Abu Dhabi has a food problem.
Not a quality problem — the food here is excellent. The problem is that most visitors never find it. They eat at mall food courts, hotel restaurants, and the same dozen spots that appear on every top ten list. They leave having had perfectly fine meals and zero idea that some of the best food in the Gulf was a ten-minute walk away the entire time.
This guide fixes that.
We are going to go neighbourhood by neighbourhood — starting with the Al Wahda area, which is both the most underrated food neighbourhood in Abu Dhabi and, conveniently, where La Quinta by Wyndham Abu Dhabi Al Wahda is located. If you are staying there, you are already in the right place. You just need to know where to walk.
The streets around Al Wahda Mall are home to one of the most diverse and genuine food scenes in the city. This is where Abu Dhabi’s working population actually eats — which means the food is good, the prices are honest, and the variety is extraordinary.
Within a ten-minute walk of La Quinta by Wyndham Abu Dhabi Al Wahda, you will find:
Emirati breakfast spots Start your morning the right way. Look for small cafeterias serving balaleet — sweet vermicelli noodles with a fried egg on top, which sounds strange and tastes extraordinary. Pair it with karak chai, the spiced milk tea that fuels the entire country, available for under AED 3 at any local café. This is the Abu Dhabi breakfast that nobody in a hotel dining room is telling you about.
South Asian restaurants The Indian and Pakistani restaurants in the Al Wahda neighbourhood are legitimately excellent — and almost entirely unknown to tourists. Biryani, daal, freshly made roti, and slow-cooked curries at prices that will make you question every restaurant decision you have ever made. These are the places taxi drivers eat. That is always the correct endorsement.
Lebanese and Levantine kitchens Abu Dhabi has a large Levantine community and the Lebanese food here reflects that. Proper hummus — the kind made fresh, not from a tub. Fattoush with actual flavour. Grilled meats that have been marinated properly. Find a Lebanese restaurant in the Al Wahda area with a queue outside and join it without hesitation.
Late night shawarma Abu Dhabi’s shawarma scene is quietly competitive, and the Al Wahda area has some of the best. Chicken or meat, wrapped tight, fresh off the spit at midnight — this is the correct ending to any evening in Abu Dhabi. La Quinta by Wyndham Abu Dhabi Al Wahda’s location means this is genuinely a five-minute walk from your room, which is either very convenient or very dangerous depending on your willpower.
The Abu Dhabi Corniche waterfront is about 15 minutes from the Al Wahda area and worth the trip for at least one meal. The restaurants here are more polished and priced accordingly, but the waterfront setting makes it worthwhile — particularly at sunset.
What to eat here: fresh seafood. Abu Dhabi sits on the Arabian Gulf and the fish is exceptional. Grilled hammour — a local grouper — is the one to order. Simple preparation, fresh fish, good bread. Do not overcomplicate it.
For a more casual option, the Corniche beach area has small kiosks selling corn on the cob roasted over coals, fresh coconut water, and fruit chaat — a spiced fruit salad popular across South Asia that has become an unofficial Abu Dhabi institution. It costs almost nothing and is exactly what you want after walking along the waterfront.
Regardless of which neighbourhood you eat in, these are non-negotiable:
Machboos Qatar and the UAE share this dish and both claim it. Slow-cooked spiced rice with meat — usually chicken or lamb — layered with dried limes, cardamom, and rose water. It is deeply savoury, faintly fragrant, and unlike anything most Western visitors have tasted before. Find it at any Emirati restaurant.
Luqaimat Fried dough balls drizzled with date syrup and sesame seeds. They are served hot, they disappear fast, and they are the correct thing to eat while standing on a street corner in Abu Dhabi. Order more than you think you need.
Harees A slow-cooked dish of wheat and meat that sounds unassuming and tastes like comfort itself. It is typically made for large gatherings and celebrations — which means when you find it on a menu, it has usually been cooked with care. Do not skip it.
Dates Abu Dhabi takes dates seriously. Not the dried, dusty kind sold in airport gift boxes — fresh Emirati dates, available in varieties you did not know existed, sold at markets and specialist shops across the city. Buy a box. Eat them throughout the day. Bring more home than you think is reasonable.
The best food in Abu Dhabi is not always in the places that come up first on Google Maps. Here is how to actually find it:
Ask your taxi driver where they eat lunch. This works every time, in every city, and Abu Dhabi is no exception.
Walk away from the main roads. The streets one or two blocks back from the main thoroughfares in the Al Wahda area are where the genuinely local spots sit — smaller, less decorated, usually with hand-written menus and a queue at noon.
Eat where the food is visible. In Abu Dhabi’s casual restaurants, the kitchen is often partially open or the food is displayed at the counter. If you can see the food being made or served, you are in the right place.
Location matters more for food than most people realise when planning a trip. Staying in a tourist corridor means you eat in tourist restaurants. Staying in a real neighbourhood means you eat in real restaurants.
La Quinta by Wyndham Abu Dhabi Al Wahda sits in the Al Wahda neighbourhood — the area this entire guide started with, for good reason. The food within walking distance alone justifies the location. Add Al Wahda Mall for the days you want a food court with proper variety, and you have a base that makes eating well in Abu Dhabi genuinely effortless.
The hotel is comfortable, the location is central, and you will spend your food budget on actual food rather than overpriced hotel dining because everything you need is already outside the front door.
That is the best thing a hotel can do for a food-focused traveller. Put you somewhere worth eating.
La Quinta by Wyndham Abu Dhabi Al Wahda is located in the city centre, steps from Al Wahda Mall. It is a practical base for exploring Abu Dhabi’s food scene — and everything else the city has to offer.
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