Orfali Bros opened in 2019 without a clear category. Mohamad, Wassim and Omar Orfali cooked food that was personal, technically driven, and layered with memory without collapsing into nostalgia. Dubai’s audience understood immediately and recognition accumulated quickly: Bib Gourmand, Michelin star, repeated appearances on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, and the title of Best Restaurant in the Middle East & North Africa three consecutive years running, from 2023 to 2025. By 2025, the restaurant sat at No. 37 globally.
Success changed nothing about the core intent of the restaurant, and the Orfalis’ ambition was to continually improve and raise the bar. That’s why, a few months ago, Orfali Bros closed its doors for renovation, with the goal to reopen as the best it has ever been. This renovation was driven by internal pressure. The team’s ideas now require more space. The team needs better tools. The cooking has outgrown the room. ‘This is not a new restaurant,’ says Mohamad Orfali. ‘It’s Orfali Bros., but it shows how we have grown.’
Beyond Bistronomy
The word “bistro” attached itself early, largely through social media habit, but it was never accurate and the restaurant now drops it entirely.
Orfali Bros’ cooking has always resisted labels. Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, contemporary: none fit entirely. The food is rooted in culture and filtered through technique, flavour, emotion, and instinct.
With this reopening comes a new era. Roughly half the previous menu has been retired. Burgers and pizzas, once part of the restaurant’s deliberately accessible early language, are gone and can now be enjoyed at Three Bros, the brothers’ more casual restaurant, just next door.
In the place of these delicious bites: fermentation, curing, aging, distillation, charcoal, and an obsessive focus on extraction. How far can a single ingredient be pushed? “This is Orfali cuisine,” Orfali says. “It’s us. It’s the food we love to eat, cooked the way we want to cook it now.”
A New Space For A New Expression
The renovation was completed in just three months, an unusually short timeframe for Dubai. The interior now strikes a balance between luxury and comfort. Rich woods, softened lines and thoughtful lighting create a refined yet relaxed atmosphere. The atmosphere is refined yet relaxed, in keeping with the “everybody loves Orfali” motto.
The kitchen is where the real transformation lies. It boasts better equipment, charcoal cooking, a dedicated fermentation lab and ample space for precise work.
Service has also been recalibrated. The front-of-house team now wear suits rather than aprons, signaling formality, but not exclusivity. The focus is on giving both the kitchen and the dining room the level that Orfali Bros now demands.
Waste As An Opportunity
Sustainability has been embedded since day one, but the reopening makes the commitment more explicit and more sophisticated. Zero waste here is not a marketing concept. It is cultural, rooted in Levantine tradition and reinforced by the restaurant’s internal systems.
The Orfali Bros Lab operates as the engine. Ingredients are used nose to tail, peel to skin and fibre to liquid. Corn juice is transformed into custard, solids into tortillas, leftovers fermented into non-alcoholic pairings. Just like eggplants, which are grilled, their released water captured, fermented, distilled, and rebuilt into aromatic drinks. Beetroot is aged, cured, smoked, and fermented. The approach is not about scarcity but about respect for ingredients, producers, and the team’s own creativity.
The Menu, Sharpened
Both à la carte and tasting menus reflect this philosophy.
Ooh La La pairs foie gras with hazelnut, quince vinegar and hazelnut miso, balancing richness against acidity and bitterness. The Corn Bomb celebrates corn through multiple textures and depths, anchored by 36-month Parmigiano Reggiano and corn tamari.
Cream Caramel Caviar plays with expectation: umami crust, onion tamari caramel, wasabi cutting through sweetness. The Umami Éclair replaces pastry-shop logic with porcini emulsion, Marmite, fermented glaze, cacao nibs and beef coppa.
Aleppo Street Bun nods to street food memories with sujuk, toum and pickled peppers. Meanwhile Guess What? hides lacto-fermented tomatoes beneath freshness: cucumber, herbs, sourdough, feta, olive oil. Light, acidic, quietly complex.
Vegetables receive the attention usually reserved for protein. Orfali Bros reworks eggplant through makdous, muhammara, tarator and verjuice, and Eat H is a spicy burghul salad that leans into Aleppo chilli paste, puffed burghul and olive oil, delivering moderate heat, crunch and depth.
Proteins, when they appear, are handled with precision. Tuna is presented across cuts and techniques, fermented in the a la carte menu, or as otoro and paired with garum or tomato in the tasting menu. Wagyu beef dumplings reinterpret shish barak through a gyoza lens. Scallops meet smoked eggplant, brown butter and katsuo dashi. Even maftoul becomes a vehicle for texture and umami, with onion tamari and caramelised depth.
The amazing desserts by Wassim and Omar remain stellar. Sweetness is controlled, often secondary to fermentation, acidity or bitterness.
Pairing Without Apology
One of the most significant shifts sits in the expanded non-alcoholic pairing programme. Led by Mark, former Head Barista, now Head of Fermentation, the beverage offering moves far beyond the predictable kombucha options. Distillation, vacuum evaporation, fermentation and infusion build drinks with structure, length and savoury complexity.
Eggplant water fermented and distilled, blended with balsamic and blackcurrant. Corn ferments paired back to corn dishes. Botanical, acidic, umami-driven liquids designed to stand beside the food and not merely accompany it.
Everybody Loves Orfali. More Than Ever
Orfali Bros’ new chapter is the natural outcome of five years spent cooking and learning.
The brothers remain at the centre, but so does the team that has grown with them and the restaurant now reflects not just the ambitions of three siblings, but the collective intelligence of a group that has matured in unison. “We didn’t close to become something else,” Orfali says. “We closed because we deserved a better kitchen. And our guests deserved a better experience.”
Orfali Bros opened without pomp and circumstance. Just an Instagram post: We’re open.
The team trusts the audience because everybody loves Orfali… more than ever.
Orfali Bros
D92 – Jumeirah – Jumeira First – Dubai
www.orfalibros.com
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