Seafood Prices in the UAE

Seafood is two different budgets wearing one name. Bought raw at a supermarket, fresh salmon fillet costs AED 57.50 for 500g at Carrefour, sea bream AED 26.25 for 500g, and a kilo of fresh sardines lists at AED 14.99 — while the same fish cooked at a restaurant runs AED 35 to AED 40 for a fish-with-rice meal at the value end, AED 59 to AED 95 for a grilled fish main, and AED 89 to AED 699 for the sharing seafood meals that groups order. This page keeps the two layers separate throughout, because mixing them produces nonsense: a kilo of fresh prawns at AED 32.99 to AED 33.90 list at the supermarket and a kilo of cooked shrimp at AED 129 to AED 139 at a seafood restaurant are both real prices, for different things. Between the layers sits the honest gap in UAE seafood pricing — hammour, the local fish most households ask about first, has no verifiable per-kilo price at any national supermarket; its only checkable figures are guide ranges of AED 30 to AED 60 per kilo at fish markets and cooked restaurant meals. Every supermarket figure below was checked on Carrefour, LuLu, Spinneys or Noon Minutes listings on 10 November 2026 and every restaurant figure on a named Talabat or Deliveroo menu the same day, with the seller and the channel named beside each price.

Last updated: 10 November 2026. Supermarket catalogue figures are list prices — the lower promotional figure printed beside them in the catalogues is never quoted as the price. Fish prices move with the catch and the season more than any other food on this site; treat the listing in front of you as the final word on the day, and the ranges here as the planning bands.

How much does fresh fish cost at the supermarket?

Item	Price (AED)	Where	Source
Salmon fillet, Norwegian, fresh	57.50 per 500g	Carrefour online	Carrefour UAE listing (opened page)
Salmon fillet, organic / Scottish, fresh	72.50 / 67.50 per 500g (list)	Carrefour online	Carrefour UAE listing (opened page)
Salmon, whole fish	69.99 per kg (list)	Carrefour catalogue	Carrefour UAE catalogue, Oct 2026 (promotion beside it not quoted)
Salmon fillet, smaller packs	34.97 per 350g (LuLu via Talabat); 34.95–36.95 per 200g (noon Minutes)	LuLu; Noon Minutes	LuLu grocery listing, Talabat; Oceano and Asmak listings, Noon Minutes
Sea bream, fresh	26.25 per 500g (Carrefour online); 36.90 per kg cleaned black seabream (LuLu via Talabat); 47.29–48.90 per kg (list, catalogues)	Carrefour; LuLu	Carrefour UAE listing (opened page) and catalogues; LuLu listings, Talabat and catalogue
Kingfish steaks, fresh	69.99 per kg (list)	Carrefour catalogue	Carrefour UAE catalogues, Oct–Nov 2026 (same list price in both)
Kingfish steak, 1 kg	47.90–49.35	LuLu via Talabat	LuLu grocery listings, Talabat (two listings split)
Sea bass, fresh	48.95 per 600g	Carrefour online	Carrefour UAE listing (opened page)
Sardines, fresh	14.99 per kg (list); 7.45 per 500g cleaned	Carrefour catalogue; LuLu via Talabat	Carrefour UAE catalogue, Oct–Nov 2026; LuLu grocery listing, Talabat
Safi, tilapia, small tuna, whole cleaned	14.90–18.90 per kg	LuLu via Talabat	LuLu grocery listings, Talabat
Black pomfret, whole cleaned	34.90 per kg (LuLu via Talabat); 40.99 per kg (list, Carrefour catalogue)	LuLu; Carrefour	LuLu grocery listing, Talabat; Carrefour UAE catalogue
Mackerel (big eye), fresh	22.99 per kg (list)	Carrefour catalogue	Carrefour UAE catalogue, Oct–Nov 2026

Salmon is the premium anchor of the supermarket counter and it is priced by the pack, not the kilo: AED 57.50 for 500g of Norwegian fillet at Carrefour online, AED 67.50 list for Scottish and AED 72.50 for organic on the same page, with smaller packs at LuLu (AED 34.97 for 350g) and Noon Minutes (AED 34.95 to AED 36.95 for 200g portions). Whole salmon is a different purchase at AED 69.99 per kg list in Carrefour’s catalogue — a household that portions a whole fish at home pays roughly whole-fish money for fillet eating, minus the work. A fish-price guide puts salmon at AED 40 to AED 75 per kg across farmed and wild; that guide range does not separate whole fish from fillet, which is why it sits below the fillet packs and is quoted here as a cross-check only.

Sea bream refuses to be one price, and this page does not force it: AED 26.25 per 500g at Carrefour online, AED 36.90 for a cleaned kilo of black seabream at LuLu via Talabat, and catalogue list prices of AED 47.29 to AED 48.90 per kg — a spread explained by species, cleaning and channel, with every basis stated in the table. Kingfish, the kanaad or seer of local cooking, lists at AED 69.99 per kg for steaks in Carrefour’s catalogues — the same list price in two consecutive catalogues, with the AED 39.99 beside it a promotion that is not quoted — while LuLu’s one-kilo steak packs run AED 47.90 to AED 49.35 and Noon Minutes sells 200–250g steak packs at AED 22.50. Carrefour’s own online kingfish page shows AED 47.20 with no weight basis stated in the listing text; it is recorded here as published and never converted into a per-kilo figure. The budget floor of the counter is firm and cheap: sardines at AED 14.99 per kg list, safi at AED 18.90, tilapia and small tuna at AED 14.90 cleaned at LuLu, and mackerel at AED 22.99 list — whole fish a family can grill for the price of one salmon portion.

What about hammour and sheri — the local favourites?

Honestly: no national supermarket price could be verified for either fish, and this page does not borrow one. Hammour (grouper) returned no UAE per-kilo listing at Carrefour, LuLu, Spinneys or Noon Minutes on 10 November 2026. The only priced retail hammour found is a curry-cut pack — FreshToHome grouper / hamour large curry cut, 450–500g at AED 29.70 on Noon Minutes — which is a prepared pack, not a whole-fish price. Fish-market guides put hammour at AED 30 to AED 60 per kilo (the Fish App guide) and AED 35 to AED 60 per kilo (an Al Karama market guide, sample prices as of 2025), and 2024 market reporting described large hammour normally at AED 25 to AED 35 per kilo rising above AED 55 in a price-spike period — all labelled guide and reporting figures, useful as the planning band for a market visit and nothing more. Cooked hammour is priced in the restaurant section below, where it belongs.

Sheri (emperor) is the same story one step further: LuLu figures for sheri surfaced only on non-UAE storefronts of its regional site and were dropped rather than quoted as UAE prices. The checkable sheri evidence is an Al Karama market guide range of AED 15 to AED 30 per kilo, 2024 reporting of AED 15 to AED 20 normally and from AED 30 in the spike, and restaurant meals — a shari-with-rice at AED 35 and grilled shari with rice at AED 40 at Mandi’s, and a fried shari fish meal at AED 80 at Alsheraa Seafood. A household budgeting for hammour or sheri should budget the guide band, buy at a fish market or fish counter where the day’s price is on the board, and treat any website quoting a single exact supermarket price for either fish with suspicion.

What do prawns, crab and shellfish cost?

Item	Price (AED)	Where	Source
Fresh prawns / shrimps, 40/50 and 60/40 count	32.99 per kg (list)	Carrefour catalogue	Carrefour UAE catalogues, Oct–Nov 2026
Fresh farmed prawns, 40/50 count	33.90 per kg (list)	LuLu catalogue	LuLu UAE catalogue (Al Ain listing via D4D)
Fresh shrimps, 30/40 count	49.49 per kg (list, catalogue); 22.00 per 500g (online)	Carrefour	Carrefour UAE catalogue, Sep–Oct 2026; Carrefour UAE online (opened page)
Fresh shrimps, 20/30 count (largest)	26.25 per 500g	Carrefour online	Carrefour UAE listing (opened page)
Fresh farmed prawns, large, cleaned, 500g	19.95	LuLu via Talabat	LuLu grocery listing, Talabat
Fresh prawns, medium 40/50, cleaned, 350g	9.41	LuLu via Talabat	LuLu grocery listing, Talabat
Blue crab (female), fresh	31.99 per kg (list)	Carrefour catalogue	Carrefour UAE catalogue, Aug 2026 — the oldest figure in this research, flagged
Mussels, cooked shelled, frozen, 400g	20.49 (18.99 on one Abu Dhabi grocery crawl)	Carrefour via Deliveroo	Carrefour grocery listings, Deliveroo
Mussels, frozen, 500g	17.50	Carrefour via Deliveroo	Carrefour grocery listings, Deliveroo

Prawns are priced by count — the number of prawns per kilo — and the count is the price. At list, the everyday counts (40/50 and 60/40) sit at AED 32.99 per kg in Carrefour’s catalogues and AED 33.90 per kg for farmed 40/50 in LuLu’s catalogue, two chains landing within a dirham of each other. The larger 30/40 count lists at AED 49.49 per kg in the catalogue and AED 22 per 500g online, and the largest count retrieved, 20/30, is AED 26.25 per 500g at Carrefour online. The count premium is the lesson: moving from 40/50 to 30/40 prawns costs roughly AED 16.50 more per kilo for visibly bigger prawns, and LuLu’s cleaned packs — AED 19.95 for 500g of large farmed prawns, AED 9.41 for 350g of medium — price the cleaning into the pack. Crab is the thin layer of this research: the only national-supermarket fresh crab price retrieved is Carrefour’s catalogue list of AED 31.99 per kg for female blue crab, from its August 2026 catalogue — the oldest figure used here, flagged as such — with no fresh crab listing found at LuLu, Spinneys or Noon Minutes. Fresh mussels by weight and oysters have no supermarket listing price at all in this research; mussels exist at retail as frozen and cooked-shelled packs at AED 17.50 to AED 20.49, and cooked mussels and crab are priced properly in the restaurant section below.

How much is a seafood meal at a restaurant?

Meal	Price (AED)	Where	Source
Fish fillet meal (fried or grilled, with rice and salad)	30	Almutamayez Fish	Almutamayez menu, Talabat
King fish with rice; shari with rice	35 each	Mandi’s	Mandi’s menu, Deliveroo
Hammour meals with rice (fillet 40; fried 36; grilled 38)	36–40	Mandi’s	Mandi’s menu, Deliveroo
Fish and chips	49	Arabian Sea Seafood Restaurant	Arabian Sea menu, Talabat
Grilled fish meals and fish-with-rice mains	55–95	Junior Seafood (salmon 69, seabass 73, king fish 61); Alsheraa (shari meal 80, hammour fillet 79, seabass 81.90, salmon 84); Al Leekh (seabass and seabream with rice, list 89; salmon 94)	Junior Seafood, Alsheraa and Al Leekh menus, Talabat
Grilled sea bream main (with rice or bread)	82	Al Fanar Restaurant & Café	Al Fanar menu, Deliveroo
Grilled sea bream (fillet); grilled crab; grilled mussels	55; 45; 58	FISH PAN Restaurant	FISH PAN menu, Talabat
Seafood tray for two	199	Al Fanar Restaurant & Café	Al Fanar menu, Deliveroo

The cooked layer starts far lower than most households expect. The cheapest cooked fish meal retrieved is a fish fillet meal with rice, salad and tahini at AED 30 at Almutamayez Fish, and Mandi’s prices a whole local-fish lunch — king fish with rice or shari with rice at AED 35, hammour fried, grilled or as fillet with rice at AED 36 to AED 40 — at prices that compete with cooking at home once the supermarket’s premium species are in the basket. The mid-range is a wide, honest band: grilled fish and fish-with-rice mains at AED 55 to AED 95 across Junior Seafood, Alsheraa and Al Leekh, Al Fanar’s grilled sea bream at AED 82, and Arabian Sea’s grilled seabream with rice at AED 80 list and seabass at AED 89. Set the layers side by side and the restaurant premium is visible but not extreme: a grilled sea bream main at AED 82 against a raw kilo of cleaned black seabream at AED 36.90 — the restaurant price is roughly two kilos of raw fish, cooked, served and cleared away.

Two famous names in UAE seafood could not be given menu prices, and the reason matters. Bu Qtair publishes no menu at all — diners choose the day’s catch at the counter — so its figures exist only as guide estimates that disagree with each other: one budget guide prices its fried shrimp at AED 30 and hammour at AED 35 to AED 45 with a full meal at AED 30 to AED 55 per person, while other 2026 guides put a visit at AED 50 to AED 80 per person. Dampa Seafood Grill returned no priced UAE menu on either platform; guide figures put its mixed seafood feast for two to three people at roughly AED 145, with a second guide quoting seafood sets at about AED 120 to AED 160 for two. Both are labelled guide figures wherever they are mentioned here, and neither is presented as a menu price.

What do sharing seafood meals and by-the-kilo pots cost?

Item	Price (AED)	Where	Source
Solo meal (up to 2 people)	89–95	Off The Hook	Off The Hook menus, Talabat (two listing tiers) and Deliveroo (opened page, higher tier)
Trio meal (3–4 people)	157–169	Off The Hook	As above
Grande meal (8–10 people)	429–459	Off The Hook	As above
Fiesta meal (12–15 people)	629–699	Off The Hook	As above
Crab, cooked, per kilo	85–95	Off The Hook	Off The Hook menus, Talabat and Deliveroo
Mussels, cooked, per kilo	99–109	Off The Hook	As above
Shrimp, cooked, per kilo	129–139	Off The Hook	Off The Hook menus, Talabat and Deliveroo
Salmon, cooked, per kilo	139–169	Off The Hook	As above
Sea bass, cooked, per kilo	145	Off The Hook	Off The Hook menus, Talabat and Deliveroo agree
King fish, cooked, per kilo	159	Off The Hook	Off The Hook menu, Deliveroo (opened page)
Lobster, cooked, per kilo	189 (half kilo 110)	Off The Hook	Off The Hook menu, Deliveroo (opened page)
Cooked fish by the kilo (king fish 84; sea bass 105; salmon 115)	84–115 per kg	Konoz Albahr Fish Grilling	Konoz Albahr menu, Talabat

Off The Hook, the boil-in-a-bag seafood chain, prices the same meals two ways on its own Talabat listings: a Solo meal at AED 95, Trio at AED 169, Grande at AED 459 and Fiesta at AED 699 on one set of listings, and AED 89, AED 157, AED 429 and AED 629 on another — no explanation on either set of menus, both tiers kept whole in the table. The chain’s opened Deliveroo menu agrees with the higher tier on every set meal and every by-the-kilo pot, so the higher tier is the safer planning figure and the lower tier is what some branches charge. The by-the-kilo pots are the clearest cooked-versus-raw comparison on this page: cooked crab at AED 85 to AED 95 a kilo against fresh blue crab at AED 31.99 list raw; cooked shrimp at AED 129 to AED 139 against fresh prawns at AED 32.99 to AED 33.90 list raw. Konoz Albahr, a fish-grilling restaurant that cooks by the kilo, undercuts the chain on plain fish — king fish at AED 84 a kilo cooked with accompaniments, sea bass at AED 105 and salmon at AED 115 — because grilling a whole fish is a different product from a sauced seafood boil. Per person, the sharing maths is kind: the Trio at AED 157 to AED 169 feeds three to four people at roughly AED 40 to AED 56 a head, inside the price of one mid-range grilled main each.

How much cheaper is frozen fish?

Frozen is the budget layer of the supermarket counter, and the gap is largest exactly where fresh is most expensive. Frozen white fish fillets run from AED 12.99 per kilo for a value line at Carrefour via Deliveroo to AED 59.29 list per kilo for a premium Siblou line, with LuLu’s frozen white fish fillet at AED 17.50 to AED 22.60 per kilo by listing and Carrefour’s own frozen fillet at AED 26.49 to AED 28.29 — against AED 57.50 per 500g for fresh salmon fillet, even the dear end of frozen fillets costs a fraction of fresh premium fish. A frozen king fish steak pack is AED 15.80 for 350g on Noon Minutes against the fresh steak layer at AED 47.90 to AED 69.99 per kilo, and frozen cooking shrimps run AED 23.90 to AED 24.65 per kilo at LuLu against fresh prawns at AED 32.99 list. One caution from the same listings: frozen jumbo shrimps at Carrefour are AED 47.29 for 400g — large frozen shrimp is not automatically cheap shrimp, and the per-kilo line on the pack (AED 118.23, the source’s own figure) is the number to compare. For curries, fish cakes, fried fillets and children’s meals, the frozen layer carries the week; the fresh layer is for the grille and the table centrepiece.

What do fish markets charge?

Fish markets are the third channel, and their prices reach this page only as labelled guide figures, because markets post prices on boards, not listings. An Al Karama market guide (sample prices as of 2025) puts hammour at AED 35 to AED 60 per kilo, kingfish at AED 30 to AED 55, sheri at AED 15 to AED 30 and crab at AED 20 to AED 35. An Ajman fish market guide prices kingfish at AED 22 per kilo, hammour at AED 30 and jumbo prawns at AED 35 at the port market, with grill shacks beside it charging AED 8 to cook the fish — the buy-at-the-market, grill-next-door pattern that makes market fish the cheapest cooked seafood in the country when it is available. Market reporting from November 2024 adds the warning that completes the picture: in a price-spike period, large hammour rose from a normal AED 25 to AED 35 per kilo to over AED 55 at most stalls, and sheri from AED 15 to AED 20 to AED 30 and above, while seabass and seabream moved from AED 25 to AED 35. Market prices are the best prices on ordinary weeks and the most volatile on bad ones, which is why this page quotes them as guide bands and never as the price of fish in the UAE.

Do seafood prices change between emirates?

The supermarket layer barely moves: Carrefour and LuLu are national chains, their online and catalogue prices are national listings, and the small differences found are listing-level, not emirate levels — Carrefour’s frozen lines run AED 0.70 to AED 1.80 lower on the Abu Dhabi grocery crawls than on the Dubai ones, and LuLu’s catalogue prices its Al Ain seabream and prawns at the same list level as the rest of the country. The restaurant layer is priced wherever a menu exists, and the gaps below are coverage gaps — emirates where no priced menu was retrieved — not claims that seafood there costs more.

Dubai has the deepest priced evidence at both layers: the Carrefour online counter (salmon fillet AED 57.50 per 500g, seabream AED 26.25 per 500g, shrimps AED 26.25 per 500g), LuLu’s Dubai grocery listings via Talabat, Spinneys’ fillet packs, Mandi’s fish-with-rice meals at AED 35 to AED 40, Al Fanar’s grilled seabream at AED 82 and tray for two at AED 199, and Off The Hook branches on both of its price tiers.

Abu Dhabi, including Al Ain, matches the supermarket layer through LuLu’s Al Ain catalogue (black seabream list AED 48.90 per kg, farmed prawns AED 33.90 per kg) and Carrefour’s Abu Dhabi grocery listings, and prices restaurants well: Alsheraa’s shari meal at AED 80 and mixed grills at AED 150 to AED 185, Al Leekh’s fish-with-rice mains at a list AED 89, and Off The Hook branches on both tiers. No Al Ain restaurant menu was priced in this research — Al Ain’s evidence is supermarket only.

Sharjah holds the value end of the restaurant layer: Almutamayez Fish prices the cheapest cooked fish meal retrieved anywhere for this page — a fillet meal with rice and salad at AED 30 — with salmon at AED 65 and seabass at AED 86; Arabian Sea prices fish and chips at AED 49 and grilled fish with rice at AED 80 to AED 89 list; and FISH PAN in Khor Fakkan grills sea bream at AED 55, crab at AED 45 and mussels at AED 58. No Sharjah-specific supermarket listing was separately priced; the national chains’ prices above are not presented as Sharjah shelf prices.

Ajman is priced at restaurant level only in this research: Junior Seafood grills salmon at AED 69, seabass with rice at AED 73 and king fish at AED 61 — the mid-range band at the lower edge. Its fish market appears only as guide figures (kingfish AED 22 per kilo, hammour AED 30, grill fee AED 8). No Ajman supermarket listing price was retrieved, and that gap is stated rather than filled with a neighbouring emirate’s figure.

Ras Al Khaimah contributes the most interesting restaurant in this research: Konoz Albahr cooks fish by the kilo — king fish AED 84, sea bass AED 105, salmon AED 115, with rice platters at AED 40 to AED 59 — the only by-the-kilo cooked-fish menu retrieved outside Off The Hook. No Ras Al Khaimah supermarket listing price was retrieved.

Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain are gaps, near-total and total respectively: no supermarket listing priced on a local listing and no restaurant menu price was retrieved for either emirate on 10 November 2026. The national chains deliver there at national online prices, but no local figure is quoted for either emirate rather than a borrowed one being presented as theirs.

How can a household cut its seafood spending?

Let the budget species carry the week. Sardines at AED 14.99 per kg list, safi at AED 18.90, tilapia and small tuna at AED 14.90 and mackerel at AED 22.99 are whole fish with the same protein as the premium counter at a quarter of the price. A household that grills sardines or safi twice a week and saves salmon for one meal spends less than half of an all-salmon basket.

Buy the count you need, not the biggest prawn. Fresh prawns at the everyday 40/50 and 60/40 counts list at AED 32.99 to AED 33.90 per kg; the 30/40 count lists at AED 49.49 and the 20/30 at AED 26.25 per 500g. In a curry, a biryani or a stir-fry the smaller counts are indistinguishable on the plate and AED 16 or more cheaper per kilo.

Use frozen fillets for cooked-through dishes. Frozen white fish fillets at AED 12.99 to AED 28.29 per kilo against fresh salmon fillet at AED 57.50 per 500g is the widest price gap on this page. Fish curry, fish cakes, fried fillets and pasta sauces lose nothing to the frozen layer; reserve fresh fish for grilling and steaming, where its texture is the point.

Cook the restaurant meals that price like groceries. A fish-with-rice meal at AED 30 to AED 40 at Almutamayez or Mandi’s — king fish, shari or hammour with rice — costs about what the same fish costs raw at the premium end, with no cooking and no cleaning. For a household, two of those meals beat one AED 82 grilled main and a side order, and the market-grill pattern (Ajman guide: fish by the kilo plus an AED 8 grill fee) beats both where it exists.

Share the sharing meals instead of ordering mains. A Trio meal at AED 157 to AED 169 feeds three to four people at AED 40 to AED 56 a head — less than one AED 82 to AED 95 grilled main each — and Konoz Albahr’s by-the-kilo grilling (king fish AED 84 a kilo cooked) prices a family fish dinner closer to supermarket money than any à la carte menu. Order seafood the way the coastal restaurants price it: by the kilo and for the table, not by the plate.

Frequently asked questions

How much is salmon per kilo in the UAE?

Salmon is mostly sold by the pack. At Carrefour online, fresh Norwegian salmon fillet is AED 57.50 per 500g — AED 115 per kilo if bought by the kilo — with Scottish fillet at a list AED 67.50 per 500g and organic at AED 72.50 per 500g, on listings checked 10 November 2026. Whole salmon lists at AED 69.99 per kg in Carrefour’s catalogue. A fish-price guide’s AED 40 to AED 75 per kg range does not separate whole fish from fillet and is a cross-check only.

How much does hammour cost?

There is no verifiable supermarket per-kilo price: no national chain listing for hammour was retrieved on 10 November 2026, and this page does not invent one. Fish-market guides put hammour at AED 30 to AED 60 per kilo, the only priced retail pack found is a 450–500g curry cut at AED 29.70 on Noon Minutes, and cooked hammour meals with rice cost AED 36 to AED 40 at Mandi’s and AED 79 for a grilled fillet meal at Alsheraa.

What is the cheapest fish to buy?

On supermarket listings checked 10 November 2026: sardines at a list AED 14.99 per kg (AED 7.45 per 500g cleaned at LuLu), tilapia and small tuna at AED 14.90 per kg cleaned, safi at AED 18.90 and big eye mackerel at a list AED 22.99 per kg. In the frozen layer, white fish fillets start at AED 12.99 per kg. At restaurants, the cheapest cooked fish meals are AED 30 (fillet meal at Almutamayez Fish) and AED 35 (king fish or shari with rice at Mandi’s).

How much are prawns per kilo?

At list prices in the chains’ catalogues: AED 32.99 per kg for fresh prawns and shrimps at the 40/50 and 60/40 counts at Carrefour and AED 33.90 per kg for farmed 40/50 at LuLu. Bigger prawns cost more: the 30/40 count lists at AED 49.49 per kg and the 20/30 count is AED 26.25 per 500g at Carrefour online. Cooked shrimp at a seafood restaurant is a different layer — AED 129 to AED 139 per kilo at Off The Hook.

Why do two branches of the same seafood chain charge differently?

Because their platform listings genuinely split. Off The Hook’s Talabat listings carry two complete price tiers for the same meals — Solo at AED 95 on one set of listings and AED 89 on another, with the same AED 6 to AED 70 gap on every set meal and by-the-kilo pot — and its opened Deliveroo menu matches the higher tier. Neither listing explains the difference. The planning rule: budget on the higher tier and check the menu of the branch you are actually ordering from.

Is it cheaper to buy fish at a fish market?

On the guide figures available, yes on ordinary weeks: market guides put kingfish at AED 22 to AED 55 per kilo and hammour at AED 30 to AED 60, against supermarket kingfish steaks at a list AED 69.99 per kilo, and port markets add grill shacks that cook your fish for a small fee (AED 8 in the Ajman guide). But market prices are the most volatile in this research — 2024 reporting showed hammour rising from AED 25–35 to over AED 55 per kilo in a spike period — and they are posted on boards, not listings, so they cannot be verified the way the supermarket prices on this page are.

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Sources

• Carrefour UAE online listings (opened pages — salmon fillet AED 57.50/500g, organic AED 72.50/500g, Scottish list AED 67.50/500g; seabream AED 26.25/500g; shrimps 20/30 AED 26.25/500g and 30/40 AED 22/500g; sea bass AED 48.95/600g): https://www.carrefouruae.com/mafuae/en/c/cb-main
• Carrefour UAE catalogues via catalogue reports (whole salmon list AED 69.99/kg; king fish steaks list AED 69.99/kg; sardine list AED 14.99/kg; mackerel list AED 22.99/kg; prawns list AED 32.99/kg; blue crab list AED 31.99/kg, Aug 2026; seabream list AED 47.29/kg; black pomfret list AED 40.99/kg): https://www.wowdeals.me/blog/carrefour-uae-31-years-31000-winners-offers-30-oct-09-nov-2026-8427 and linked catalogue reports
• Carrefour UAE king fish product page (AED 47.20, weight basis not stated in the listing): https://www.carrefouruae.com/mafuae/en/fish/king-fish-l-/p/72922
• LuLu Hypermarket grocery listings via Talabat (salmon fillet 350g AED 34.97; black seabream 1 kg AED 36.90; sardines 500g AED 7.45; safi AED 18.90/kg; tilapia and tuna AED 14.90/kg; black pomfret AED 34.90/kg; farmed prawns 500g AED 19.95; prawns 350g AED 9.41; king fish steak 1 kg AED 47.90–49.35; frozen lines): https://www.talabat.com/uae/grocery/791554/lulu-hypermarket-muhaisnah-4/poultry-meat-seafood/fish-seafood
• LuLu UAE catalogues via D4D Online (black seabream list AED 48.90/kg; farmed prawns 40/50 list AED 33.90/kg): http://dev.d4donline.com/en/uae/al-ain/products/lulu-hypermarket-267/97080813/top-product
• Spinneys listings via Deliveroo (salmon fillet AED 36/225g and AED 48/300g by crawl; sea bream fillet packs): https://deliveroo.ae/menu/Dubai/marina-west/spinneys-marina/
• Noon Minutes listings (Asmak salmon fillet 200g AED 36.95; Oceano salmon portion 200g AED 34.95; sea bream fillet 200g AED 20.45–29.95; seer steaks 200–250g AED 22.50; hamour curry cut 450–500g AED 29.70; frozen king fish steak 350g AED 15.80): https://minutes.noon.com/uae-en/category/meat_seafood/seafood
• Off The Hook menus, Deliveroo (opened page — Solo AED 95, Trio AED 169, Grande AED 459, Fiesta AED 699; crab AED 95/kg, mussels AED 109/kg, shrimps AED 139/kg, salmon AED 169/kg, sea bass AED 145/kg, king fish AED 159/kg, lobster AED 189/kg) and Talabat (two price tiers): https://deliveroo.ae/en/menu/Dubai/festival-city/off-the-hook-festival-city and https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/625976/off-the-hook-al-shahama
• Mandi’s menu (king fish with rice AED 35; shari with rice AED 35; hammour meals AED 36–40), Deliveroo: https://deliveroo.ae/menu/dubai/jebel-ali-port/mandis-jafza-one
• Al Fanar Restaurant & Café menu (grilled seabream AED 82; seafood tray for two AED 199), Deliveroo: https://deliveroo.ae/en/menu/Dubai/festival-city/al-fanar-restaurant-and-cafe-dfc-branch
• Arabian Sea Seafood Restaurant menu (fish and chips AED 49; grilled seabream list AED 80; seabass AED 89; hamour AED 70), Talabat: https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/744080/arabian-sea-seafood-restaurant-al-seyouh
• Junior Seafood Restaurant menu (salmon AED 69; seabass AED 73; king fish AED 61), Talabat: https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/40173/junior-seafood-restaurant-hamidiya-1
• Alsheraa Seafood menu (shari meal AED 80; hammour fillet meal AED 79; seabass AED 81.90; mixed grills AED 150–185), Talabat: https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/690255/alsheraa-seafood-al-khalidiyah
• Al Leekh Emirati menu (seabass and seabream with rice, list AED 89; salmon list AED 94), Talabat: https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/681284/al-leekh-al-dhait-south
• Almutamayez Fish menu (fillet meal AED 30; salmon meal AED 65; seabass meal AED 86), Talabat: https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/693616/almutamayez-fish-muwafjah
• FISH PAN Restaurant menu (grilled sea bream AED 55; grilled crab AED 45; grilled mussels AED 58), Talabat: https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/713596/fish-pan-restaurant-khor-fakkan
• Konoz Albahr Fish Grilling menu (king fish AED 84/kg cooked; sea bass AED 105/kg; salmon AED 115/kg; platters AED 40–59), Talabat: https://www.talabat.com/uae/restaurant/633164/konoz-albahr-fish-grilling-restaurant-rak-city
• Fish App — UAE fish prices guide (salmon AED 40–75/kg; hamour AED 30–60/kg; king fish AED 35–70/kg; whole king fish AED 60/kg) — guide figures: https://fishapp.ae/fish-prices-guide-in-the-uae/
• Al Karama Fish Market guide (hamour AED 35–60/kg; kingfish AED 30–55/kg; sheri AED 15–30/kg; crab AED 20–35/kg; sample prices as of 2025) — guide figures: https://uaefetcher.com/al-karama-fish-market-guide-to-prices-variety-and-quality/
• Ajman city and fish market guide (kingfish AED 22/kg; hammour AED 30/kg; jumbo prawns AED 35/kg; grill fee AED 8) — guide figures: https://www.nomads.one/uae/ajman/
• Dubai News TV — fish price reporting, 8 November 2024 (hammour normally AED 25–35/kg rising above AED 55; sheri AED 15–20 rising to AED 30+) — dated reporting: https://dubainews.tv/fish-prices-rise-in-uae-some-markets-see-hike-in-rates-while-others-keep-it-steady/
• Dampa Seafood Grill menu guide (Dump@SeaFeast approx. AED 145 for 2–3 people) — guide figures; no priced UAE platform menu retrieved: https://habibimenus.com/seafood/dampa-seafood-grill-uae-menu/
• Bu Qtair budget dining guide (fried shrimp AED 30; hammour AED 35–45; full meal AED 30–55 per person; other guides AED 50–80) — guide figures; the restaurant publishes no menu: https://wheretoeatdubai.com/best-of/budget-dining-dubai

How we checked: every supermarket figure was retrieved on 10 November 2026 from a named retailer’s online listing, grocery-platform listing or current catalogue, and every restaurant figure from a named Talabat or Deliveroo menu the same day; the Off The Hook Deliveroo menu and the main Carrefour fresh-fish page were opened in full. Catalogue figures are list prices — the promotional figure printed beside them is never quoted. The raw and cooked layers are never merged: a per-kilo supermarket price and a per-kilo restaurant price are different products and are always labelled with their layer. Where sources disagreed — Off The Hook’s two Talabat price tiers, sea bream’s four price bases, LuLu’s seabream priced at its own catalogue’s promotion figure — both figures are reported with their bases rather than averaged. Items that could not be verified were dropped: no supermarket hammour or sheri per-kilo price exists in this research, one retailer’s sheri figures surfaced only on its non-UAE storefronts and were excluded, a kingfish listing with no stated weight basis is reported unconverted, and two restaurants’ platform menus could not be read cleanly enough to quote list prices, so they appear only through labelled guide figures or not at all.