We say it’s nice to visit a restaurant for its decor, delicacies, and decadence, but have you visited a restaurant solely for the amazing story it holds?
This blog takes you to the backstory of some of the top restaurants in Abu Dhabi.
But don’t worry, the food and the ambience are going to be as great as the stories we unpack.
Some begin with a childhood kitchen, a grandmother's table, a village, and sme begin with the simple belief that food is better when it is shared.
Here are ten restaurants where dinner comes with a story so that the next you wonder where to eat in Abu Dhabi, you have this list handy.
1. Erth: When a Family Kitchen Opens Its Doors
Before Emirati food became something to seek out in a restaurant, it belonged to homes.
Recipes were passed between generations, cooked for family and brought to the table without much ceremony. At Erth, some of those flavours have found a new setting near Qasr Al Hosn.
But that is not the end of it. The restaurant is known for Emirati food, but the chef is Indian, much like the cultural infusion Abu Dhabi is known for.
And Chef Debi Prasad Rath brings another memory to the table, and that is of his own childhood in Odisha (India), where cooking was part of family life.
It becomes a meeting of two childhoods and two kitchens, with Emirati culinary traditions given a contemporary setting.
Erth has retained one MICHELIN Star in the 2026 guide. It is for sure a great choice if you are exploring the top restaurants in Abu Dhabi.
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2. Talea by Antonio Guida: Somewhere Between Italy and Home
Chef Luigi Stinga grew up in Nerano on the Amalfi Coast, watching his mother and grandmother cook.
Those memories sit behind Talea's approach to cucina di famiglia, or family-style Italian cooking. The food is refined, but the idea remains familiar:
Dishes made to be shared around a table.
Even a visit to a vegetable farm in Abu Dhabi reminded Stinga of picking produce with his grandfather in Italy. You can travel thousands of kilometres and still be taken back to the same kitchen. That is how memory works, and memory is one thing all human beings go back to.
Talea has retained one MICHELIN Star in 2026.
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3. Hakkasan: Where Cooking Became Another Kind of Art
Hakkasan is among the best restaurants in Abu Dhabi.
As a teenager, Lee Kok Hua watched chefs carve fruit and vegetables. He already loved painting and carving, but those chefs showed him that the kitchen could offer another kind of canvas.
There was food at home too. His grandfather, brother and brother-in-law were chefs, while his mother cooked Hakka food for the family.
Today, those memories meet Cantonese cooking at Hakkasan Abu Dhabi.
The precision is obvious in every plate. But beneath it is something much older:
A boy watching his people work with their hands and discovering that food could be art. And doesn’t that make it one of the top restaurants in Abu Dhabi?
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4. 99 Sushi Bar: A Long Way From Japan
Thinus van der Westhuizen grew up in South Africa, where weekends meant food and family. His parents cooked. His grandmother cooked. Meals were part of the rhythm of home.
Japan entered his story later, when he encountered Japanese cuisine at a restaurant in Plettenberg Bay and began learning the discipline of the sushi counter.
That journey eventually brought him to 99 Sushi Bar in Abu Dhabi, where Japanese technique meets his own path through food.
A childhood surrounded by food. A new cuisine discovered almost by accident. And a career built somewhere in between.
Is that how life unfolds for many of us?
We begin somewhere as a child, travel places and pick up o cultures that become a part of our identity and become this person of many experiences.
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5. Maté: When the Table Becomes the Experience
The name Maté comes from a South American drink traditionally shared between people.
You pass it around, sit together, talk, and eat.
This fine dining in Abu Dhabi takes you to Argentina and beyond.
There is smoke from the wood-fired kitchen. Meat, seafood, and vegetables meet the fire. Plates arrive, and the evening becomes less about what belongs to whom and more about what everyone wants to try. That is the real essence of top restaurants in Abu Dhabi.
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6. Bord Eau by Nicolas Isnard: France, With the World Alongside It
Nicolas Isnard's first kitchen was his grandmother's.
His career later took him from southern France to Beijing, Singapore, Jakarta and other cities. Those journeys left their mark.
At Bord Eau, French cooking does not stay neatly within French borders. Familiar dishes are reworked through experiences gathered elsewhere, including his interpretation of French onion soup.
The restaurant remains rooted in France. But the chef behind it has seen much more of the world.
Travel changes the person cooking the recipe, even when the recipe remains recognisable.
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7. José by Pizarro: The Spanish Habit of Staying at the Table
José Pizarro grew up in Talaván, a small village in Extremadura, in a farming family.
Years later, he moved to London, trained in Spanish kitchens and opened his own restaurant in Bermondsey.
Jose is one of the top restaurants in Abu Dhabi and carries that same connection to the Spanish table:
Tapas, good ingredients and plates meant to be passed around.
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8. Martabaan by Hemant Oberoi: India, Remembered Over Four Decades
Some chefs collect recipes. Hemant Oberoi collected memories, and those memories have found a home at Martabaan inside Emirates Palace. For more than four decades, he worked with the Taj Hotels group - a career that took him around the world and enriched his experiences around food culture.
The menu draws on Indian flavours but gives those flavours a new form.
His lemongrass rasam, for instance, brings together seafood, kaffir lime and lemongrass. It is Indian cooking seen through the eyes of someone who has spent decades asking what it can become.
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9. Ray's Grill: The Story Behind the Dining Room
At Ray's Grill, the first thing you notice may be the view. The restaurant sits on the 63rd floor of Conrad Abu Dhabi Etihad Towers, with the city laid out below.
But every dining room has people behind it.
Ricardo Bout, the restaurant's food and drinks manager, grew up in the Netherlands, where family gatherings became part of his early relationship with food.
His career later took him through Europe, the Caribbean, Asia and the UAE.
In 2026, he received the MICHELIN Guide's Service Award.
Sometimes what stays with you after a meal is not the view. It is the person who remembered what you wanted and a great smile that made your day after a tired week.
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10. Strawfire by Ross Shonhan: Follow the Smoke
At Strawfire, dinner begins with fire. Yes, it does!
Chef Ross Shonhan built the restaurant around warayaki, a Japanese method in which ingredients are briefly cooked over burning straw.
Shonhan discovered the technique while travelling through Japan. He grew up on a cattle farm in rural Australia, where working with ingredients began long before professional kitchens.
Two very different places, and eventually, all of it arrives at one table in Abu Dhabi.
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Ten Restaurants. Ten Journeys.
Abu Dhabi's luxury dining scene is international, but what makes these restaurants interesting is what people have carried with them.
The restaurants may have polished dining rooms and carefully sourced ingredients. But the stories behind them are often ordinary.
And long after the plates have been cleared, it is usually the story that stays because a human memory is made of stories - stories that linger long after we leave this world.
