I brought two bars to a family iftar and there was nothing left by the time we sat down. My aunt asked me three times where I got them.
Reem Al Suwaidi
Al Barsha, Dubai
Ramadan gathering
Made in Al Quoz, Dubai
Dubai's Finest Kataifi Chocolate
Milk chocolate, toasted kataifi, pistachio cream. One bar, made in Al Quoz, delivered cold.
- Weight
- 120 g
- Squares
- Sixteen
- Delivery
- Chilled
Signature flavour
One bar, three textures, no compromise between them
Habibi's is a thick milk chocolate bar filled with toasted kataifi pastry and pistachio cream, made in small batches in Dubai. The shell is tempered by hand so it snaps rather than bends. Inside, the shredded pastry is toasted in clarified butter until it holds its crunch against the filling, and the pistachio is ground to a cream with tahini and salt folded through it. Sweet, savoury and loud, the way a good dessert should be.
The bar started as an argument about texture. Kunafa is at its best in the ten minutes after it leaves the tray, when the pastry is still dry and the cream underneath is still warm, and every attempt to put that into a chocolate bar had ended with the pastry going soft somewhere between the kitchen and the table. Fixing that took a year of getting it wrong: cutting the strands shorter, toasting them darker than felt sensible, and keeping the filling drier than a pastry chef would like.
What came out of that is a bar with an unusually thin shell and an unusually full middle. Most filled chocolate hides a small amount of something behind a thick wall of couverture. This one does the opposite. The chocolate is there to snap, to carry the milk, and to hold everything together in a country where a car interior hits sixty degrees by noon. The kataifi and the pistachio are the point.
We make to order rather than to stock, in batches small enough that one person watches the pastry the whole time it is in the pan. Bars are wrapped the day they are made and go out cold, in insulated boxes, to addresses across the Emirates. Nothing sits in a warehouse waiting for someone to want it.
Taste and texture
What it actually does in your mouth
A clean snap, then give
The tempered shell breaks sharply at the edge before the filling takes over. You should hear it before you taste it.
Crunch that survives the fridge
Kataifi toasted in clarified butter stays crisp inside the bar instead of softening into paste over the first week.
Pistachio first, sugar second
Ground pistachio carries the filling, with tahini underneath it to stop the sweetness flattening out into plain candy.
A line of salt straight through
Salt is folded into the filling rather than scattered on top, so it runs through every square instead of the first bite.
Milk chocolate you can still taste
The shell is cast deliberately thin, but the couverture is rich enough that the milk still reads against the pistachio.
Built for a Dubai afternoon
Hand tempering and cold delivery mean the bar arrives firm and glossy rather than bloomed grey and soft at the corners.
How it's made
Six steps, and the pastry decides four of them
Nothing here is unusual on its own. The difference is how narrow the margin is on each step, and how quickly the bar falls apart if one of them is rushed.
- 01
The kataifi is cut short
Long pastry strands are trimmed by hand so every square gets the same crunch.
- 02
Toasted in clarified butter
Turned constantly over low heat until it stops sounding soft and starts sounding dry.
- 03
Folded through pistachio cream
Ground pistachio, a little tahini, and a pinch of salt, folded warm so nothing goes flat.
Perfect for
Where the bar tends to end up
Most orders are not for the person paying. Boxes, sleeves and delivery windows are all built around that.
Order for an occasionRamadan and Eid tables
Cuts into sixteen clean squares on a plate and holds its shape through a long evening of people passing it around.
Client and corporate gifting
Rigid boxes, a gold seal, and custom printed sleeves on runs of twenty-five bars or more with two weeks of notice.
Weddings and majlis evenings
Works as a favour at each place setting or stacked on a dessert table. We deliver the morning of the event.
Birthdays that do not want cake
A hand-written card goes in the six-bar box, with your wording taken by email once the order is confirmed.
Sending something home
The bar travels well in an insulated box within the Emirates and is a specific thing to send rather than a generic one.
What people say
Sent to friends, then ordered again
The kataifi is the part that surprised me. I expected it to go soft inside the chocolate and it just does not. It still cracks.
Daniel Okonkwo
Business Bay, Dubai
Ordered for himself
We sent thirty bars as thank-you gifts after a client launch. They arrived cold, boxed properly, and the gold wrap photographed beautifully on the table.
Priya Raghunathan
Events lead, DIFC
Corporate gifting
Order a bar, or ask us anything first
Every order is confirmed by a person before it is charged. Tell us the date you need it and we will tell you the date we will make it.