How to find food and drink deals in Dubai

For dizzer’s debut blog post we thought it would be symbolic if we went back to the beginning, to dizzer’s roots and the idea that eventually grew into the platform it is today. How can we avoid paying 50 dirhams for a beer? That’s £10 for f sake!

A lot of people arriving in Dubai for the first time; the spray tanned tourists in tassel loafers, the hordes of teachers recycled every August, those guys and girls on the “Dubai Hustle” who quit their jobs and jetted off to the desert for a commission only real estate job, parents, professionals, visitors and opportunists of all nationalities from across the globe looking to enjoy the great city of Dubai; will soon go for a drink and reluctantly hand over 50 dirhams for a pint. 70 dirhams for a glass of wine. 90 for a cocktail. Surely the cheapest bottle of wine isn’t 250 dirhams in an Irish pub!

No wonder there are so many in-house deals and promotions offered by food and beverage outlets in Dubai. So the good news is it is possible to avoid paying the extortionate standard prices if you know where to look. The problem is, how do you find these deals? There are also a number of free and paid discount apps which can help you reduce your restaurant bill. So here is a short guide to saving money when going out eating and drinking (hops, grapes and whatever else you’re supposed to say) in Dubai.

1. Find the F&B Venue Weekly Deals: Brunches, Ladies Nights, Happy Hours, Dining Deals, Drunches, Gents Nights, Ladies Days, Pool Days and Industry Nights

Without a doubt the best way to save money when going out in Dubai is to find the in-house promotions run by nearly all the licensed restaurants, bars, pubs, clubs and beach clubs in Dubai. With free flowing drinks, indulgent buffets, pool access thrown in, half price drinks, free bottles of wine with your steak, cheese and wine nights, wings nights, you name it. You can even drink for free if you’re a woman. For free! So, you just need to find those deals. Here is where you can find them:

dizzer

Yes, dizzer is the easiest and quickest way to find those deals, that’s why we exist. Find us at dizzer.ae. We will soon be releasing iOS and Android apps as well so stay tuned (if you create a free account we will keep you updated about the release dates). You will find the same great content and features on any device.

Search for any keyword using our powerful search tool. Discover deals and venues closest to you with geolocation. Browse deals by category such as brunch or ladies night or a specific area. Filter by day, price, time, duration and many more. You might be looking for a ladies night, for free, with at least 3 drinks included, on a Tuesday, on the Palm, after 9pm. dizzer will instantly provide a list of deals that match your exact criteria. It’s the fastest way to find food and drink deals in Dubai.

It doesn’t stop there, see further info about the deal on its dedicated listing page. Get directions, contact the venue, see what other deals are in the same venue, hotel or area so you can plan the rest of your evening. Message the listing owner, read reviews, rate the deal, share the deal with your friends, save it in your account for later. We are even developing a booking system so you will soon be able to book the deal directly on dizzer. It’s your one stop shop for food and beverage deals and promotions in the UAE, a hospitality discovery platform that the region has desperately needed.

Time Out

Time Out Group is a global media and hospitality business that inspires and enables people to explore and enjoy the best of the city. Their UAE office publishes a ton of high quality content around the best food, drinks, culture, art, music, theatre, travel and entertainment, including articles listing the best happy hours, ladies nights, brunches and more.

Time Out Dubai has long been our go-to website to plan an evening out in Dubai and see what’s happening in the city. They even have a whole section dedicated to brunch. So browse timeoutdubai.com, purchase the magazine or look out for the free publication at Dubai airport and head to the deal listings to see how you can save your dizzers. Probably best to call the venue and check if the deal is still valid as some of the listings have been known to be out of date.

Also don’t miss the Time Out Market at Souk Al Bahar, overlooking the fountains at Burj Khalifa. Amazing food, excellent value, great atmosphere and a perennial Peroni happy hour at 35 dirhams a pint, it’s one of our favourite venues in Dubai.

What’s On

Another website and magazine publishing articles on news, eat & drink, things to do, travel, cinema and culture, What’s On is a great place to look for food and beverage deals and promotions in the UAE. Head to their website pages dedicated to restaurant deals, ‘best of’ and brunches to see a huge collection of articles and curated lists of the best roast dinners, brunches with pool and beach access, after brunch deals (also known as drunches), sundowner spots, indulgent afternoon teas, new restaurants and just awesome things to do this weekend in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. What’s On is a great source of up to date info in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi, you’ll be sure to find something that takes your fancy.

Ladies Night Dubai and Brunch Crunch

These two websites specialise in ladies nights and brunches specifically, so while you can’t search and browse through all the other available deals in Dubai such as happy hours, dining deals etc, they do have some useful features including day, time, area and price filters, as well as being able to see which brunches are 2 for 1 on The Entertainer (a feature also available on dizzer). The website design is a little dated, but it’s easy to see past that when there is a huge selection of ladies nights and brunches to choose from.

Social Media

Most restaurants and bars in Dubai will be active on social media and you can often find their latest promotions and offerings on Facebook or Instagram. This does require already knowing which venue pages you want to check, so it’s not ideal for browsing and discovering new deals, however we have found it is a useful way to check if a deal that you are already aware of is still active, or see if your favourite restaurant or bar has a new deal that hasn’t yet been published in popular media outlets. A surprising amount of venues are not active at all on social media, or have outdated content, but don’t worry, you can find their offers on dizzer instead.

Venue Websites

If you have an F&B Venue in mind, check their website to see if they have published their deals and promotions. Generally you won’t know when they were published, so it’s difficult to tell if they are still valid, but it’s a good place to start and you can call them to confirm. Verified listings on dizzer have the blue verification tick so you can be sure that the listing has been claimed by the venue owner and their listings will display the last time they were published or updated, so you can be safe in the knowledge that it is still valid.

2. Use a discount app

A popular and effective way to save money spent on food and drink in Dubai, the discount apps. Some of these will require a small investment, so you will need to use the apps to cover the initial costs, although that is not a difficult task considering the huge range of restaurants in Dubai. However you are limited by the range of restaurants that they actually have signed up on the app. So if you’re willing to pay for the product and you are happy with the featured restaurants there are savings to be made, with buy one get one free mains, flat rate discounts off the total bill and exclusive deals you won’t find anywhere else.

Let’s DXB (Free)

One of our favourite home grown products, Let’s DXB was started as Mr & Mrs Brunch by a social media influencer and blogger couple on Dubai’s thriving brunch scene, with their highly popular brunch reviews. They later expanded and rebranded into Let’s DXB releasing an app with plenty more products including Let’s Eat (Restaurants), Let’s Drink (Bars), Let’s Brunch (you guessed it) and Let’s Explore (events, family entertainment, pets and leisure activities).

There is now loads of content to help you save money when going out in Dubai with exclusive discounts and deals at restaurants, bars and brunches across the city from 50% discounts to their ‘have one on us’ FREE drink at the best bars in Dubai. In Dubai you are sure to find queues of brunch goers with their Let’s DXB app in hand, ready to redeem their discount. No vouchers, no costs, no pre-paying’s, just good old fashioned discounts at your fingertips simply for being a member.

The Entertainer (Paid)

The Entertainer is a classic in the UAE. The original 2 for 1 discount provider. Started in 2001 by Donna Benton, a Dubai resident herself, The Entertainer is a success story that inspires all of us here at dizzer. We have saved a lot of money over the years using this app to get buy one get one free discounts on main meals, as well as brunches and occasionally drinks. You can’t get much better value than a 2 for 1 brunch, although make sure to check if the offer is only available on the soft drinks package.

Apparently in 2015 the average customer saved around 6,000 dirhams, so for the customers it is well worth the AED 588 annual splurge for the Premium Dubai membership, which includes fine dining and upscale experiences not included in the Standard Dubai membership, priced at AED 420. You’ll only regret not purchasing Premium Dubai, this is where you’ll find the good stuff. They also have a one month UAE tourist package for AED 204.75 which sounds like a good deal, although it does mention that not all offers are available.

Zomato Pro (Paid)

Zomato’s food delivery app was massive in Dubai (until it was discontinued at the end of 2022) and you couldn’t miss the red delivery drivers scooting around the city. They still have their lesser known discount membership product, Zomato Pro, which gives up to 40% off on the total bill value with no cap on discount. It is cheap, costing just AED 149 for 12 months or AED 49 for 3 months, although that does come with a reduced range of licensed venues. When you apply the ‘Zomato Pro’ and ‘Alcohol Served’ filters on their website only approximately 200 results are returned in Dubai and not a single one of those actually offers 40% off the total bill (at the time of writing). In fact there is only one restaurant signed up to the maximum 40% discount but they don’t serve alcohol. Just 2 licensed venues offer 30% off and only 35 venues are giving 20% off the total bill. The rest are giving a just a 10% discount . If however your local happens to be the Focus Bar or Restaurant at the Hyatt Place Hotel in the Wasl district, you may as well sign up for that price and enjoy 30% off the total bill with unlimited usage for the foreseeable future.

Voucher Skout (Paid)

Voucher Skout describe themselves as “a voucher-based value delivery platform. We deliver 50% off deals at the best the UAE has to offer on a pay as you go basis.” We have used Voucker Skout a few times before when it first launched, however our favourite places are no longer on the app and there is a very limited selection of licensed venues and brunches. It might be better for lifestyle offers. Bring back Rare at the Melia Desert Palm we say! A true hidden gem.

Conclusion

We would say a combination of weekly In-House deals (brunches, ladies nights, you get the idea), The Entertainer and Let’s DXB is the best way to save money going out in Dubai, for both tourists and residents, and the best way to find the weekly deals is on dizzer of course, where we also show you the venues accepting the Entertainer, so no need to look anywhere else! All the deals in one place.

See for yourself at dizzer.ae.