Sustainable Dining · Greenly Feature
The first restaurant in the region to earn a Michelin Green Star didn't set out to win anything. Four years on, LOWE's approach to sustainable dining is still built the same way — one small decision at a time.
LOWE sits a short walk from where I live in Al Barari, and I'd passed it more times than I can count before I ever thought to ask what was actually happening in its kitchen. In 2022, LOWE became the first restaurant in the region to receive a Michelin Green Star, an accolade that recognises sustainable gastronomy. It has kept the recognition every year since, most recently in 2025. When I asked the team what specifically earned them the award, the answer surprised me: they don't actually know.
"We didn't set out to win it. When we started, the Green Star didn't exist. We were the first in the region to get it, in 2022. We don't actually know what is involved, as there is nowhere to see what they look for. But things we think helped would be composting our organic waste, choosing local suppliers, changing the menu seasonally, and overall just asking what can we do better, and how can we influence the people around us — like our suppliers — to do better."
LOWE Front Desk, on behalf of the team
That answer sets the tone for everything else LOWE described to me. There's no single sweeping initiative behind the award. It's reusable delivery boxes instead of single-use ones, no plastic anywhere in the venue, and a supplier list built around what's local and in season. As the team put it: it's 1,000 little steps, not one giant leap.
LOWE's best-known sustainability initiative is the Waste NOT dinner series, but the team also runs something smaller and more everyday: the Waste-lee lunch, a business lunch menu inspired by the dinner series, built almost entirely from ingredients that would typically be discarded elsewhere.
The idea, as the team explained it to me, was simple: to show people that sustainability doesn't have to be bland or boring, and that with care and thought, it can be incredible food. The Waste-lee lunch grew directly out of that same instinct, just for a different crowd and a different time of day.
Tucked behind LOWE is a kitchen garden, the kind of detail that reads, at first, like the obvious symbol of a sustainable restaurant. The reality the team described to me is more interesting, and more honest, than that.
According to the team, the exercise is more for the people who work there than for what ends up on a plate. It gives staff something to feel proud of, and it doubles as a teaching tool for younger guests, who get the chance to take fresh produce home and learn hands-on what LOWE is trying to accomplish. The garden's real yield isn't in the kitchen. It's in who sees it.
I asked what the hardest part of running a zero waste kitchen actually is day to day — sourcing, storage, staff training. The answer wasn't any one of those specifically.
"The things that are hard usually get easier, and then something else takes its place. The hardest part is always needing to be adaptable and push for the next thing to improve on, even after winning awards."
LOWE Front Desk, on behalf of the team
It's a fitting note to end on. LOWE's sustainability story isn't a single milestone or a fixed system, it's a restaurant that keeps asking the same question of itself, year after year, award after award: what can we do better next.
Visit LOWE
LOWE is located in Al Barari, Dubai. For reservations or more on their sustainability work, reach their team directly at hello@lowe.ae.