For bread
Our favourite: Though it’s primarily a café, Eric Kayser in Abu Dhabi Mall (050 594 5622) also boasts a takeaway counter that’s so well stocked it wouldn’t look out of place on the Champs-Élysées. While its delicate little desserts and big slabs of chocolate brownie are certainly tempting, it’s the impressive range of European-style loaves that’s the big draw. Standard white batons sit alongside grain-encrusted varieties and soft, sugary brioche buns, while at the less familiar end of the boulangerie scale, there are also breads filled with chunks of apricot, figs and walnuts. Now all you need in a big wedge of brie and a perpetual air of vague arrogance.
Also try: You’ll find little hole-in- the-wall bakeries serving up hot and fresh saj bread throughout the city, but for an interesting take on the carby cornerstone of Arabic cuisine, head to Lebanese joint Awtar in Tourist Club Area (02 644 1551). Their thicker, chewier version is somewhere between Arabic saj and Indian naan, and is perfect for scooping up your mezze.
For pastries
Our favourite: While others palm us off with stale, crumbly specimens, the folk at Mirabel in Marks & Spencer Mall (02 631 5111) keep on churning out pastry-based goods so tasty they’re close to sorcery. The pain au raisin is an established breakfast staple in the TOAD office, sporting a crisp, flaky exterior, sweet, soft, buttery flesh and a gooey custard core. Best of all, though, you needn’t brave the desert heat to fill your boots with the best croissants, apple tarts and millefeuille in town, since Mirabel’s new online delivery service means a gluttonous snack is now only ever a few clicks away. Whether that’s a godsend or a curse, we’ll leave for you to decide.
Also try: While it’s regularly rammed at lunchtimes, Le Pain Quotidien on 9th Street (02 643 0194) is also worth dropping into for breakfast – try the cherry and almond Danish for a deliciously naughty start to the day.
For sweet stuff
Our favourite: After the cupcake craze of 2010, another brightly coloured foodstuff is mounting a bid to become Abu Dhabi’s latest sugar-based obsession. Macarons (not to be confused with macaroons, which are a more coconutty affair) are popping up everywhere, and you’ll find the finest at Le Macaron, a dainty little kiosk on the ground floor of Abu Dhabi Mall. The cute-as-a-box-of-buttons snacks are made from a meringue-like shell of whipped egg whites, sandwiching a filling of almond paste, jam or super-sweet buttercream. They’re not cheap, by any means (Dhs72 for a box of eight), but turn up to the office clutching one of their neat little presentation boxes and you certainly won’t do your promotion prospects any harm.
Also try: For phonebook-thick American-style cheesecakes, Abu Dhabi Mall’s Mugg & Bean (02 645 4232) will keep your cravings in check, while those clinging on to the cupcake craze (seriously, how haven’t your teeth fallen out yet?) will find the best at Kitsch Cupcakes (02 639 8100) at The Souk at Central Market.
For savoury stuff
Our favourite: If you live within the vicinity of a Lebanon Bakery (we’re regulars at the one in Tourist Club Area, but there are other branches across the city) you’re probably already well acquainted with the dirt cheap, filling fare it deals in. The squares of sweet, spongy knefeh (a cheese-based cake that’s traditionally noshed for breakfast) is very good indeed, but if you leave without trying the manakeesh (the ubiquitous Lebanese answer to the pizza), you’re missing out big time. Cooked fresh while you wait, the meat and labneh-topped variety comes stuffed with lightly spiced, bright pink meat and makes for a great value (if somewhat sinful) lunch at just Dhs5.
Also try: Eric Kayser in Abu Dhabi Mall (050 594 5622) does a mean line in quiches – the eggy pie at the centre of any English picnic. Try the salmon and spinach version, which is moist and tasty in the centre and encased in a thick, crumbly pastry. Vivel Patisserie in Khalidiyah (02 666 7338) is also worth looking into for its seed-encrusted cheesy biscuits and puff pastries.
