Adventures of a Cat Lady

Have you heard of the Dubai Bar? If not, you’ve been hiding under a rock, lucky you! If yes, you’re either on social media or have a chocolate addition (no judgement from me).

*Edited to add in additional bars, including Fix, the original Dubai Bar*

What is this magical bar? I’m glad you’ve asked! It’s a fancy pants chocolate bar which was created in Dubai by Fix Dessert Chocolatier that has gone viral. Oddly they have no website and are purely only social media (the boomer in me disagrees with this immensely!).

The Bar! It’s a milk chocolate outer shell filled with a mix of kataifi / knafeh pastry, pistachio paste, ground pistachios and a small amount of tahini. Normally there is a fancy modern art design (a bit of coloured chocolate thrown about) on the top of the milk chocolate shell, not required but the original bar has it, with many replicas following suit. In Dubai this bar sells for roughly $20 a bar in Dubai. This is a quick 3 minute video which shows the founder, how its made and how high demand is….

Whats kataifi / knafeh pastry? It’s a pastry that looks like shredded wheat and is used in the dessert repertoire of Greek, Turkish, Middle Eastern and some Arabic nations. Whilst it may look like shredded wheat, it behaves like phyllo dough.

Bloggers, vloggers and social media have been going BONKERS for this bar. People are travelling to Dubai for the bar (apparently not for a holiday or human rights), just this bar! $20 on top of the cost of a flight and hotel, makes it some bar! The shop does not sale outside of Dubai, so unless you’re willing to go there yourself or know someone who is going and is willing to grab one for you, chances of getting the real deal are slim. I’ve also been seeing versions of this bar being made in cake form, I’m not against it!

As the famous quote from Oscar Wilde, says “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”. I have considered attempting to make it myself but realized I’d go over board (show me a time I haven’t) and there are many online recipes (thank you Pinterest).  Ultimately, I went with convenience (funny word to use given how difficult it has been to get them) and bought this magical chocolate bar. There are now many chocolatiers around the Netherlands making a replica bar (most of which I’m guessing haven’t taken the trip to Dubai to try it), even Tony’s Chocolonely put out a teaser for it, although they have in no way confirmed they will be making it.

The Dutch have also gone wild for this bar! Most shops sell out of them immediately. One shop I followed had made 1,000 bars, releasing them at 8pm on a Sunday night and they all sold out within a minute.

Having said all of the above…. I decided to take one for the team and try out the various bars available. A terrible task, I know! I started my search for the bars, read reviews on the shops and went from there. To date several stores are still completely sold out with no refill dates proposed. The bars range from €7,50 up to €20 a bar (not including shopping).

I ordered from 3 stores, online. Excessive, no? Well yes and no…. I ordered a bar, waited 2 weeks for it to be made and delivered, tried it and thought to myself, ‘Really? Is this it? I’m sorry, what?’. In short, it was not the life changing bar all those tiktok bloggers claimed it would be. As I was already doing research on availability and stores selling it, I thought I’d order from a few more stores to see if maybe I had a disappointing bar or if the bar is disappointing. Moment of honesty, I’m not a milk chocolate fan. I like my chocolate dark, like my sense of humour 😂.

Heres what I bought and my verdicts on them:

Chocolatier: Reedijk Chocolaterie
Cost: €9,99 (Shipping PostNL: € 6,81)
Weight of the bar: 218g
Unboxing: Nothing special and no frills.
Bar appearance: Its large! It has visible pistachios, no fancy modern art but its nice.
Taste test: The chocolate has the snap but the kataifi / knafeh pastry tasted stale to me, it lacked cripsyness that is seen or heard in the viral videos. Whilst the flavour is nice, its also quite subtle. Dont get me wrong, I ate it but it left me wanting more.

Chocolatier: Van Soest Amsterdam
Cost: €13,95 (Shipping PostNL: €5,95)
Weight of the bar: 151g
Unboxing: Thought was put into it, the bar is wrapped in what I call Tiffany Blue tissue paper but the company will likely call it Van Soest blue paper. There is also a cute note included too!
Bar appearance: Eh… its just a bar. Looking at the bar, you wouldnt think its anything beyond a dark chocolate bar. The bar doesnt leave you thinking its breaking the internet.
Taste test: Loving that its available dark chocolate! Its creamy and the kataifi / knafeh pastry has the crunch, a almost peanut taste to it and then the pistachio kicks in. As much as I hate to say it and I mean really HATE to say it, I don’t this works with dark chocolate, as well as it does with milk (as I type this, it’s like a dagger to my heart!).
(The reason it doesn’t look as creamy of a filling as the Reedlijk bar is because I put it in the fridge for a while before the taste test)
What else you should know: They offer the bar in dark, milk(see below) or white chocolate! They also have bonbons if youre not in the mood for a full bar.

Chocolatier: Van Soest Amsterdam
Cost: €13,50 – bought in store (slightly cheaper than buying it online)
Weight of the bar: 149g
Unboxing: I bought in store, no unboxing required.
Bar appearance: As with the dark chocolate bar, there is nothing special looking about the bar. You don’t look at this bar and instantly think this bar is breaking the internet.
Taste test: Its creamy and the kataifi / knafeh pastry has the crunch, a almost peanut taste to it and then the pistachio kicks in. The bar does taste better in milk chocolate.

Chocolatier: Banketbakkerij Lentz
Cost: €7,50 (Shipping PostNL: €7,95)
Weight of the bar: 94g
Unboxing: All wrapped really well and and and…. it came in a gold box!!!!!!!! ZoMgS!
Bar appearance: Its small, so small and also not very thick (which is exactly what you want no woman to ever say). It has the modern art feel to it, kudos there.
Taste test: The kataifi / knafeh pastry has the crunch but there is a slightly strange taste about it, its has notes of raw pistachio, which for me I found overwhelming and not in a nice way. I kept thinking, ‘what is this taste?’, it wasnt in a positive way and not something you want when eating a chocolate bar. I like the crunch, it really works, not liking the strange aftertaste that I had. The filling texture is no where as creamy as the other two bars.
(The reason it doesnt look as creamy of a filling as the Reedlijk bar is because I put it in the fridge for a while before the taste test)
What else you should know: Be sure to look at their other chocolate bars, seriously! They have some amazing flavours available and I absolutely bought them with zero regrets. The look and feel of the other bars is what I wanted with their Dubai bar.

Chocolatier: Sweet Tree
Cost: €16,50 – bought in store (slightly cheaper than buying it online)
Weight of the bar: 224g
Unboxing: I bought in store, no unboxing required.
Bar appearance: It does the the modern art, chocolate thrown about fancy look. Its also quite chunky.
Taste test: The kataifi / knafeh pastry has the crunch and the bar is very crunchy, like very crunchy. There is a lack of creaminess to the bar, its mostly just crunch. This bar has a similar taste profile to the Lentz bar, as in the flavour is just slightly off but it doesn’t after the aftertaste that the Lentz has (which is good). The bottom layer of chocolate feels thick and as you can see from the picture, isn’t uniform across.
What else you should know: In store I was told that the bar is best consumed at room temperature, first store to do this! Although with my other taste tests, I had already figured this out. The store is also making a Ferrero Rocher version of the bar.

Chocolatier: De Bonte Koe
Cost: €12,95 (€ 4,75 shipping)
Weight of the bar: 133g
Unboxing: Comes in a cardboard letter box box, its nice but nothing over the top, does come with padding to stop any PostNL mishaps.
Bar appearance: Plain. Compared to some of the other bars available (see above), it is quite basic in appearance. It also had a oily feel to it, I wasnt expecting this. As you were opening the wax paper, it was covered in oil or a wet substance that is similar to oil. No other bar that I tried that this weird oil/wetness to the opening of the bar.
Taste test: The kataifi / knafeh pastry has the crunch and the bar is crunchy, it has the pistachio nut taste, which I found strong. For me it leaves an unpleasant aftertaste and it seriously had me wondering why this is such a hyped up bar.
What else you should know: This bar constantly sells out within minutes of being released. You are limited to buying no more than two bars.

Chocolatier: Fix (the original authentic real deal Dubai Bar)
Cost: €20
Weight of the bar: 198g
Unboxing: There was no real unboxing experience, it came in a box filled with white packaging kernels that went everywhere, along with my other items I had ordered. As the bar doesn’t come directly from Fix, I wasn’t expecting the unboxing experience.
Bar appearance: I actually expected it to be prettier. Ive seen numerous interviews, social media posts etc and I just thought it would be more artisanal than it was.
Taste test: The kataifi / knafeh pastry was not as crunchy as some of the other bars, which made the bar disappointing. However, the taste was light, inoffensive and didn’t leave a nasty aftertaste like many of the other bars. The flavours are subtle and work well together without being an assault to your palate.
What else you should know: Officially these are only available in Dubai and the company (Fix) do not offer international delivery or postage. This shop seems to have them in and out of stock. If they are out of stock, please email them asking when more stock will be available. I recently noticed that they had ‘other’ version of the Dubai Bar, so ensure to ask for the FIX version.

Overall verdict: I get why the Fix bar made waves, however, for me, I have no winner. None of the bars were a 10/10 for me. Is it worth the hype? Im going to say no. Do you really need to like nuts/pistachios to eat it? Yes, clearly not for those with a nut allergy but if you don’t like the flavour of nuts (I feel like this could go in a very different direction 😂), this bar is not for you! The bars do vary from mild/mediocre to “what am I eating”. The bar is best eaten at room temperature, I did the taste test with all 3 bars at room temperature and cold and when its cold the creaminess of the filling isn’t there.
I have no regrets with taste test even if that means that I now have a fridge full of the bars waiting to be finished.

Where can you buy the Dubai Bar in the Netherlands? Excellent question that I absolutely have the answer for! This is correct as published on the 11th of July 2024, chocolatiers availability is not always guaranteed.

Overall, I quite enjoyed the task of finding suppliers, watching the demand and placing the orders. I cant say if I’ll try the next viral internet trend or not….

*If you are ever unsure about a website or how legit they are, please always check it against trustpilot.com or .nl. Businesses or the public can register sites on this site and give honest feedback. In my search for chocolatiers, I did come across a few websites which had absolutely horrific reviews and I was so grateful to be able to see the reviews and not to use such shops.