Ravi is a Pakistani restaurant that has been in business since the 1970s and is one of the most consistently recommended cheap eats in Dubai. It sits on Al Satwa Road in the Satwa district, open 24 hours, with outdoor seating on plastic chairs along the pavement and an interior that seats several hundred. The dal, nihari, and karahi are the dishes to order.
Prices are very low — a full meal with bread costs about 25–35 AED — and the quality is genuinely good. The clientele is a cross-section of the city's South Asian working population and the savvier expatriates who know it. No alcohol. It is the antidote to the hotel restaurant circuit.