lamb Machbous, a fragrant rice cooked with tender lamb and vegetables in a sauce made with Khaleeji spices and ingredients.

Makarem Restaurant

This popular mandi house in Al Barsha 3 offers traditional eastern Arabian dishes cooked with passion and presented elegantly. The beautifully flavoured Madbhi Chicken is served with soup, vegetables crudités, and chutney.

Al Bait Al Sannanee Restaurant

Another popular Chicken Madhbi place in Dubai that serves this popular dish with succulent chicken pieces, chutney (red spicy sauce), salad, and soup.