Middle Child, the Dubai restaurant that’s a world of its own
Beirut-born chef Lynn Hazim’s debut restaurant in Dubai’s Alserkal Avenue arts hub, combines comforting food with a gourmet grocer and a cookbook shop that stocks more than 500 titles.
“I have always loved the idea of places where food, culture and community intersect,” says Dubai-based chef Lynn Hazim. She is telling Monocle about her first restaurant venture, Middle Child, in the city’s Alserkal Avenue compound. The convivial spot combines a warm dining space with a retail nook that offers a selection of hard-to-find pantry staples and hundreds of cookbooks.
“It’s the kind of place that I have always wished existed in Dubai,” says Hazim, who drew on her Lebanese roots and wide travels to shape Middle Child’s simple yet satisfying menu, which features labneh yuzu kosho dip and cured sea bass, alongside nostalgia-inducing desserts such as banoffee pie and cheesecake.
Hazim, herself a middle child, sees the space as a nod to her upbringing. “Middle children tend to build their own little worlds,” she says. For her, that instinct has translated into a love for hosting in a place where diners feel that they truly belong.
AlSerkal Avenue, WH 13A, Dubai
