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By now, you’ve likely seen bars of milk chocolate sprouting with pistachio-colored phyllo popping up on your feed. It’s the Dubai Chocolate Bar, and it's a trend that seems to have some staying power. It all started when Dubai’s Fix Dessert Chocolatier launched their chocolate bar, “Can’t Get Knafeh of It Chocolate Bar.” It went insanely viral after TikToker Maria Veherea's ASMR video, which as of this writing has 125 million views. Spawning imitators and even scammers, the pistachio and knafeh-filled bar, now coined the “Dubai Chocolate Bar,” has taken on a life of its own with interpretations found all around the world, including right here on the East Coast.
Jersey City’s The Shortbread Society®️ was one of the first to bring the trend to the city, launching their interpretation of the trend, Dubai Pistachio Chocolate Bar Shortbread, on Goldbelly in April of last year. Using Ghirardelli chocolate shortbread as a base, the dessert comes with a layer of crispy kataifi, pistachio-white chocolate cream and dark chocolate topped with crushed pistachios. However, the 20-year-old, family-owned business, The Nuts Factory, also lays claim to being one of the first, selling a classic version of the chocolate bar in August of 2024. The premium nut and chocolate store has gone on to sell it every which way, from chocolate-dipped dates filled with phyllo and rolled in nuts, cups of strawberries drizzled with pistachio cream and your choice of milk, white or dark chocolate and the Dubai Cheesecake Bomb with a filling of cheesecake right in the center.
For a more classic take on the original, the Swiss chocolate store Läderach (with three locations in NYC including the Theater District, midtown and midtown east) sells a thinner version of the chocolate bar in comparison to most, with a layer of roasted pistachios and kataifi filo encased in a Swiss milk chocolate. Sweet Graffiti, the midtown bakery known for its artistic takes on dessert like pad thai cookies, sells a spray-painted chocolate bar, The Dubai (priced at $26), with pistachio, tahini, white chocolate and kataifi. They even sell a mini version with a more bite-sized price of $9. But carrying on with its eclectic nature, the bakery also released the Dubai Ice Cream Sundae made with homemade vanilla soft swerve drizzled with chocolate syrup, homemade pistachio cream, toasted kataifi and pistachios.
Speaking of ice cream, Shake Shack is even getting in on the fun, selling a Dubai Chocolate Pistachio Shake with a crackable chocolate shell for a limited time. Meanwhile, Ghirardelli is dropping its Dubai Chocolate Sundae for one day only. On Saturday, April 26, the Empire State Building location will be scooping up its layered sundae (pistachio butter, white chocolate, kataifi, vanilla ice cream, Ghirardelli’s signature handmade hot fudge, whipped cream, caramel sauce and a gold-leafed square of Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Caramel) from noon until sell out.
Keep in mind, a number of these desserts have an expiration date, so get on the trend while its still hot.