Why Restaurants Can’t Simply Copy-Paste Their Strategy Into Abu Dhabi

A restaurant concept that succeeds in Dubai, London, or New York does not automatically translate to Abu Dhabi. The capital has its own dining audience, habits, expectations, and ways of discovering restaurants. For operators entering the market, understanding those differences can be just as important as the food or concept itself.

Rachael Partington, founder and CEO of Best Bites UAE, believes that understanding what local diners want should be central to how restaurants approach the market. Rather than relying solely on established assumptions about what will work, she encourages operators to pay closer attention to how people discover restaurants, what influences their decisions, and what ultimately makes them return. For Partington, that local understanding can help restaurants make more informed decisions about how they position an offering and engage with the community around it.

Together with Commercial Director Sarah Simes, Partington positions Best Bites as a bridge between restaurants and an engaged local dining community. Through its community, social channels, website, and app, the platform remains closely connected to what diners are discussing, seeking out, and responding to. For Simes, that ongoing dialogue gives restaurants insight into the people behind the numbers and what they are actually looking for. 

For Partington, the distinction between audience size and audience is particularly important. She says, “what is important is what diners value and what influences their choices.”Community engagement, trusted sources, and social media groups can provide a different kind of insight, particularly when recommendations come from people whose preferences are already familiar to one another. For restaurants entering Abu Dhabi, understanding those relationships can be more useful than simply counting potential impressions. 

Simes approaches campaigns with that local context in mind. “We work with our partners on a much more personal level when we’re talking about campaigns,” she explains. Her emphasis is on understanding the intended customer and discussing how an offer fits that person’s priorities. Partington similarly encourages restaurants to consider practical details, including when people want to dine and what makes an occasion appealing.

Simes points to the team’s festive dining survey as one example of how that community can provide practical insight for restaurants. Drawing on the Best Bites Facebook community, Simes explains that the team sought feedback about Christmas and New Year’s dining plans, budgets, and package expectations. Partington believes this feedback could help restaurants understand what diners are looking for and consider those preferences when planning their offerings.

The findings also highlighted the importance of value for money. Diners may still want to celebrate, but they are becoming more considered about where and how they spend, creating demand for enjoyable experiences that do not necessarily depend on elaborate packages or gala-style events. Partington acknowledges that restaurants are simultaneously facing higher ingredient and supply costs, making pricing decisions more difficult. For her, this makes understanding what customers genuinely value even more important when deciding where to focus an offering. 

That attention to varied preferences also shapes the restaurants the team wants to feature. Partington explains while many of Best Bites partners are premium brands they also regularly showcase small, independent, and ethnic restaurants, many of which could otherwise remain hidden gems within Abu Dhabi’s wider dining scene. By featuring these establishments, the team wants to help diners discover experiences beyond the city’s better-known names. For Partington, these hidden gems are an important part of Abu Dhabi’s culinary character, reflecting a dining community with different tastes, budgets, and interests. 

Commercial relationships make honesty an ongoing consideration for Partington. She regards the ability to offer useful dining information as a responsibility that accompanies work with restaurant partners. “We do genuinely try very hard to walk that line, walk it well, and walk it with integrity,” she explains.

That focus on diverse dining choices extends to visitors as well. Simes and Partington encourage travelers to venture past their immediate hotel environs and experience the broader culinary landscape of the capital. Whether discovering a small independent eatery, visiting another hotel venue, or looking outside inclusive meal packages, Partington sees broader exploration as key to demonstrating the rich depth and variety across Abu Dhabi’s food scene.

Clear communication connects these aims. Partington wants descriptions to explain the food, experience, and price in language readers can readily understand. She is cautious about generic, AI-generated wording that offers little practical detail, and credits the entirely female team’s everyday involvement in Abu Dhabi life with informing its perspective.

For Simes and Partington, the longer-term opportunity is to keep those conversations active as restaurants develop their plans. Abu Dhabi is an individual food and beverage market, and they believe operators entering the city should take the time to understand what makes its diners and communities different rather than simply replicating a strategy that worked elsewhere. Listening can inform everything from a seasonal menu to the way a new concept introduces itself to the market.

For restaurants looking to establish themselves in Abu Dhabi, the starting point is therefore not simply visibility, but understanding. The closer operators get to the people they hope to serve, the better positioned they are to create an offering that feels relevant to the city, and gives diners a reason to come back.