When Fadi Almahaini was 12 years old, he was already working in his family’s bakery in Beirut. He learned to bake manakish before most children his age had learned to cook at all. More than 25 years later, he has opened Bayroot Deli on Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai, a Lebanese restaurant he runs in partnership with his mother, Hoda Altaki.
Arab News told his story on 5 November 2026, in an interview about food, family and the small details that make a restaurant work. It is a story about starting young, learning slowly and coming back to the food he grew up with. Bayroot Deli opened on 12 September 2026, the latest chapter in a Dubai career that began in October 2006.
A childhood spent in the family bakery in Beirut
Almahaini grew up around bread, ovens and early mornings. His family’s bakery was his first classroom, and by 15 he was studying hospitality, then hotel management, at his mother’s urging. His mother taught him to keep food simple, to give it time to cook and never to rush it on a high heat. When you take your time, he says, the food becomes better.
That advice shows up in the way Bayroot Deli cooks. The kitchen uses charcoal grills, open flame and a spit that turns shawarma through service. Olive oil, thyme and sumac come from the family’s own farms in Lebanon. The menu covers charcoal-grilled meats, flame-cooked dishes, fresh mezze, sandwiches, bowls, salads and shawarma, in a 56-seat space over two floors in Aspin Commercial Tower.
Two decades in Dubai, from burgers to Lebanese food
Almahaini moved to Dubai in October 2006, and he has been building restaurants in the city ever since. He later opened Daddy’s Burger, a burger restaurant in Jumeirah, which he sold last year. Bayroot Deli is a different kind of project. It is built with his mother, and her recipes and instincts shape the menu as much as his hospitality experience does.
The deli is open from 11am to 6am, seven days a week, built for everyday eating as much as for long dinners. Guests can sit down, take food back to the office or order to their door late at night. It is a modern deli with the generosity of a Lebanese table, where the food is homemade and the preparation is fresh.
What his mother taught him about keeping food simple
Ask Almahaini about the most common mistake he made as a young cook, and he is honest about it. He used to make food complicated and cook it too fast. His mother taught him the opposite: simple ingredients, a few spices and enough time. Taste while you cook, she told him, and do not leave it to the end. If you use too many ingredients, you will not know what you are tasting.
His top tip for home cooks follows the same logic. Always taste while you cook, use simple ingredients and a few spices, and the dish will be very nice. If one ingredient could improve almost any dish, he picks good olive oil. Put it on labneh or hummus, he says, and it takes a simple thing to another level. That is why Bayroot Deli brings its olive oil from Lebanon.
Why shawarma is the hardest dish to get right
People think shawarma is easy, but Almahaini says it is very complicated. The reason is consistency. The temperature on the skewer has to be the same, and the cut has to be the same, every single time. A kitchen can make hundreds of shawarmas in a day, and they always have to taste the same. A small change in heat or thickness changes the result.
Consistency is the thing he watches most when he eats out, too. If he orders a dish today and comes back for the same dish next time, he wants the same flavour. Sometimes it changes because the chef changes, and sometimes because you cannot always get the same product. Cleanliness matters just as much. If a restaurant is not clean, he says, he will not keep eating there.
How he leads a team without shouting
As a leader, Almahaini describes himself as close to his team and a perfectionist about quality and cleanliness. He likes to listen to everyone, and he gives people trust and responsibility, but also accountability. He admits he sometimes gets angry, especially when he sees a mistake repeated. If you make a mistake once, he will tell you about it. If you repeat it two or three times, he gets angry.
But he does not believe in shouting, because when you shout at someone, they will not understand and they will make the same mistake again. At the end of the day, he says, the owner, the chef, the manager and the waiter all have the same goal: to make the customer happy. He welcomes criticism, because it helps the team improve. What he does not like is a customer who says nothing at the time and later leaves a one-star review without explaining why.
His favourite dish to cook is warak enab, stuffed vine leaves with meat, a dish his mother taught him. Whenever he invites someone to his house, he cooks it. Simple food, cooked with time, is still the point.
