The Dubai Food Festival is an annual gastronomic celebration held by the Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment. This culinary wonder lasts for 17 days and gathers hundreds of chefs with their best ideas in one place. Everyone in Dubai is looking forward to being a part of the festival in 2022.
Beach Canteen
Visitors of the Dubai Food Festival are obsessed with a Beach Canteen food point. And yes, this year the Beach Canteen is going to gather much more people. 156000 visitors came to enjoy the food last year, and this year it is expected to get 175000 of them. The biggest food court at the festival — here, you can buy lots of delicious food for very reasonable prices.
Mashawi Hut will serve you mouth-watering burgers, Food Bazaar will offer steaks, gyroses, and moshi — and all other kiosks with different food with various flavors will be happy to feed you and tell you more about their star dishes.
The canteen is located at Sunset Beach — and they do deliveries to the shore.
Entertainment, Fun & Games
Rest at the Sunset Beach is a calming, relaxing experience. It is an incredible place for having meals, enjoying nature, and hanging out with friends.
There’s a bit of action, too: you’ll find lots of fun and entertaining activities: beach sports, culinary workshops, or live performances. The DFF’s organizers invite jazz musicians, famous international and local bands, and other artists to perform at different scenes of the festival.
There you can also buy special gifts — reminders of this event — or go grab a bottle of wine and a serving of oysters and enjoy an open-air movie.
Just imagine: a delicious takeout from Sallora Restaurant (with Aleppo special meals and amazing Syrian sweets with Moroccan tea), the sunset lights dancing on the surface of the water, and What a Difference a Day Makes playing underneath the chatter around you. Good, right?
Kids Club
The Dubai Food Festival isn’t only for adults — it has lots of activities to keep your child busy and happy while you’re exploring the world’s best cuisine. First of all, there’s a kids club at Beach Canteen: they can stay in the kids’ zone the whole day. The administration assigns this place a caretaker, so you don’t have to take a babysitter with you. Secondly, people often sign up their kids for cooking workshops or art classes within the DFF — some of them are dedicated to kids only. There are also special days when children can eat for free.
Miami Vibes
Miami Vibes is an outdoor market that comes to the DFF — along with more than 120 vendors — to provide visitors with tasty food and incredibly instagrammable settings of places vendors occupy.
Try delicious meat at B.B.Q Station, Korean chicken Bao from Kawai, iced mango juice from JuiceBar, and other awesome, tasty, and very photogenic food.
Miami Vibes area usually stands out — so you will have no problem finding it (last year, they were located at Waterfall Promenade near the city’s main mall.)
Cooking Lessons
This is the most interesting part of the Dubai Food Festival.
The World Travel Magazine wrote about masterclasses that have been a part of Foodie Experiences on last year’s DFF — there, lots of chefs from all around the world organized cooking lessons. Ramie Murrey, a founder of Dubai’s first firm that farmed home-grown oysters, ran lessons on oyster shucking and farming. Matthew Kenney taught people to cook plant-based dishes. Vicente Rioja instructed guests on how to invent their own paella recipes.
Next year, you will also be able to try yourself in the role of a master chef under the guidance of the best.
Where to Stay During the Dubai Food Festival?
Considering the fact DFF is a popular travel destination for lots of people — food is really one of the main attractions everywhere, especially in such a rich and diverse cuisine from different cultures, — so it’s better to find an apartment to stay in Dubai beforehand.
Start looking for a place at the beginning of January — then, the prices won’t bite, and you’ll be presented with much more choices than if you were to start negotiating rent at the end of February.
What Are the Dubai Food Festival 2022 Dates?
And yes, the dates of the occasion. The Dubai Food Festival will be held from Thursday, March 3, 2022, to Saturday, March 19, 2022. Visit it to regain a sense of adventure after such a long, tedious, and scary two years. Indulge yourself by trying as many dishes as possible — and don’t hesitate to try something you’ve never eaten before. Explore different cultures and learn to appreciate them through food.
By the way, you can bring your pets! There are dedicated areas for them in almost every location that’s involved in a festival.