UAE is becoming home to a number of unique and savoring eateries. From ice creams to burgers, dips to drinks, there are numerous restaurant options available for foodies who reside in and visit UAE. Also a trend of home-grown businesses is being seen in the region. One example of a different restaurant idea is the newest restaurant called Dippers.

Tucked inside a nondescript building in Khalidiya, next to Spar Hypermarket, is a new restaurant that’s generating a lot of buzz. Dippers is a home-grown concept dreamt up by Emirati entrepreneur Eissa Al Ghais, which is, as the name suggests, all about the dips.

The restaurant is run by the French head chef Eric Tavernier, classically trained and the owner of Chef Eric’s Cooking School. Tavernier’s menu features a wide range of dishes that come ready to dunk in one of the 27 carefully crafted dips.

“The dips are made on a daily basis,” says Tavernier. “They’re available every day – we have barbecue sauce, homemade mayonnaise, tapenades, baba ghanoush, hummus, blue cheese. We don’t make home-made ketchup yet, but we soon will.”

In the seven weeks since Dippers opened, the sloppy joe sliders have been the best-selling dish, paired with a fondue-like ­provolone dip.

The most popular dips are the honey mustard and roasted garlic. Some of the more unusual ones include red-honey glaze, caponata, roasted apple and tomato, spicy kimchi, jalapeño and the formidable inferno TNT.

It’s not only the dips that are home-made. The bread and rolls are baked each day by the restaurant’s lone baker, and even the French fries and ice cream are prepared by hand.

While salads and soups are also on the menu, the rest of the dishes are more or less dip-friendly: tiger prawns, Mexican sliders, fried Gouda and Parmesan balls, chicken wings, a smoked chicken sandwich and a vegetable platter.

“Coming up with the menu was difficult,” says Tavernier, “but I now have 150 recipes for this place that are in a safe. We will continue to add more dishes to the menu.”

One that he’s just come up with is a pulled-lamb slider made with saffron and mint. “This is definitely going on the menu,” he says. “I just tried it. It’s good.”

With a set of three sliders ranging in price from Dh31 to Dh43, it’s an affordable venue where guests will be dipping deep into their food and not their wallets.

Great food and reasonable prices are definitely a rare combination and a treat to the taste buds. Dippers is one eatery offering this treat to the foodies of Abu Dhabi. There are others too, but let’s not forget to try this one out and highlight it in the list of go-to places.

The National