British food in Dubai: where to find a full English, a roast and a proper cuppa

Homesick for a bacon butty? Dubai can sort you out, mostly. The roast comes on a Saturday as well as a Sunday, the bacon is often beef, and the best Christmas pud may soon be a short drive from Festival City.

The short version

• Full English: the Rose & Crown on Sheikh Zayed Road does one for AED 85 (about £17), and Reform Social & Grill at The Lakes serves breakfast from 8am [2][3].
• The roast: Reform's weekend roast with Yorkshire puddings starts at AED 115 (about £23) on Saturdays and Sundays, and the Rose & Crown does a British roast on both days from 12pm [2][3].
• The footie: McGettigan's JLT, The Irish Village and Fibber Magee's all made Time Out Dubai's 2026 sports bar or pub shortlists [1].
• The shopping: Waitrose (run in the UAE by Spinneys) and Spinneys are where most Brits find home brands, and Marks & Spencer is opening its largest Foodhall outside the UK at Dubai Festival City in December 2026 [7][8][9].
• Pork and alcohol are both available, but not everywhere: alcohol only in licensed venues, and pork usually in a separate section of the bigger supermarkets.

Pound conversions use a rate derived from the Bank of England USD spot rate of 5 November 2026 (£1 = USD 1.3476) and the dirham's fixed peg of AED 3.6725 per USD, which gives £1 = AED 4.9491.

A full English and a proper breakfast

Breakfast is where Dubai feels most like home, with one twist: in most places, the "bacon" and "sausage" are beef or chicken. That's down to local rules and customers, not a lack of effort. If you want the real pork version, ask, and look for it in licensed hotel restaurants and pubs.

Reform also runs a Sunday morning run club in November, with a 1 km or 3 km run and a buffet breakfast afterwards for AED 99 (about £20) for adults, children free with an adult [3]. Earn your hash brown, as it were.

The weekend roast

In Dubai the weekend is Saturday and Sunday, so the roast shows up on both days. It's one of the few British habits that has survived the heat completely intact.

• Reform Social & Grill at The Lakes Club, Emirates Living: weekend roast with full trimmings and Yorkshire puddings from AED 115 (about £23), Saturdays and Sundays from 12pm. It's by the lake, and it's on Time Out Dubai's 2026 Pub of the Year shortlist [3][1].
• Rose & Crown, The Atrium, Al Habtoor City: British roast on Saturdays and Sundays from 12pm. Book on +971 4 437 0022 [2].

Reform also does a Great British Curry Night on Tuesdays, 6pm to 10pm, for AED 135 (about £27) [3]. A chicken tikka masala at the Rose & Crown is AED 90 (about £18), and fish and chips is AED 75 (about £15) [2]. Not cheap, but you're paying hotel-licence prices.

Pubs for a pint and the football

Almost every pub in Dubai is inside a hotel or a licensed club, because that's where alcohol can be served. You must be 21 to drink [10].

Time Out Dubai's 2026 shortlists add The Black Sheep (Pullman JLT), McCafferty's (Circle Mall, JVC), Bridgewater Tavern (JW Marriott Marquis) and Kickers (Sports City) for watching sport [1]. With the UAE three or four hours ahead of the UK, a Saturday 3pm kick-off is an evening game here, which is very civilised.

For the wider scene, see our guide to nightlife in Dubai.

Marmite, PG Tips and the weekly shop

Waitrose and Spinneys

Spinneys runs more than 70 supermarkets under its own name and also operates the Waitrose brand in the UAE, with stores including Motor City and Al Thanya [7]. Both are known among Brits as the places for familiar British brands. An informal March 2026 price comparison by a local blog found Waitrose the priciest mainstream supermarket in Dubai, with Spinneys a little cheaper and Carrefour noticeably cheaper for the same small basket [8].

So yes, you'll find your Marmite, your teabags and your digestives, but you'll pay for the privilege. A lot of Brits do the "British" shop at Waitrose or Spinneys and everything else at Carrefour or Lulu.

Marks & Spencer

M&S has been in the UAE since 1997 through its franchise partner Al-Futtaim. In December 2026 it's due to open a 15,327 sq ft Foodhall at Dubai Festival City, its largest outside the UK and the first overseas store with the full UK food range: more than 3,500 core M&S products, plus the first M&S patisserie in the Middle East [9]. Four more UAE sites are planned over the following year [9]. If you've been rationing your Percy Pigs, help is on the way.

Pork, bacon and Christmas

Pork is sold in Dubai, but not everywhere: where you find it, it's usually kept in a separate, clearly marked section of the bigger supermarkets popular with expats. Check the label on sausages and bacon: beef and turkey versions are everywhere.

For Christmas, the shops fill up with mince pies, crackers and puddings from November, and this year the new M&S Foodhall should open in time [9]. Most of the big pubs do a Christmas Day lunch: The Irish Village was selling tickets for one at Studio City when we checked [5].

Bringing it from home

Plenty of Brits come back from a trip home with a suitcase of Yorkshire Tea, Bisto and Colman's. That's fine for ordinary groceries. Don't pack anything containing pork without checking the current UAE customs rules first, and remember that alcohol has its own allowances.

A proper cuppa

The tea's the easy bit. British brands are on the shelves, and plenty of residents make it with bottled or filtered water out of habit. You'll also notice that a lot of cafés serve tea with milk on the side or, better still, karak, the spiced, sweet milky tea sold at roadside cafés for a few dirhams. It's not PG Tips, but plenty of Brits end up converted.

Where to ask

Our community group for Brits in the UAE is the quickest way to find out who's got Branston in stock this week or which pub does the best roast near the Springs, and you can join here. For clubs, sport and Remembrance, see our guide to British life in Dubai.

Sources

1. Time Out Dubai: Nightlife Awards 2026 shortlist (19 October 2026)
2. Rose & Crown Dubai
3. Reform Social & Grill
4. McGettigan's JLT
5. The Irish Village
6. Fibber Magee's Dubai
7. The National: Parkin to manage parking at Spinneys and Waitrose stores (7 January 2026)
8. Real Estate Club Dubai: best supermarkets in Dubai 2026 (20 March 2026)
9. Retail Gazette: M&S to open largest international Foodhall in Dubai (2 November 2026)
10. GOV.UK: UAE travel advice, safety and security (updated 27 October 2026)

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