The Waterfront Market: The Fish Market Experience in Dubai

As big sashimi lovers, we appreciate fish markets where you can get quality pieces at competitive prices. Visiting a fish market is also a chance to have an authentic experience. Just when we were starting to feel like we were living in a giant mall after nearly 15 days, we needed some authenticity, so we headed to Dubai’s fish market!

The most traditional fish market closed a few years ago. It has moved and is now called the Waterfront Market (open 24/7!). You can combine a visit with the gold souk since they are just 10 minutes apart by car.

What strikes me on arrival is the size and modernity of the building. In Dubai, even the fish market feels like a mall 😀

The building, which is huge and well ventilated, super clean is divided into several sections: fruit and vegetables, meat, dried fruits and spices, and, of course, seafood, which is what we were interested in.

A very interesting aspect of this fish market, which motivated our visit, is that you can buy your products, have them prepared and then cooked by a restaurant.

It’s not as straightforward as you might think, so here’s how it works.

Step 1: Buying the fish

As soon as you arrive, you’ll be approached by people with carts (with “Can I help you” written on their t-shirts). These are porters who can assist you with your purchases and, well… push the cart. It’s absolutely not mandatory and since we’re never comfortable with this type of service, we politely declined. A tourist we chatted with told us she paid the porter 15 AED for his help.

You can wander through the aisles; it’s a feast for the eyes and it’s truly massive!

We bought huge Omani prawns. Prices aren’t listed; you have to ask, and there’s surely room to negotiate (we didn’t try). 1 kg of prawns cost us 80 AED (about €20).

If you don’t want a porter, stay alert; without being pushy, they might try to impose themselves during your purchases 😀

Step 2: Washing and preparation

Once you’ve made your purchases, there’s a large area where you can have your products washed and prepared so they’re ready to cook, either at home or at one of the two nearby restaurants.

Since grilled prawns don’t need any preparation at the restaurant we were going to (not the case for everyone, so do ask), we skipped this step.

You need to go to the counter to hand over your products, pay, and get a numbered ticket to pick them up when ready.

Here too, prices aren’t displayed. The tourist told us she paid 21 AED for 5 bags of fish.

Step 3: The restaurant

The fish market has two restaurants that will cook the products you bring: “Paluto” , and “Grill fish”.

We went to the first one (Paluto). You queue at the entrance. Hand over your products and explain how you’d like them prepared, the sauce, the spice level.

The base price is 25 AED per kg of products, and you can add options: soft drinks + unlimited rice, extra vegetables, corn, takeaway container, etc.

We just went for the “unlimited rice and soft drink” option at 13 AED per person.

The staff member will assign you a table where you can sit and wait for your dishes.

And here’s the result! It was delicious!

I should be happy but here I am, bored from the wait, hence my face (but it was so good)

Paluto explanations and prices

You don’t have to bring your own vegetables if you want a soup, for example, they add them themselves. Likewise, if you want garlic grilled prawns, you just need to choose the “garlic butter” sauce, no need to buy garlic too 😀

Grill Fish explanations and prices

Attention, Grill Fish seems to require that the shrimp/prawns be peeled, which is not the case with Paluto.

Grill Fish is cheaper than Paluto, so there are more locals here.

The problem: the wait

We definitely didn’t come on the right day : a Friday (so a weekend day here), the day after a public holiday (National Day). What a long wait!

We arrived at the market around 2 PM, took a good half hour to wander and buy our prawns.
45 minutes in line at the restaurant.
Then another 45 minutes waiting for the preparation.
We were served at 4 PM!

It was delicious, it’s a great experience, but it’s not worth such a wait.

As we were leaving after eating, look at the line at Grill Fish!

So I can only encourage you to come… on weekdays, it will definitely be a much better idea 🙂

According to the tourist we chatted with, the restaurant Paluto is only open from 2 PM, so come mainly for a late lunch. She advises us to send part of the family to grab a good table at the restaurant next time, while the others do the shopping and stand in line 😀 despite the crowd, we didn’t have to fight for a table.

If you don’t feel like buying the seafood yourself, you can order seafood the usual way at the restaurant YAHYA Seafood

Other parts of the market

Don’t hesitate to check out the Meat, Fruits & vegetables, spices sections.. Clearly, a family can do the week’s shopping in one place, and enjoy a family brunch at the restaurant. It’s very clean, not crowded, and very pleasant. We took the opportunity to buy some huge dates from Pakistan for JB (40AED per kilo). We didn’t see them, but the best dates are the Medjool dates from Palestine