The great open secret of Dubai drinking culture (if you know, you know) is the trusted old hole-in-the-wall style cafeteria. The small, neon-signed establishments, usually wedged between buildings and petrol stations, is where much of this city gets its hydration fix.
Make no mistake, the ritual is as old as it is sacred. You pull up or pop in for a trusted juice or beverage of choice (shawarma, too, depending on the institution), and you’re guaranteed it’ll be the best 12 dirhams you'll spend all week.
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Someone’s gotta hold it down in Al Dhiyafa Road, and Al Mallah has been it since 1979. The famous green neon sign has watched this city grow from a two-lane road to a global metropolis without once changing its font. Respect, honestly. The Lebanese street-food joint is technically famous for shawarma, sure, but the juices are the real sleeper hit. The house special involves almonds, honey and a heap of fruit, and it drinks like something between a smoothie and a dowry. Take a pavement seat if the weather allows, and watch the traffic crawl past.
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Also on Al Dhiyafa Road, though having opened up shop about a decade later in 1987, Jabal Al Noor is the volume dealer of the special-juice economy. It has since expanded into Al Hudaiba, Oud Metha and Al Nahda, drawing in the full Dubai cross-section of devotees for its shawarma and juice selection. The go-to choice is a blend of plums, mango and fig, which is something you’d be charged a pretty penny for at one of Dubai’s more premium juicing hubs, but here costs about the same as parking.
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Relatively speaking, this juice spot is the bougier option. Which is actually to say it's still a small cafeteria on Beach Road near Mercato, but the queue of cars outside at 11pm is the only proof you need. Ijaza has been in the juice biz since 1990, long enough to collect the sort of honours that real foodies clock (namely, a Zomato Legends of Dubai nod, and a Khaleej Times top-five shawarma ranking). Their juice menu reads north of 80 varieties, most of them named after various local legends, incidentally.
The OG Haji Ali is older than pretty much everything in this city, including the roads. The Dubai outposts, scattered through Karama and Oud Metha, are the Mumbai brand’s only international expansion that matters. Fruit is shipped over from India, so you know this is some seriously quality stuff, and nothing is artificial.
Antar is peppered along Jumeirah, Mankhool, Al Warqa, and seemingly wherever there's an EPPCO forecourt and a juice craving. The flavour list runs to more than 60 options, but the one to order is the Awar Al Qalb, which translates, roughly, to heartbreak (it’s actually just a very sweet combo of strawberry with ice-cream on top).
