Eatopi & Mother Lina Collab on a Warak Enab Burger

The line between culinary innovation and what your teta would call a haram intervention has always been blurry in Dubai. But this might just be where the line is. This weekend, the city’s relentless fusion engine has turned its attention to one of the Arab world’s most sacred communal dishes, warak enab, transforming it into... a Warak Enab Burger. Yes, you read that correctly. A reconfiguration for mall-level portability that feels like a peculiar kind of gastronomic gentrification.

A collaboration between Eatopi and Mother Lina, available exclusively at Dubai Hills Mall from Friday to Sunday, this creation presents the spiced rice and lamb-stuffed vine leaves —traditionally slow-cooked with patience and, one assumes, generational love— neatly packed between two burger buns. It is billed as “the twist you didn’t know you needed.” A bold claim, and one that prompts the immediate question: did we need a twist?

For the purists, the classic version remains on offer. But for the curious, the burger poses an intriguing experiment. Can the tartness of the grape leaf and the savoury depth of the filling hold its own against the sweet, pillowy embrace of a brioche bun? Or is this a step too far into the realm of edible meme?

Only a taste test will tell…