A Pakistani canteen open since 1978 where a plate of nihari costs less than a coffee at the Burj Khalifa.
Ravi has been on the same corner in Satwa since 1978, feeding the Pakistani and Indian workers who built this city and, increasingly, everyone else. It has plastic chairs, strip lighting, a permanent queue at the takeaway window and a menu that has barely changed in four decades.
It is the most famous cheap restaurant in Dubai and it deserves the reputation.
What to order
Nihari — slow-cooked beef shank in a spiced gravy, traditionally a breakfast dish, served with ginger, chilli and lemon. This is the thing to have.
Mutton karahi or chicken karahi, cooked in a wok with tomato and green chilli, ordered by weight for the table.
Haleem, seekh kebabs, chicken tikka, daal, and paya for the adventurous.
Bread rather than rice: tandoori roti, naan, or paratha.
Lassi, sweet or salted, and mint tea. There is no alcohol.
What it costs
A full meal for two, ordered generously, costs somewhere around the price of a single dessert in a Downtown hotel. This is the point people make about Dubai’s price range: the city contains both, ten minutes apart.
The context
Satwa is one of the older low-rise districts, full of tailors, barbers, cheap electronics and canteens serving the South Asian workforce that makes up the largest part of Dubai’s population.
That workforce is a subject the city discusses less than it might. Around 85 to 90 per cent of the UAE’s residents are not citizens, a large share of them South Asian migrant workers on the kafala sponsorship system, and conditions in construction and domestic work have drawn sustained criticism from human rights organisations for decades. Reforms — a wage protection system, midday work bans in summer, contract changes — have been introduced and the criticism has not stopped.
Eating in Satwa does not resolve any of that. It does mean spending money in the part of the city that actually cooks.
Practicalities
Open from early morning until very late. No bookings — you queue, briefly.
Cash is easiest though cards are now generally accepted. Service is fast to the point of brusque.
There are several branches now, including one in Al Barsha, but the Satwa original is the one.
