Four new restaurants and cafes open in Dubai Design District

Four new venues have opened in Dubai Design District, expanding the creative hub’s diverse foodie offerings.

This includes a Japanese-inspired bakery, a modern Emirati restaurant and a burger joint with views of Dubai Creek, which will all join the district's culinary offering that's already home to spots such as Tokyo-style street food and pizza place Akiba Dori, Indian favourite Mohalla and Mediterranean-inspired The Lighthouse.

What are the four new venues in d3?

Otaku, which means “home” in Japanese, adopts a minimalist aesthetic in d3's Building 7, offering home-made baked goods alongside speciality coffee. There’s also a retail area, which exclusively stocks mugs, kettles and tumblers from Japanese brand Kinto. It had its soft opening in April, after relocating from Jumeirah.

The Name, which opened in June, is a restaurant, cafe, retail store and co-working hub all wrapped into one. On the menu are Mediterranean-inspired dishes with a Levantine touch, including flatbread with spicy black Angus beef and labneh, a smoked pastrami and cheddar sandwich, plus batatas with melted vegan cheese.

Emirati spot Smat offers everything from a traditional lamb shank machboos and yoghurt-marinated chicken breast to contemporary fusion dishes such as the Indian-inspired cauliflower pakora burger and regag parmigiana. The kitchen team has collaborated with local farmers to include fresh organic ingredients. It initially opened in March.

Finally, Goat, an acronym for “greatest of all time”, is a home-grown burger store located alongside Dubai Creek, by d3’s The Block that's still in its soft opening phase. Think classic double Wagyu cheeseburger or an arigato with teriyaki sauce, shemeji mushrooms, enoki tempura and Japanese mayo, all served in a brioche bun.

“We are proud to be home to a wide range of original restaurants and cafes that you won’t find anywhere else in Dubai,” says d3’s executive director Khadija Al Bastaki.

“We are certain that our quartet of new restaurants and cafes will be a delight for everyone who visits our community, as well as this season of the Rethink Summer.”

Rethink Summer is the district’s long-running programme of cultural events, exclusive dine-in deals, free ice creams, creative workshops and retail promotions.

Six large-scale objects on show

Concrete wall and windows from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in Poplar
The 17^th Century Agra Colonnade, from the bathhouse of the fort of Agra in India
A stagecloth for The Ballet Russes that is 10m high – the largest Picasso in the world
Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
Torrijos Palace dome

Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi

From: Dara

To: Team@

Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT

Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East

Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.

Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.

I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.

This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.

It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.

Uber on,

Dara

The biog

Name: Shamsa Hassan Safar

Nationality: Emirati

Education: Degree in emergency medical services at Higher Colleges of Technology

Favourite book: Between two hearts- Arabic novels

Favourite music: Mohammed Abdu and modern Arabic songs

Favourite way to spend time off: Family visits and spending time with friends

Four new restaurants and cafes open in Dubai Design District

A Japanese-style bakery, Emirati restaurant and burger joint are among the additions

What are the four new venues in d3?

Six large-scale objects on show

Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi

The biog

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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis

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