Eating out in Dubai - where to eat fresh, organic, locally grown food ... seating outdoor (if you like)

Considering how long I've been living in Dubai (one year and a couple of months now), I still feel pretty new in the city, with many things to do and places and opportunities yet to discover. But I'm working on the task of getting more and more acquainted with the city, as I want to enjoy as much as possible of it during the time I'll have the opportunity to stay here. And one of the important chapters of my personal guide to the city is with no doubts the one dedicated to "where to eat out", in the possible different occasions. One of my family's routines is going out for lunch on weekends, an habit we've always had, also when we lived in Italy and my son wasn't born yet (though at that time we opted for a different kind of places...). Having a two and a half old boy dining with us, we cannot indulge in multiple-courses gourmet lunches, since we probably couldn't completely enjoy. But even if in most cases we have quick meals out, we try to avoid as much as possible fast food- like places, our favorites being  restaurants or, even better for lunch, cafes and bistros where it is possible to have well prepared and presented quality food, good service, nice ambience, possibly fair prices...and the possibility to eat outside is another much appreciated feature. A bit demanding? Maybe, but considering how many options are available in Dubai, I think I can select.

The Farmer's Market on the Terrace in Dubai

When I was about to move from Italy to Dubai one year ago, one of the (many) things I started wondering about was what kind of food I would have eaten daily. I was not much concerned about the availability of food, or the possibility to find products I was used to; on the contrary I thought I would have found a much wider variety of foodstuffs, thanks to the multicultural city that Dubai is. My thoughts were more related to the quality and origin of what I was going to buy, cook and eat. Given local weather conditions and characteristics, my idea was that not much could be grown locally with the consequence that most of supplies had to fly from all over the world to local supermarkets. My ideal of food shopping is a bit different though: I prefer to buy products, especially the fresh ones, with a supply chain as short as possible; if it where possible I would buy everything directly from growers and producers (have a look at my profile to know what I think, and have always thought, about the food I want to eat). This habit of mine takes origin mainly from my family's costumes: when I was a child part of the fruits and vegetables we consumed at home where grown by my grandparents in their farm, together with olives for making oil and grape for wine; and so eggs, chicken and other foodstuffs. What they didn't produce came mainly from other local, small, family-run farms. Many years later my mom still buys the food for the family as much as possible in the same way, and living very close to the countryside the task is quite easy for her. I moved from there long time ago and lived for many years in some of the biggest cities in Italy, Milan for a long time than Turin for a while before coming to Dubai. But the way I used to buy food didn't change much: fruits and vegetables from farmers (in Turin I was so lucky! I had a daily farmer market at five minutes walking from where I lived), olive oil directly from producers (in each Italian region it's possible to find different types of olive oils), and the same grains, wine, pasta, cheese, and actually most of the food we had. It was also a good excuse to travel and go out of the city during weekends. I love seeing first hand where and how food is grown and produced, talking with producers, knowing the people behind what we eat and also tasting new products and knowing different ways to use products.
So when moving to Dubai, I thought I had to give up this way of shopping and convert to supermarket; also I thought that some products would have been available but absolutely overpriced.
My main concern was related to vegetables since, even if we are not a vegetarian family, we make a really huge consumption of vegetables, of all varieties. And eating stuff coming from hundreds miles away, plus pricey, was not an attractive idea to me...
But luckily I was completely wrong! Because Dubai has a unique, real, farmers market, and finally the new season has just started: last Friday, November 28th, The Farmer Market On The Terrace officially returned and will be held every Friday till the end on May in a beautiful location, an avenue shaded by palm trees in the Ballroom Gardens at Jumeirah Emirates Towers.