This guide to the best breakfast in Dubai covers 12 places where the first meal of the day is worth planning around, from a toasted sourdough at AED 19 to the Gastronomy buffet at AED 450 with the bubbly included. Every price below was read from a menu, an official page or a published round-up during the research pass, so the numbers should survive contact with the bill.
The guide is organised into five categories: all-day cafés, hotel buffets, neighbourhood finds, sweet plates and breakfasts with a view. Most of the city’s serious breakfast action happens between 8am and noon, and the weekend is when the best deals appear. Prices run from about AED 20 to well over AED 200; the AED 60–90 band is where most of the traffic goes. Time Out Dubai’s list of breakfast spots runs past 100 entries, so this is a shortlist, not a census.
Best breakfast in Dubai: the all-day cafés
The Sum of Us (Trade Centre 1, Sheikh Zayed Road) — A large, loud bakery-café tucked behind the Grand Sheraton that has done all-day breakfast since long before it was fashionable. The Big Brekkie — eggs your way, beef bacon, sausages, roasted tomatoes, mushrooms and potatoes — is AED 88; eggs your way on sourdough is AED 42. The cake counter by the door collects a small tax from most visits.
Tom & Serg (Al Quoz) — The industrial-chic original that helped build Dubai’s café culture, still going after 12 years, per Condé Nast Traveller Middle East. The Aussie benedict with braised wagyu and smoked onion relish is AED 79; the salted caramel French toast with poached plums is AED 56. Coffee is the point, and it is handled accordingly — our guide to the best coffee in Dubai covers the wider field.
Common Grounds (DIFC) — From the same kitchen family as Tom & Serg, with branches across the city and a weekend-morning queue that is effectively a brand feature. The smashed avo on toast runs AED 64–74 depending on the branch. By 10am the room is mostly laptops.
Hotel breakfasts worth the AED
Gastronomy (Atlantis The Royal, Palm Jumeirah) — The hotel buffet as spectacle: 17 live cooking stations, more than 100 dishes and four bars mixing breakfast cocktails. AED 315 with soft drinks, AED 450 with bubbly, daily 7am–noon, and non-hotel guests can book in. You will walk off part of the cost finding the pastry section.
24th St. (Dusit Thani, Sheikh Zayed Road) — An all-you-can-eat hotel buffet for AED 79, which is less than some of the city’s avo toasts. The spread is international, the eggs are made to order, and the condiment station carries house jams. It is the same AED 79 figure as the breakfast deal at the Marriott Harbour in our summer dining guide.
Budget breakfasts and neighbourhood finds
Bombay Bungalow (The Beach, JBR) — Breakfast trays at AED 54, daily 8am–noon. The South Indian version comes with dosa or uthappam, sambhar, fruit and fresh juice; the North Indian one with aloo bhaji, paratha and yoghurt. One tray is a full meal. Nobody orders two.
21grams (Meyan Mall, Umm Suqeim 2) — The city’s only Balkan bistro, on the first floor of a neighbourhood mall with the Burj Al Arab in the windows. The Balkan breakfast — scrambled eggs in tomato and pepper relish with beef chorizo sausages and white cow cheese — is AED 84 on the official menu; the komplet egg, baked in a hollowed bread shell with beef jus, is AED 65. Breakfast runs until noon.
Arabian Tea House (Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood, Bur Dubai) — A shaded courtyard in Old Dubai that has become the standard answer to where visitors eat breakfast. The special Emirati breakfast tray — cardamom rice, saffron-topped omelette, dates, cheese, fruit and Arabic bread — is AED 87 on the official menu. The tea list runs past 100 varieties, and the mint tea is the sensible order.
Sweet breakfasts: pancakes and waffles
Circle Café (Bay Square, DIFC, Kite Beach and more) — An unlimited weekend breakfast for AED 69, Saturday and Sunday 8am–4pm, covering more than 25 dishes from eggs benedict to pancakes, French toast and croque madame, plus one tea or coffee. The queue at the door is the only surcharge.
1762 Deli (One JLT) — A bakery-deli whose weekend all-you-can-eat deal, AED 69 from 8am–4pm, includes eggs benedict and royale, shakshuka, a New York smoked salmon bagel and a pancake stack. The pastries come from the in-house bakery, which is where the deal earns its keep.
Breakfast with a view
Amaya (Dubai Mall) — A Lebanese restaurant on the mall’s upper levels with the Burj Khalifa filling the window. Breakfast dishes start at AED 35 and the sharing platter at AED 169, which makes it one of the cheaper ways to stare at the tower while eating. The tower’s own breakfast room, At.mosphere on the 122nd floor, is the higher-priced alternative.
Jones the Grocer (Palm West Beach) — A grocery-café on the sand at the end of the Palm, serving an all-day menu with the sea in front of it. The two-hour all-you-can-eat breakfast is AED 89 per person including a hot drink. Weekends are first come, first served, so the early shift gets the sunbeds.
Practical information
Weekdays are the quiet option: the cafés run their full menus without the weekend queue, and the unlimited deals are strictly Saturday and Sunday. The two AED 69 breakfasts and the Jones the Grocer sit-down all operate weekend mornings, so arrive before 9am or plan to wait. Gastronomy takes non-hotel guests but books up; reservations run through the Atlantis site. Most cafés take walk-ins, and for delivery Talabat and Deliveroo carry the menus, though eggs travel better than pancakes.
Menus rotate and prices move, but every figure above was live on a menu, an official page or a published round-up when this guide went to press. Book the weekend tables early, and the best breakfast in Dubai is usually the one you left the house for.
How much does breakfast cost in Dubai?
From about AED 19 for a sourdough toast to AED 450 for the Gastronomy buffet at Atlantis The Royal with bubbly. Most of the city’s best breakfasts sit in the AED 60-90 band.
What time is breakfast served in Dubai?
Most cafés run breakfast from 8am to noon. Hotel buffets tend to start earlier — Gastronomy opens at 7am — and the unlimited weekend deals run until 4pm.
What is the difference between breakfast and brunch in Dubai?
Breakfast is the morning meal, usually finished by noon. Brunch is the city’s weekend institution: a long afternoon meal with free-flowing drinks, typically Friday and Saturday.
Which breakfast places in Dubai have unlimited deals?
Circle Café and 1762 Deli run AED 69 all-you-can-eat breakfasts on weekends, Jones the Grocer does a two-hour AED 89 sit-down, and 24th St at Dusit Thani is an AED 79 hotel buffet.
