The World's First Ashta-Only Dessert Spot Just Landed in Dubai

Dubai heat doesn't negotiate. It bakes, it humbles, and it demands you choose your cooling apparatus wisely. This is why the arrival of Ashtaya —the world's first dessert spot dedicated entirely to ashta— feels less like a civic upgrade. Ashta is the Levantine cream of legend: thick, silky, slightly stretchy dairy magic that anyone who grew up around Arabic sweets already recognises as the best part of any dessert. Ashtaya's version comes backed by four decades of family expertise, with the ice cream is the headliner. Made with mastic and sahlab, it delivers that elastic, almost chewy scoop that regular ice cream simply cannot replicate. You pick your adventure from seven flavour moods: Pure & Simple for the purists, Oriental Floral if you're feeling fancy, Nutty if you have self-control, Indulgent Drip if you don't. The names alone tell you this is a brand that understands dessert psychology. Beyond the scoops, they've built a whole ecosystem of cream-based chaos: mochi that actually stretches, chocolate bites that disappear too quickly, and layered jars that turn mafrouke into a vertical experience. The packaging deserves its own mention— clean, branded, and tested against the brutal reality of a Dubai beach meltdown. It survived. You'll find them at Galeries Lafayette in Dubai Mall, or already lurking on Deliveroo and Talabat for when leaving the house feels ambitious. They do flavours like ashta with sahlab, but the real internet gold is their promotional material featuring a delightfully unbothered older woman who appears to be living her best cream-filled life. We don't know her story, but we're now deeply invested.