Cafeteria counter in the UAE with a steel tea urn, glasses of karak chai and parathas cooking on a griddle

Karak Chai and Cafeteria Prices in the UAE (2026): What a Cup, a Roll and a Counter Meal Cost

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Karak Chai and Cafeteria Prices in the UAE (2026): What a Cup, a Roll and a Counter Meal Cost

The cafeteria is the UAE’s cheapest dining room: a tea urn by the till, a griddle for parathas, a laminated menu where the most-ordered line in the building is a tea that costs less than the parking outside. The headline numbers, built only from menus and guides fetched for this page: a single cup of karak chai at a cafeteria costs AED 1–6, a karak and a sandwich together cost AED 7–15 on checkable menu prices, and a filling cafeteria meal costs AED 15–40. The spread inside that first figure is the story — the same drink is AED 1.50 on one Muwaileh menu and AED 6 on another platform listing a few streets away, before the tea chains, which price a cup at AED 9–13, are counted at all.

Last updated: 8 November 2026 · Sources: Talabat and Deliveroo menus, EatEasy menu mirror, Where To Eat Dubai cheap-eats guide, SavePlus, Gulf News, Numbeo — full list at the end of this page

How much does a karak chai cost in the UAE?

Three layers of evidence, kept apart because they price three different things. The guides price the counter: Where To Eat Dubai puts karak at AED 1–3, SavePlus’s Abu Dhabi guide at AED 1–4, and the Online Dubai Visa street-food guide at AED 1–5. The platform menus price a named cup you can order: on Talabat listings fetched for this page, standard cafeteria karak runs from AED 1.50 in Muwaileh to AED 6 at the top of the ordinary cafeteria range. And the chains price a brand: FiLLi’s signature tea is AED 9 on its Deliveroo menu and Chaiiwala of London’s Karak Chaii is AED 6 on Talabat — and AED 13 on Deliveroo, for the same chain and the same drink.

The documented floor is dated, and this page keeps the date on it. Gulf News’s cafeteria feature, published in January 2022, recorded Al Qasmia Cafeteria in Sharjah — open since 1989 — selling karak at Dh1, with no item on its menu over Dh6. That is a 2022 snapshot, not a verified 2026 price. What can be said in 2026 is narrower: a social-media menu video from a Muwaileh cafeteria in October 2026 also shows karak at AED 1, and the cheapest checkable platform list price fetched today is AED 1.50. The one-dirham karak survives as a tradition and an occasional promotion; the AED 2 cup is the safer planning figure.

Karak chai being poured from a steel kettle into a small glass on a cafeteria counter, steam rising

What does a karak cost on a menu you can check?

Every row names its cafeteria, its price and its channel. A price labelled “Talabat menu” is a delivery-platform list price taken from the platform’s own menu text; promotions shown beside list prices are never quoted here.

Cafeteria and area Karak chai, AED Source
Burj Muwaileih Cafeteria — Muwaileh, Sharjah 1.50 Talabat menu (platform price)
Basil Spring Cafeteria (small) — Muwaileh, Sharjah 1.95 Talabat menu (platform price)
Marhaba Muwaileh — Muwaileh, Sharjah 2.00 Talabat menu (platform price)
Al Yawm — Ajman 2.00 Talabat menu (platform price)
Super Tasty Cafeteria — Deira 2.00 Talabat menu (platform price)
Tea Mate Cafeteria — Satwa 2.50 Talabat menu (platform price)
Cafeteria Najmat Al Mamzar (medium) — Muwaileh listings, Sharjah 3.00 Talabat menu (platform price)
Karak W Samboosa Cafeteria — Ras Al Khaimah 3.00 Talabat menu (platform price)
Jabal Al Shay Cafeteria — Al Ain 5.00 Talabat menu (platform price)
Shabab Al Khan Cafeteria — Muwaileh, Sharjah 6.00 EatEasy menu mirror (platform price)
Tea Time Cafeteria — Abu Dhabi listings 6.00 Talabat menu (platform price)
Koukh Al Shay (medium; large AED 9) — listings in two emirates 6.00 Talabat menu (platform price)
Al Khafayef Cafeteria — Ajman 8.00 Talabat menu (platform price)

Read the table as a ladder, not a league table. The bottom rungs are high-turnover cafeterias in Muwaileh and Deira, where karak is the traffic item and the food carries the margin. The top rungs are places where the cup is bigger (Koukh Al Shay prices by size: AED 6 medium, AED 9 large), the cafeteria is pricier across its whole menu (Al Khafayef’s club sandwiches start above AED 20), or the listing is in a district where platform prices sit higher. Two well-known names publish no cup price at all on the platform: Food Way Cafeteria in Sharjah and House Of Tea in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain both list their karak as “Price on Selection” — the drink is a named best-seller at Food Way, but no figure is quoted here, because none was published in what was fetched.

The chains sit above the ladder and are priced separately on purpose. Chaiiwala of London’s Karak Chaii is AED 6 on its Talabat menu and AED 13 on its Deliveroo menu — a AED 7 gap between two platforms for one drink, the widest single-item platform spread found for this page. FiLLi prices its FiLLi Tea at AED 9 and its saffron version at AED 10 on Deliveroo; on Talabat, FiLLi’s hot cups are “Price on Selection” and only its iced teas (AED 22–24) carry figures. A tea guide’s claim that FiLLi charges about AED 4 for a small cup could not be matched to any FiLLi menu fetched today and is recorded as a disagreement, not used as a price.

Why does the same tea cost AED 1 in one place and AED 6 in another?

Four reasons, all visible in the fetched menus. Channel: a counter price and a platform price are different products — the platform cup carries the app’s margin, which is why the guides’ AED 1–3 counter band and the platform ladder (AED 1.50–6) overlap only at the bottom. Size: menus that price by size (Basil Spring’s small at AED 1.95, Najmat Al Mamzar’s medium at AED 3 and big at AED 6, Koukh Al Shay’s medium and large) show the cup growing with the price. Format: karak scales into group formats that are not cups at all — a dallah pot at AED 40–58, a 10-cup vacuum flask at AED 70, litre flasks at AED 90–109 — and this page does not divide them into per-cup prices. District: Muwaileh’s cafeteria cluster, serving a student and worker catchment, holds the bottom of the ladder; a corniche or mall-adjacent cafeteria does not try to.

What else does a cafeteria sell, and what does it cost?

The karak rarely travels alone. Its standard companions, priced from the same day’s menus: a plain paratha or poratta is AED 2 at Food Way Cafeteria in Sharjah and AED 2.25 as a fresh paratha at House Of Tea in Abu Dhabi; an in-shop menu board photographed in Ras Al Khaimah prices a parotta at AED 1 — a board figure from a social post, labelled as such. Filled porattas climb by filling: keema AED 4.80, chicken mayonnaise AED 7, prawns AED 10.60, all on Food Way’s Talabat menu. The Chips Oman sandwich — the cafeteria’s own invention — is AED 4.50 list at Rajab Cafeteria in Muwaileh, AED 5 as a paratha format at Tea Mate in Satwa and at Oasis in Abu Hail, AED 7 at Shabab Al Khan, and AED 8–8.50 at House Of Tea in Abu Dhabi and Tea Talk Session: the same sandwich, a near-twofold spread, priced by district and format.

The club sandwich is where cafeteria pricing stretches widest. The cheapest club list prices fetched today are AED 10 (Al Yawm, Ajman — chicken and vegetarian at the same price), then AED 12.60 in the Tourist Club Area of Abu Dhabi, AED 13–18 in Karama, AED 18 at Food Way, and a tight Ajman cluster at AED 20–20.50. The highest single club list price on any fetched menu is AED 32.14 (Rajab Cafeteria’s Special Zinger Club, Sharjah) — shown as the outlier it is, not averaged into the cluster. Snacks stay small: a samosa is AED 1–3 each in the guides, and the only single-samosa platform list price fetched today is AED 2 (chicken samoosa, Al Shamam Cafeteria, Sharjah); a 12-piece samosa kit with karak included is AED 10 at Food Way. Fresh juice splits by channel exactly as the tea does: AED 4 for mango or cocktail juice at Mallah Restaurant on Talabat’s Sharjah listings — an Emirati restaurant, not Al Mallah of Satwa — against AED 8 in the Deira guide.

Cafeteria table with parotta rolls, a club sandwich, a samosa and two glasses of karak chai in the UAE

What does a full cafeteria meal or a cafeteria breakfast cost?

For a full counter meal, the guide band stands: Where To Eat Dubai puts a full meal at AED 15–40 per person in the old cafeteria districts, with full meals at Ravi Restaurant at AED 25–45 and biryani-and-curry cafeteria meals in Karama at AED 20–40. Named combos on fetched menus land inside the band’s lower half: a chicken kabab sandwich with fries and a drink is AED 11 at Bahar Muwaileh Cafeteria in Sharjah — the cheapest named sandwich-fries-drink combo fetched today — and a small fries-and-soft-drink combo is AED 14 at Al Shamam. A karak with a sandwich, built from the tables above, is AED 7–15 at list prices: Tea Mate’s AED 2.50 karak with its AED 5 Chips Oman paratha is AED 7.50, and that pairing, not a sit-down meal, is the cafeteria break most residents actually buy.

Breakfast is priced as boxes and sharing trays as much as plates. A labelled home-style breakfast (Baitna Breakfast) is AED 20 at Beyalah Al Shay in Muwaileh; an Emirati breakfast box is AED 27.50 list at Luqaimat and Chebab in Abu Dhabi; and Beyalah’s full sharing breakfast — eggs, tomatoes, khameer and chapati breads, luqaimat, chickpeas and two karak cups — is AED 85, a tray for a table, not a per-person price. Fujairah’s evidence arrives in a different shape again: a cafeteria there advertises monthly mess plans on a social-post rate card — two meals a day at AED 320 a month, three at AED 380, delivered across Fujairah City — a subscription figure, quoted here as Fujairah’s only cafeteria price evidence, not as a per-meal price. How these counter meals sit inside a monthly food budget is worked through in our budget meals guide.

Where are the cheapest cafeterias in each emirate?

Sharjah holds the deepest evidence and the lowest ladder. Muwaileh’s cluster alone produced karak at AED 1.50, 1.95, 2 and 3 on four different platform menus, a plain poratta at AED 2, a Chips Oman sandwich at AED 4.50 list and the AED 11 kabab combo — and Sharjah is also where the dated 2022 floor (Dh1 karak, nothing over Dh6 at Al Qasmia) was documented. On the crowd-sourced index, Sharjah’s inexpensive restaurant meal is AED 22, the lowest big-city figure fetched. The emirate’s wider cheap-eats map is in our street food guide.

Dubai. The priced cafeterias sit in the old districts: Tea Mate in Satwa (karak AED 2.50, Chips Oman paratha AED 5), Super Tasty in Deira (karak AED 2), Oasis in Abu Hail (Oman Chips porotta AED 5), Karak Corner in Karama (clubs AED 13–18). Numbeo puts an inexpensive restaurant meal in this city at AED 48.50 — a restaurant figure, above the cafeteria band, and the two should not be merged. The South Asian cafeteria belt is priced dish by dish in our desi food guide.

Abu Dhabi. The capital’s platform cafeterias price karak higher: AED 6 at Tea Time, AED 6.60 at a luqaimat cafe in Mussafah’s industrial catchment. Its value shows elsewhere — a fresh paratha at AED 2.25 and poratta sandwiches at AED 4.20–8.40 at House Of Tea and Best Chicken Cafeteria in the Tourist Club Area, a chicken club at AED 12.60, and SavePlus’s guide bands (karak AED 1–4, paratha rolls AED 7–15) describing the counter layer beneath the platform prices. Numbeo’s inexpensive meal here is AED 34.

Ajman. Ajman produced both ends of today’s ladder: karak at AED 2 (Al Yawm) and AED 8 (Al Khafayef, the highest standard-cafeteria cup fetched), the joint-cheapest club sandwiches (AED 10), and club clusters at AED 20–24 at corniche-side cafes. A cafeteria’s own promotional video prices its karak at AED 2 and its meals from AED 15 — a video figure, used here only as corroboration. Numbeo’s inexpensive meal for Ajman is AED 21, the lowest city figure fetched, on a modest contributor sample.

Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah and Al Ain — honestly stated. Ras Al Khaimah’s cafeteria evidence is one priced platform cafeteria (Karak W Samboosa: karak AED 3, litre pots AED 45–80) and one in-shop menu board shared on social media (karak and parotta AED 2 and AED 1, egg sandwich AED 2, samosa AED 1) — enough to say the pattern reaches the northern emirates, not enough to rank them; Numbeo’s AED 50 inexpensive-meal figure for the city rests on about fifty contributors and was last updated in August 2026, the stalest figure in this pack. Fujairah is a gap at cup level: its platform cafeterias price karak only by the dallah (AED 55) or list it as “Price on Selection”, and the monthly mess rate card above is its only other cafeteria price evidence. Al Ain is platform-only evidence — karak at AED 5 at Jabal Al Shay, dallah formats at AED 50 — with no guide or dine-in source retrieved. Where the evidence runs out, this page stops; the grocery side of those budgets is priced in our groceries guide.

How does the cafeteria compare with a food court or a tea chain?

Line the three channels up with the figures fetched today. A cafeteria break — karak and a filled paratha or sandwich — is AED 7–15 at platform list prices and less at the counter the guides describe. A cafeteria full meal is AED 15–40 on the guide band. The crowd-sourced index prices the next rung up, a sit-down inexpensive restaurant meal, at AED 22–48.50 depending on the city — crowd-sourced figures, and a different product from a counter meal. The tea chains reprice the same cup as a branded drink: AED 9–13 for a signature karak, AED 15 for a chai-and-paratha combo at Chaiiwala, AED 23–28 for FiLLi’s paratha rolls. None of this makes the chain cup a rip-off or the cafeteria cup a bargain in itself — it makes them different purchases, and the monthly maths is where the difference compounds: a karak a day at AED 2 is AED 60 a month; the same habit at chain prices is AED 270–390. The full eat-out ladder is priced in our eating out guide, and the cafeteria’s closest relative — the shawarma counter — is priced in our shawarma prices guide.

What should you know about paying at a cafeteria counter?

Two practical points, both sourced, neither dressed up as law. On payment, Where To Eat Dubai states that many traditional budget cafeterias in the old districts are cash-only or prefer cash, advises carrying small notes (AED 5, 10 and 20), and notes that most restaurants opened in the past 5–10 years accept cards. On ordering, the fetched menus suggest the working rule themselves: the price on the board is for the standard cup, and size, saffron and format (dallah, flask) are priced as separate lines — if the figure matters, name the size when you order. What a month of cafeteria habits does to a salary is the subject of our cost of living budgets.

FAQs

What is the cheapest karak chai in the UAE?

On checkable evidence, AED 1.50 — the list price at Burj Muwaileih Cafeteria in Muwaileh on Talabat, fetched 8 November 2026. Below that sit two softer figures: a Muwaileh cafeteria’s October 2026 social-media menu video showing karak at AED 1, and Gulf News’s 2022 documentation of Dh1 karak at Al Qasmia Cafeteria in Sharjah. The guides’ counter band is AED 1–3. Budget AED 2 for a standard cup and you will rarely be wrong in the cafeteria districts.

Why is karak more expensive on delivery apps?

Because the platform cup is a different product from the counter cup: it carries the platform’s margin and is often a bigger serve. The fetched menus show it inside single drinks — the guides put counter karak at AED 1–3 while standard cafeteria platform listings run AED 1.50–6 — and at its widest in the chains, where Chaiiwala’s Karak Chaii is AED 6 on one platform and AED 13 on another. No platform page fetched for this article publishes a standard delivery fee, so no fee figure is quoted.

What does a cafeteria breakfast cost?

From the named items fetched today: a paratha and karak built from list prices is roughly AED 4.50–7.50; a labelled home-style breakfast is AED 20 (Beyalah Al Shay, Muwaileh); an Emirati breakfast box is AED 27.50 list (Luqaimat and Chebab, Abu Dhabi); and a full sharing breakfast tray with two karak cups is AED 85. Chain breakfasts price higher — FiLLi’s egg dishes with tea are AED 27 and Chaiiwala’s full desi breakfast is AED 60.

Which emirate has the cheapest cafeterias?

Sharjah, on the evidence retrieved — specifically Muwaileh, where four platform menus price karak between AED 1.50 and AED 3 and the cluster also produced the cheapest plain poratta (AED 2) and the cheapest named combo (AED 11). Ajman matches it at single points (karak AED 2, clubs AED 10) but also produced today’s most expensive standard cafeteria cup (AED 8), so the honest answer is a district, not just an emirate: Muwaileh.

Do cafeterias publish their prices?

Many do not, and this page names the gaps rather than filling them. Food Way Cafeteria — whose karak is a stated best-seller — and House Of Tea both list karak as “Price on Selection” on the platform; Fujairah’s cafeterias publish no single-cup karak price at all. Where a cafeteria publishes nothing checkable, the honest price is “unpublished”, and any figure from a guide or a social post is labelled as exactly that.

Data sources used on this page:

  • Burj Muwaileih Cafeteria menu, Muwaileh (delivery-platform listing, Talabat; menu text via the platform’s indexed menu — the Talabat page itself rendered no menu lines when fetched directly) — https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/726270/burj-muwaileih-cafeteria-muwaileh-commercial?aid=6811 — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Basil Spring Cafeteria menu, Muwaileh (delivery-platform listing, Talabat; indexed menu text as above) — https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/784463/basil-spring-cafeteria-muwaileh-commercial?aid=2652 — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Marhaba Muwaileh menu (delivery-platform listing, Talabat; indexed menu text as above) — https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/749119/marhaba-muwaileh-pak-baithak-muwaileh-commercial?aid=1587 — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Tea Mate Cafeteria menu, Satwa (delivery-platform listing, Talabat; indexed menu text as above) — https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/718920/tea-mate-cafeteria-al-satwa?aid=1271 — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Super Tasty Cafeteria menu, Deira (delivery-platform listing, Talabat; indexed menu text as above) — https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/718999/super-tasty-cafeteria-al-wasl?aid=1253 — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Jaser Al Hira Cafeteria menu (delivery-platform listing, Talabat; indexed menu text as above) — https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/742005/jaser-al-hira-cafeteria-industrial-area-1?aid=1571 — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Cafeteria Najmat Al Mamzar menu (delivery-platform listing, Talabat; indexed menu text as above) — https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/749453/cafeteria-najmat-al-mamzar-al-mamzar?aid=1581 — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Jenan Cafeteria menu, Sharjah (delivery-platform listing, Talabat; indexed menu text as above) — https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/612042/jenan-cafeteria-samnan?aid=1559 — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Shabab Al Khan Cafeteria menu, Muwaileh (delivery-platform menu via EatEasy mirror) — https://www.eateasy.ae/sharjah/amp/shabab-al-khan-cafeteria-al-khan — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Food Way Cafeteria menus, Sharjah (delivery-platform listings, Talabat; indexed menu text as above) — https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/662673/food-way-cafeteria-muwafjah?aid=1540 — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Rajab Cafeteria menu, Muwaileh (delivery-platform listing, Talabat; indexed menu text as above) — https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/658523/rajab-cafeteria-muwaileh-commercial?aid=6813 — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Al Shamam Cafeteria menu, Sharjah (delivery-platform listing, Talabat; indexed menu text as above) — https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/794462/al-shamam-cafeteria-muwaileh-commercial?aid=1587 — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Bahar Muwaileh Cafeteria menu, Sharjah (delivery-platform listing, Talabat; indexed menu text as above) — https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/792904/bahar-muwaileh-cafeteria-muwaileh-commercial?aid=1587 — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Beyalah Al Shay Cafeteria menu, Muwaileh (delivery-platform listing, Talabat; indexed menu text as above) — https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/711496/beyalah-al-shay-cafeteria-muwaileh-commercial?aid=1581 — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Mallah Restaurant menu, Sharjah listings (delivery-platform listing, Talabat; indexed menu text as above) — https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/38373/mallah-restaurant-university-of-sharjah?aid=1587 — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Al Mallah Cafeteria menu, Al Majaz 2, Sharjah (delivery-platform listing, Talabat; indexed menu text as above) — https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/21967/al-mallah-cafeteria-al-majaz?aid=1531 — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Tea Time Cafeteria menu, Abu Dhabi listings (delivery-platform listing, Talabat; indexed menu text as above) — https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/653947/tea-time-cafeteria-al-shamkha?aid=1437 — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • House Of Tea Cafeteria menus, Abu Dhabi and Al Ain listings (delivery-platform listings, Talabat; indexed menu text as above) — https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/624369/house-of-tea-cafeteria-bani-yas-east?aid=1762 — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Best Chicken Cafeteria Restaurant menu, Tourist Club Area (delivery-platform listing, Talabat; indexed menu text as above) — https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/644297/best-chicken-cafeteria-restaurant-al-wahda?aid=1496 — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Luqaimat and Chebab menus, Abu Dhabi listings (delivery-platform listings, Talabat; indexed menu text as above) — https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/34932/luqaimat-and-chebab-restaurant-al-mushrif?aid=1441 — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Al Yawm menu, Ajman (delivery-platform listing, Talabat; indexed menu text as above) — https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/716422/al-yawm-al-rawda-3-al-zahraa?aid=1974 — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Al Khafayef Cafeteria menu, Ajman (delivery-platform listing, Talabat; indexed menu text as above) — https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/630166/al-khafayef-cafeteria-al-mushairef?aid=1975 — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Koukh Al Shay menus, Ajman Corniche and other listings (delivery-platform listings, Talabat; indexed menu text as above) — https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/691958/koukh-al-shay-restaurant-ajman-corniche?aid=10200 — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Real Karak Cafe menu, Ajman (delivery-platform listing, Talabat; indexed menu text as above) — https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/742808/real-karak-cafe-ajman-al-rawda-2-al-zahraa?aid=1977 — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Karak W Samboosa Cafeteria menu, Ras Al Khaimah (delivery-platform listing, Talabat; indexed menu text as above) — https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/747191/karak-w-samboosa-cafeteria-al-dhait-south?aid=2437 — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Golden Karak Cafeteria in-shop menu board, Ras Al Khaimah (social post, Instagram; menu board figure) — https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dby-SY0tIJv/ — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Jabal Al Shay Cafeteria menu, Al Ain (delivery-platform listing, Talabat; indexed menu text as above) — https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/729950/jabal-al-shay-cafeteria-zakher?aid=6849 — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Fujairah cafeteria listings (delivery-platform listings, Talabat; dallah-only and “Price on Selection” karak — the gap is the finding) — https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/43305/ruqaq-al-khaleej-public-restaurantfujairah-intl-airport?aid=3904 — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Baith Al Aseel Cafeteria monthly mess rate card, Fujairah (social post, Instagram; subscription figure) — https://www.instagram.com/p/Dapow7_nAel/ — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • FiLLi Cafe menu, Production Zone (delivery-platform listing, Deliveroo; page opened in full) — https://deliveroo.ae/en/menu/dubai/impz/filli-cafe-production-zone — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Chaiiwala of London menus (delivery-platform listings, Talabat and Deliveroo; indexed menu text) — https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/719301/chaiiwala-of-london-barsha-heights–tecom?aid=1192 and https://deliveroo.ae/en/menu/dubai/dubai-hills/chaiiwala-of-london?geohash=thrqcvtz9dbj — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Where To Eat Dubai — Best Cheap Eats Dubai 2026 (guide) — https://wheretoeatdubai.com/best-of/best-cheap-eats-dubai — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • SavePlus UAE — Top Street Foods in Abu Dhabi You Must Try Under 20 AED (guide) — https://saveplus.ae/blog/saving-tips/abu-dhabi-street-food — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Online Dubai Visa — Dubai Street Food Guide 2026–2027 (guide) — https://www.onlinedubaivisa.com/blog/dubai-street-food — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Gulf News — “Karak chai, parotta roll, shawarma or a burger – why are cafeterias so popular in the UAE?” (newspaper feature, published January 2022; figures dated to that feature wherever used) — https://gulfnews.com/amp/story/food/karak-chai-parotta-roll-shawarma-or-a-burger–why-are-cafeterias-so-popular-in-the-uae-1.1642001169261 — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Numbeo — Cost of Living city pages and comparisons for the five priced cities (crowd-sourced guide figures; Ras Al Khaimah last updated August 2026, flagged in the text) — https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/Dubai — retrieved 8 November 2026
  • Property Finder — Karak Tea in Abu Dhabi (guide; its FiLLi cup claim is recorded as a disagreement in the data pack, not used as a price) — https://www.propertyfinder.ae/blog/karak-tea-abu-dhabi/ — retrieved 8 November 2026

Methodology: prices are quoted as ranges unless a named menu publishes an exact price, in which case it is quoted exactly with its source. Delivery-platform prices are list prices; platform promotions and struck-through discounts are not quoted as prices. Guide figures are labelled as guide figures, crowd-sourced figures as crowd-sourced, and social-post figures as social-post figures. Where sources disagreed, both figures are shown in the text. Places and prices with no retrievable figure — Food Way’s and House Of Tea’s karak cups, Fujairah’s single-cup karak — are stated as gaps, not estimated.

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