Three Dubai Business Lunches Worth Leaving the Desk For

The best business lunches make returning to work feel slightly unreasonable.

They are quick enough to fit between meetings, polished enough for a client and good enough that nobody spends the meal looking meaningfully at their watch.

Sometimes that means DIFC views and immaculate service. Sometimes it means Thai curry in JLT while everybody agrees never to schedule another video call at lunchtime.

These three yapped-listed options cover both versions.

Bull & Bear

DIFC · From AED125 · Best for closing the deal

Bull & Bear sits on the 18th floor of Waldorf Astoria DIFC, which immediately makes your lunch invitation look well organised.

The weekday menu costs AED125 for two courses or AED155 for three, served from 1pm to 4pm. Current choices include the restaurant’s dry-aged Angus burger with fries, alongside more refined starters and mains.

This is the one for clients, visiting colleagues and conversations involving the phrase “next steps”. The room is smart without becoming intimidating, service understands that people may have another meeting and the skyline provides something to look at during any strategic silence.

Try not to announce that lunch is going on expenses before anybody has ordered. Bull & Bear

LPM Restaurant & Bar

DIFC · From AED135 · Best for a long lunch

LPM has been doing DIFC lunches since before half the district discovered the phrase “working remotely”.

The Le Petit Menu costs AED135 and includes a starter and main. The Le Grand Menu is currently listed at AED185, adding dessert for anyone whose afternoon calendar has developed a convenient gap.

Expect French-Mediterranean cooking built around bright vegetables, seafood, meat and pasta. Current business-lunch dishes include smoked beef tartare, duck confit with orange and pan-fried scallops with pumpkin purée.

The menu runs Monday to Friday from noon to 3pm. Book this when the client wants to be impressed but nobody wants a dining room that feels like a board meeting with cutlery. LPM Dubai

Café Isan

JLT · AED89 · Best value

Not every useful conversation requires DIFC, a skyline view and somebody placing a napkin on your lap.

Café Isan serves its business lunch from noon to 3pm, Monday to Friday, with a starter, main and dessert for AED89. Options include satay, papaya salad and chicken sui mai, followed by pad Thai, curry or tom yum. Dessert covers mango sticky rice, fried banana and chocolate spring rolls.

It is casual, licensed and considerably easier on the budget than most client lunches. The restaurant sits on Level 1 of Armada Avenue Hotel in Cluster P, with indoor and terrace seating.

Come here when the food matters more than the performance. Just check everybody’s tolerance for spice before turning the lunch into an avoidable test of character. Café Isan

Which One Should You Book?

Choose Bull & Bear when the meeting matters and you want the setting to say so.

Book LPM when lunch is part business, part catching up and unlikely to end precisely on schedule.

Pick Café Isan for excellent value, proper flavour and a conversation that does not need half of DIFC listening from the next table.

The best choice depends on who is paying. We trust you already know.