Dubai has 18 restaurants, but customers are paying $100 to dine at someone's house

"I wanted to bring people under one roof, at one table, make them talk without limits and just share a nice meal," said chef Ahmad Halawa, who started the supper club in 2019. , through the organization of open dinners on weekends. "In the beginning, only my friends and family came. But once word spread about Halawa's delicious dishes, I started having strangers over to my house and people were booking to have the experience."

Dubai has so many restaurants that you could eat at a new one every day and it would take 50 years to visit them all. With cuisines from all over the world, it's no wonder everyone in this city chooses to eat at home.

So people are trying to choose this very option. In Dubai, supper clubs are not new events, but they have seen a huge growth in recent years. So, amateur or even professional cooks gather in their homes and host unknown guests. Guests are encouraged to come alone or with a friend, having a chance to connect with other unknown attendees and chat. The "condition" for them is to bring drinks.

"I wanted to bring people under one roof, at one table, make them talk without limits and just share a nice meal," said chef Ahmad Halawa, who started the supper club in 2019. , through the organization of open dinners on weekends. "In the beginning, only my friends and family came. But once word spread about Halawa's delicious dishes, I started having strangers over to my house and people were booking to have the experience."

Those interested find the club through people or the Instagram social network, and the dinner at the chef's is booked within two days. Halawa quit his job in 2021 and now hosts around 30 guests twice a week in his backyard, decked out with a party table, flowers and fairy lights.

Guests pay $100 off the menu to experience his cooking. An inevitable menu item is the famous knafeh, a traditional Arabic dessert cooked with soft and sweet right.
While great food is the key to dining, Halawa says the clubbing aspect also appeals to Dubai, where about 90 percent of the population is expats.

"Most people are away from home, away from their families, so I wanted to create that sense of community that has changed a little bit," said the Palestinian chef, adding that his dinners are served family-style at a communal table and not on restaurant-style plates. "People miss that. Supper clubs provide a more personal experience for attendees."

Creative cooking

The growing popularity of supper clubs in Dubai is also due to the stories among the people.
Hawkerboi Restaurant opted for a brick and mortar space last year. Self-taught chef Neha Mishra's passion turned into a supper club, where for three consecutive years, six nights a week, delicious dinners were cooked and people gathered.

This space was ranked among 11 of the 50 best restaurants in the Middle East and North Africa. Success stories like this have inspired others.

Dragan Susa, a "catering" chef, started in 2021 to create dinner clubs. Until at work he spent more time in the office than in the kitchen. His supper club gives him the freedom to be creative.
Susa's eight-course menu, starting at $110 per person, is a mix of his childhood in Croatia, Serbia and Greece. Each dish is his personal story, mixing Balkan and Greek emotions with seasonal ingredients in Dubai.

"Dubai is a dynamic city, people come and go and stay here for a year or two. Clubs enable you to meet people outside your profession, outside the workplace or friends", he said.
Foodie Dave Luis first joined the supper club in July 2022 and has been dining regularly with strangers ever since.

“I love dining out, but I was tired of Dubai's restaurants. The idea of ​​a supper club, in the chef's house was more personal and memorable. This was an invitation to explore and try dishes that I have not usually come across in restaurants", said the 50-year-old from South Africa. For him the social aspect is as important as the menu.

The heart and soul of the kitchen space

Supper clubs operate in an area where they are neither restaurants nor need to be licensed. This enables them to develop more easily and be regulated by traditional norms.
In an effort to legalize the sector, entrepreneur Kevin Vaz has created an app called "Splidu" that connects guests who want to dine together.

The app allows booking and paying for dinner space, allowing chefs to focus on creativity rather than logistics. Vaz said that "Splidu" is among the first to focus exclusively on dinner clubs. He hopes to create a separate category in the food and beverage industry for this sector. According to data from "Splidu", over 4.000 guests have booked a dinner in the first half of 2024.

"This is the heart and soul of the kitchen. They are connected to it, you can't get this experience anywhere else", said Susa.

He also uses the app to promote his activities. He says supper clubs have been a great way to test ideas and explore his culinary ambitions.

"You never know who's going to be there, or who that person is going to know," Susa said.

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