Would you pay Dh495 for a burger? Or Dh3,676 for a cupcake? How about more than Dh50,000 for a tin of rare caviar? If there’s one country with a market for expensive food, it’s the UAE. Here’s a roundup of some of the most expensive dishes we’ve come across while eating our way around the country.
Most expensive burger
Try the ‘Burger Khalifa’ at Firebird Diner, Four Seasons DIFC. For Dh495, you get a giant sandwich with two double US prime Creekstone beef burgers with lobster tail, egg, cheese, truffle aioli and foie gras. Dh495.
Most expensive afternoon tea
Head to At.mosphere on the 122nd floor of the Burj Khalifa for this luxurious high tea, which comes with Sturia caviar, Tsarskaya oysters, organic chicken and mushroom quiche and the restaurant’s signature white tea. Priced at Dh1,000 per person, it’s the most expensive tea we’ve seen in the UAE so far.
Most expensive caviar
AmStur Caviar, a US brand that recently launched in the UAE, offers up a range of quality caviar but the company’s most exclusive caviar, called AmStur Imperial, is sourced from a limited stock of sturgeon at peak maturity. This golden-coloured caviar is so rare, less than 50kg of it are produced each year. You can order a 1.8kg tin for Dh52,326 or, if that’s a bit too steep, try a 30g tin for Dh895. Bonus: All of AmStur’s caviar is delivered by a caviar chauffeur service.
Most expensive cupcake
The Golden Phoenix cupcake at Bloomsbury’s in Dubai Mall is made with 23-carat edible gold sheets, Italian chocolate, vanilla beans from Uganda and strawberries dipped in edible gold. You can pick one up for Dh3,676, but you have to order it 48 hours in advance.
Most expensive duck
One whole Peking duck at Hakkasan Abu Dhabi in Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi will set you back Dh1,900. It comes with cucumber, spring onion, kumquat and 30 grams of royal beluga caviar. You need to call ahead to place your order.
Most expensive ice cream
Scoopi Cafe on Jumeirah Beach Road serves up an ice cream sundae for Dh2,999. The Black Diamond sundae comes with vanilla bean ice cream from Madagascar, saffron from Iran, rare black truffles from Italy and 23-carat edible gold. It’s all served in a Versace bowl with a Versace spoon — which you get to keep.
Most expensive seafood platter
Pierchic, a restaurant at the end of a pier at Al Qasr Hotel in Dubai, has a signature seafood tower for Dh900. It includes rock oysters, Canadian lobster, crevettes, tiger prawns, crab Salad, clams, Scottish organic smoked salmon, tuna Tartare and cured scallop, served over ice with horseradish sauce and hot tarragon-spiced butter.
Most expensive coffee
Icons Coffee Couture in Dubai’s Souk Al Bahar offers up Kopi Luwak coffee made from the excrement of civets, which contains partially digested beans (civets are nocturnal mammals native to tropical Asia and Africa). This rare coffee is Dh180 per coffee siphon, which yields two cups. You can buy a retail box for Dh279.
Most expensive sushi
Chef Nobu Matsuhisa is known around the world for his revolutionary style of Japanese cooking. At his namesake restaurant at Atlantis The Palm, you can get a taste of his culinary skills with the ‘Nobu Style’ sushi assortment for Dh350.
Most expensive steak
Seafire, a steakhouse in Atlantis The Palm, serves up a 350g master Kobe tenderloin for Dh985. Kobe beef comes from the Tajima strain of Wagyu cattle raised in Hyogo Prefecture in Japan. But even among Tajima cattle, only a chosen few will pass the quality criteria set by the Kobe Beef Marketing and Distribution Promotion Association to earn the ‘Kobe’ beef title.
sjohnson@thenational.ae