Food Scene in Dubai: Data Analysis Helps Open Restaurant in Right Location

Urbi, a platform that provides tools for data analysis, shared a number of curious insights into Dubai food scene.

Indian vs Arabic

Dubai is full of expats, most of whom come from South Asia or Arab nations, so at the first glance it seems like the Lebanese restaurants are as popular as the Indian ones. However, this map shows a slightly different picture.

Indian cuisine is dominant in green districts, while Arabic - in the red ones. The greener the district, the deeper is Indian cuisine's penetration there.

Therefore, there appear to be much more places with Indian food in Dubai than the places that serve the traditional Arabic cuisine. In 91 city districts, Indian cuisine dominates Arabic cuisine. Most of the Indian restaurants in Dubai are located in Al Karama, a bustling neighborhood with bazaar–style shops. Here is Urbi's explanation:

The reason behind it is that Indians are the largest national group among the vast expat population in Dubai. A lot of them have very particular food preferences: for example, many Indians are vegetarians. This has a drastic influence on the Dubai food landscape.

Pizza vs Shawarma

Middle Eastern shawarma and European pizza have almost the same prevalence in Dubai. Pizza places dominate 70 disctricts, while shawarma - just a little bit more, 79. On this map, pizza disctricts are coloured with red and yellow, while shawarma ones are blue and violet.

The major fast food chains made a big contribution to making pizza such a common food choice in Dubai: around the city, there are over 200 branches of global franchises such as Pizza Hut, Papa John's and Domino's Pizza.

Coffee vs Karak Tea

It seems like Dubai is slowly becoming (or has become already?) a coffee nation. Coffee dominates 116 districts, while strong and spicy karak tea got the upper hand in the rest of the city (33 disctricts).  Most of the places where karak tea is served in Dubai can be found in Al Karama.

Districts with more coffee shops are coloured with violet, while the ones with more karak tea shops - with gray.