Award-winning Palestinian restaurant Bait Maryam has opened its third UAE location at City Centre Mirdif, bringing its home-style Levantine menu to eastern Dubai. For Bahrain residents planning a Dubai trip, it adds a solid reason to build in a stop away from the usual Downtown and Marina circuit.
Founded in Jumeirah Lakes Towers in 2017 by chef Salam Daqqaq, Bait Maryam is named after her late mother and built around the recipes she learned in her mother’s kitchen. The restaurant has held a Michelin Bib Gourmand for three consecutive years, and the Michelin Guide Welcome and Service Award, and it has appeared on the Middle East and North Africa’s 50 Best Restaurants list every year from 2023 to 2025. Daqqaq herself was named the region’s Best Female Chef in 2023 and features on the Forbes Middle East 50 Over 50 list.
The Mirdif branch is the group’s third UAE site, joining the original in Jumeirah Lakes Towers and a location at 06 Mall in Sharjah, alongside its more elevated sister concept, Sufret Maryam.
City Centre Mirdif sits in eastern Dubai, a part of the city most Bahrain visitors bypass in favour of Downtown, JBR or the Marina. The area is largely residential and family-oriented, and the mall itself is easy to reach by car and has ample parking, which makes it a workable stop if you’re driving in for the day or breaking up a longer trip with something outside the tourist centre.
Bait Maryam is part of a new dining line-up at the mall’s Chef’s Society, a food destination bringing in several chef-led concepts, so there’s more reason to make a proper stop at it rather than a quick detour.
The menu stays close to Levantine home cooking, with dishes designed for sharing rather than solo plates. Expect to start with hummus and fresh bread, then move through the fatet Maryam and musakhan, chicken with sumac and onions served over yoghurt and finished with fried bread. Mansaf, the slow-cooked lamb dish, sits alongside crispy cauliflower with tahina and kabab Hamoudi, with knafeh and ashta to close out the meal.
If you’ve eaten at Bait Maryam’s Jumeirah Lakes Towers or Sharjah branches before, the menu here follows the same format rather than introducing a separate concept.
The interiors lean into soft tones, natural textures and hand-painted crockery, aiming for the feel of a Levantine home rather than a formal dining room. Service is described as unhurried, in keeping with the rest of the group’s branches.
Dubai remains a short flight or a road trip via Saudi Arabia from Bahrain, and Mirdif is roughly 20 to 25 minutes from Dubai International Airport by car, making it a workable stop straight off a flight or on the way back to the airport. If you’re staying in Downtown or the Marina, it’s a 25- to 35-minute drive depending on traffic, so it works best paired with another reason to be in that part of the city.
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