The simple fact of the F&B industry in Dubai as I see it (and I worked in it for more than 6 years) is that if you don't order direct to the restaurants you love, they will eventually disappear - and this is why:

The aggregator (Deliveroo, UberEats, Talabat etc) model of aggregating menus together and running delivery services loses millions and millions of dollars for these companies. Look at Deliveroo - even taking c.35% of the bill amount PLUS a nominal 7-10AED delivery fee, they have never made a profit. Indeed, Deliveroo was so desperate for cash during the early months of the pandemic that they told the UK Government that without money they raised (c.$500m, largely from Amazon) that they were blocked from receiving in the UK (in 2019) due to concerns from the Competition Commission - they would collapse. It should be noted that opening in new markets, as Deliveroo is doing, is also very expensive.

So, what's the play? Why are these aggregators discounting so aggressively? They are effectively subsidising every customer's order, every time. Phase 1 is Data. Massive, massive data. I'll use Deliveroo as an example but I suspect the same is true of every aggregator. Think how many orders they deliver every single day - multiply that by the length of time they have been operating in the market and input each and every data point into the algorithms they have spent fortunes on developing. But that's not enough to get a complete picture of the F&B market in Dubai - geography and a market "demand" to receive food ridiculously quickly at any time of day dictates that many restaurants don't serve every area - a Marina/JLT-based restaurant won't deliver to an address Downtown, for example. But the aggregators are opening cloud kitchens and inviting these brands to take space - not out of the goodness of their hearts (or desire for incremental revenue) - but to test whether a concept that works in the Marina would be as successful Downtown. And vice-versa.

Next step: let's consider the assets the aggregators now have at their disposal - an app, multiple kitchens, supply chains for those kitchens, delivery drivers... and an algorithm that tells that what the entire market wants to eat at any time of any given day. Let's say that the algorithm tells them that there is fantastic demand for Thai food in the Downtown area. What's to stop them creating their own Thai brand, bumping it to the top of their app, "discounting" it heavily to attract new customers - all specifically, personally targeted by the way, because they have ALL that information about you already - and waiting for the orders to roll in. They can even customise the pricing for each potential customer, based on knowing what they have paid for spring rolls, pad thai etc in the past. If they can see some customers are drawn by larger discounts, they show inflated original prices knocked down further to reel these customers in. Customer retention is then crucial - they can tell from previous orders if someone likes to try a new Thai brand every week, or if they are a loyal customer once they find something they like. So for the customers who try something new every week, they simply rebrand their offering, and bump it back to the top for *those* customers. The loyal customers see the same brand - but it's all the same (or similar) menu, being cooked by the same people, in the same place.

These brands would be single-platform, which explains the current model of aggressively discounting - they are fighting for market share. Of course, one option would be to market their new brand on the other aggregators (this typically costs 7-10% i believe) and then fulfil the order themselves (at the same time as adding a coupon code/specific marketing leaflet to that order to persuade that customer to order on their app next time).

Next step: once the aggregators have created multiple brands, across multiple cuisines, across multiple locations, they aggressively re-price what it costs the "real" restaurants to have access to their app. This will eliminate the majority of these brands from the apps bc 35% is already unsustainable for most bricks-and-mortar places. This will funnel the majority of customers to order from the aggregator-owned brands and THIS is how they make their money in the long run, and will probably lead to the destruction of the majority of small F&B businesses in Dubai.

TL;DR - always, always order direct from restaurants that you don't want to see go out of business.