Ravi Restaurant, Dubai

Dubai has a reputation for being expensive and you can certainly spend a lot of Dirhams if you want to. But look local for meals that won't break your budget. The Pakistani population is the second largest national group in Dubai after Indians. As you'd expect, the Pakistani food offered here is fantastic to cater for locals and visitors alike. And one of the most popular places for Pakistani food is the Ravi chain. There are five locations for Ravi's and the decor is simple with plastic tablecloths and tissue boxes as napkins although if you take a look up the ceiling is painted in a rather glorious fashion.

Lassis are only a morning item alas and the fridge holds mostly western soft drinks except for the omnipresent "thumsup" (sic), a very popular drink in Pakistan and India (AED 3.15 or around $1AUD each). Menu items are slightly more expensive than detailed on the menu by AED1/$0.30AUD or so. There's also a Chinese Indian section on the menu (we didn't try this).

We order a mix of things and they all come out quickly and all together. The mixed naan is delightful and is filled generously, the spongey bread just begging for a curry sauce. The butter naan comes out with raised dots and this gives it a lovely texture.

I dip the bread into the mutton peshwari. In Dubai mutton is goat, not lamb and the bone in goat pieces are soft although bony (not an issue for me but if you don't like meat on the bone you might want to avoid it).

We ordered some daal as well as mutter paneer which is a pea and paneer cheese curry with a rich, flavoursome sauce.

Fish biryani is a bed of rice cloaking a large, soft spiced fish fillet.

We also enjoy the chicken achar with plenty of ginger as well as chilli, turmeric and garlic. I raelly wish I could have taken some to eat on the plane with me.

Another favourite is the Reshmi kebab is a spiced, herbed chicken mince kebab.

NQN visited Dubai as a guest of Dubai Tourism but all opinions remain her own.

Ravi

Al Karama Dubai
Ph: 04 357 6665