Haldiram’s Third Dubai Room Is Built for Chaat and a Festival Box

Haldiram’s, the Bikaner snack house whose bhujia and mithai already sit in Gulf supermarket aisles, opened a 72-seat vegetarian restaurant in Dubai Silicon Oasis on September 16. The room is at Lynx Tower G, units G07 and G09, opposite Silicon Central Mall. You can eat chaat or chole bhature, then leave with a mithai box, the same two-stop habit that built the brand in India.

It is the company’s third Dubai restaurant in two years, after Bur Dubai in February 2025 and a Sheikh Zayed Road flagship in April. Its first London restaurant opened in Leicester Square in June. Silicon Oasis is a free-zone suburb adding housing and offices, so the weekday job is lunch, Sunday family plates, and a box on the way out.

What the Silicon Oasis card sells

Opening notes put the room at about 3,900 square feet, open 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, with most plates from AED 5 to 38. The first names on the card are the ones a snack hall lives on. Chole bhature, the Punjabi chickpea curry with fried bread, is listed at AED 28. Pav bhaji is AED 26. Raj kachori, a stuffed crisp shell with yogurt and chutneys, is AED 17. Pani puri, aloo tikki, and samosas sit under that. Treat the numbers as opening figures and check the board.

The mithai counter is the other half of the visit. Kaju katli is listed at AED 1.75 a piece, motichoor laddoo at AED 2.50, gulab jamun at AED 5, plus namkeen and hampers. Ganesh Chaturthi began September 14, two days before the doors opened. The company has been talking about modaks on the case, then Navratri and Diwali boxes as the calendar moves. Shoppers already know the packet. The room has to prove the hot plate and the fresh sweet still taste like the same house.

From the aisle to a third dining room

Ganga Bishan Agarwal, called Haldiram, started the namkeen shop in Bikaner, Rajasthan, in 1937. Later generations split the business across Delhi, Nagpur, and Kolkata. The name most Gulf shoppers know is the packaged arm that already travels through Carrefour, Lulu, and similar aisles. The restaurants add table service, live counters, and a sweets case you can see before you pay.

The first overseas restaurant opened February 24, 2025, at Manazil Al Raffa on Al Mankhool Road in Bur Dubai, with about 110 seats. Some company notes call that first room Karama and date it to 2024. Launch coverage from that week puts the Bur Dubai address and February date on the record. The second room opened April 3, 2026, at the White Swan Building on Sheikh Zayed Road, Trade Centre First. London followed in June at 19-20 Irving Street, Leicester Square: 3,000 square feet, 120 indoor seats, and extra terrace chairs.

Divya Kowshik, who leads international quick-service work for the brand, has said supermarket trust made restaurants the next step, and that Dubai is the base for that push. In an April interview around the Sheikh Zayed Road opening, she put success in a simpler line: people saying they will meet at Haldiram’s without thinking twice. That is a habit bet. The Silicon Oasis room is smaller than Bur Dubai, which fits a neighborhood lunch more than a tourist corridor.

Why Silicon Oasis

Dubai Silicon Oasis is a technology free zone with housing attached. Local reporting around a January 2026 expansion put about 90,000 people living and working there, and about 28,000 companies on the books. That month, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Dubai’s ruler, launched AED 12.8 billion in housing, offices, and labs for the district. More desks and apartments mean more people who already buy the packet and now live close enough to walk over after work.

Indians remain the UAE’s largest expatriate community, more than 3.5 million as of 2023. Dubai already runs from Karama canteens to the Mayfair-priced Gymkhana that opened in DIFC on September 1. Haldiram’s is the weekday vegetarian stop in between: eat, then gift. Bikanervala is taking a similar sweets-plus-meals format to Adelaide. If the Silicon Oasis room holds, the next question is which other Dubai suburb already eats the packet.

Further reading

• India’s Sweets Giant Is Choosing Adelaide Before Sydney
• An 88-Year-Old Gujarati Farsan Brand Just Raised Its First Big Check
• DIFC Just Got a Swanky Mayfair Indian Room
• Chaat Counter Decoded: Pani Puri, Bhel, and Assembly Logic
• Diwali Snack Platter: Mix, Match, and Buy Smart
• Goldscene: The Diwali Luxury Season Has Arrived