Is the food culture in Dubai lazy, pretentious and unimaginative?

People are often raving about Dubai - especially, if they were only on a short visit - or just heard from others of Dubai.

But what is really the food culture all about here?

I am afraid to say - but if you are asking for my perspective, I would say it is copy-paste. And not even the copy-paste from exciting new trends and concepts. It is rather a copy-paste culture of established concepts.

Do you want to have a proof: The cities "most exciting restaurants" are:

• Zuma, Nobu, Okku - fusion Japanese
• La Petit Maison, Reflets par Pierre Gagnaire, Table 9 - French, European modern cuisine
• Hakkasan - fusion Chinese
• and so on.

There is not a whisper of innovation, cultural integration whatsoever!

Even worse: the dishes you can find in the restaurants are as conservative as the listing of the restaurant sound. Don't get me wrong here - I am not necessary saying, that these restaurants are in any way bad, or boring. I am just saying, they don't bring really anything new to the table!

I believe, that limitation are ignite creativity. But here in Dubai, I guess most people are not that creative?

It is strange - but you can hardly find any meat here, which is not mainstream. Despite the fact, that Dubai is muslim, you can find still a lot of pork here - but e.g. no goat, or hardly any venison or birds like pheasant or goose...

And other than leading chefs in other countries, chefs here are not curing their own meats - doing their own sausages. And the nose to tail movement also didn't really arrived here!

I am missing "experiments" like a cured lamb, goat, veal leg [similar to ham]. Or lamb bellies [instead of pork belly].

Am I the only one, who is  missing more creativity?