When Omar Shihab visited Dubai in 2012, the city was home to a variety of international restaurants, including franchises and celebrity chef concepts that would make a one-time appearance at the pass each year. Having taken a sabbatical from his consultancy career, Shihab’s in-laws asked him to evaluate their restaurant from a business perspective. From there, Shihab identified a niche within the market that Dubai lacked – an entirely locally-owned concept that embraced the rich culinary traditions of the UAE.
BOCA was thus born in Gate Village 6, Dubai International Financial Center. Yet Shihab did not want to run just any other restaurant. He sought to challenge the conventional wisdom surrounding sustainability in the desert by proving that it was not only possible but could be done efficiently and effectively. According to the restaurant’s website, the management is “ready to stop using the term ‘sustainability’ and make a change.”
After twelve years of operation, BOCA remains the top sustainable restaurant in the Middle East, a multiple award-winning Spanish cuisine concept that has revolutionized the local food scene.
The Accolades That Matter
BOCA is a 2025 Michelin Guide Dubai restaurant and a Michelin Green Star restaurant. It ranked 12th in MENA’s 2025 ranking and received the Sustainable Restaurant Award 2025. In the 2025 Gault & Millau UAE Guide, it was awarded 1 Toque. He won the Sustainability Champion of the Year award in the Gault & Millau UAE Gala 2022, whereas BOCA won the Sustainable Kitchen of the Year award. In 2025, he won an Icon Award in the Middle East & North Africa’s 50 Best Restaurants.
They are not vanity awards; they are validation that what BOCA has accomplished works, scales, and that sustainability and excellence are not mutually exclusive.
Numbers, Not Fuzzy Ideals
In BOCA, it is not about lofty, romantic notions but rather about figures and facts measured accurately and objectively. Founding member Omar Shihab will be able to trace back the provenance of the delicious oysters in your meal and the desert bush in your salad dressing, but he will also be able to tell you just how many grams of waste were made by his team last month.
This accuracy pervades all their operations. As the leader of BOCA, Shihab was responsible for ensuring the business ran solely on renewable energy and would eventually achieve carbon neutrality. BOCA had created the post of Waste Officer, incorporated native desert vegetation of the United Arab Emirates into the kitchen, and partnered with local farmers and fishermen.
There are five pillars to their sustainability initiatives: promoting local produce, managing waste effectively, resource value and renewables, carbon footprint, and sustainability in the community.
The Local Advantage
In a country where so many eateries pride themselves on importing luxury products from abroad, BOCA offers its guests an indigenous menu, quite rare indeed. Native flora takes pride of place, such as pickled blossoms of khansour, homaid leaves purée, seedaf sauce made with salt, and oysters from the bay of Dibba. The kingfish is imported from the Arabian Gulf, while vegetables are grown locally in hydroponic systems.
Shihab’s earliest experiences were of picking wild herbs in Dubai’s desert dunes and clamming on the sandy shores of Ras Al Khaimah.
As Shihab explains, “In a way, living and producing food in the UAE is like living in the future. With climate change accelerating, many regions around the world are now facing the same harsh conditions, and we might actually be shaping the blueprint for the future of food production.”
Spanish Soul, Local Ingredients
Menu dishes conceived by Shihab are prepared by Executive Chef Patricia Roig from Andalusia. The food is inspired by the coastal cuisines of Spain, Italy, and France; however, the ingredients used in the cooking process are also noteworthy. Traditional dishes served at BOCA include tortilla de patatas, tomato gazpacho, and desserts utilizing stale bread for pan con chocolate and aceite.
As for the BOCA potato chips, you should order these – they represent a unique take on patatas bravas featuring generous portions of aioli and tomato sauces or truffle mayo. In terms of beverages, the Spanish wine list at BOCA features wines from relatively unknown regions, such as Castilla and Somontano. Also, all cocktail ingredients are sourced from the kitchen, reducing waste.
It is also worth noting that the entire management team at BOCA in DIFC is led by women, including Executive Chef Patricia Roig.
Beyond the Restaurant
The reach of Shihab’s efforts stretches way beyond the walls of BOCA itself. He is a prominent voice in sustainability efforts within the UAE, working on projects such as the Nature-based Solutions by Emirates Nature-WWF that help raise awareness about the use of Halophytes. He also works as an associate at Thriving Solutions sustainability alliance, partner at Food Made Good, and board member of the marine conservation organization Azraq.
This is why his business card comes stamped with menus from earlier years, as BOCA does not waste much.
The Twelve-Year Vision
BOCA is celebrating its twelfth year in DIFC in 2026, with an earned reputation of being the best sustainable eatery in Dubai. This status is not something that comes easily or stays long. BOCA has demonstrated that an indigenous concept can go toe-to-toe with foreign concepts, that sourcing locally in the desert is possible, and that zero waste is not only achievable but actually practiced.
It’s a place that exudes coolness and urbanity in a laidback setting with a balanced menu and a curated list of organic wines. For food that comes on plates and wine glasses with stories, BOCA is the answer.
What started out as a lone consultant’s year-long vacation project has evolved into the roadmap for sustainable eating in harsh environments. The facts prove it. The accolades acknowledge it. The twelve-year history validates it. BOCA does not just say it. It does it, documents it, and constantly strives to improve it, by a gram of waste at a time.
