One pillowy Filipino bake and one unusual coffee are making a focused debut.
- SHUKR puts Filipino ensaymada at the centre of Dubai’s latest bakehouse.
- Months of testing shaped its soft, buttery, cheese-topped signature bake.
- A specially developed coffee brings cheese into the drink itself.
- Dubai-born SHUKR begins deliveries across major platforms this September.
Dubai has a particular talent for turning a craving into a new ritual. A pastry run after work, coffee before a meeting, or something sweet arriving at your door can quickly become part of the weekly routine. Ensaymada Dubai fans now have a new reason to add one more stop to that rotation. SHUKR, a Dubai-born online bakehouse, is arriving with an unusually focused idea: one hero bake, one signature coffee, and plenty of gratitude.
A good ensaymada doesn’t need much explaining once you tear into it. The Filipino favourite is soft and pillowy inside, rich with butter and finished with a generous layer of finely shredded cheese. That’s the point. SHUKR spent months refining its version with pastry chef Carol Contreras, keeping those familiar qualities while giving the bake its own Dubai identity. It took plenty of tasting. And a lot of cheese.
The story started with a box brought back from the Philippines. Airline pilot Rashed Yakhlef returned home carrying ensaymadas, and one bite stayed with him. Mahendra began looking around Dubai for that same experience, but the versions she tried never quite delivered the feeling she remembered. So the founders decided to make their own. Sometimes the best ideas start with a craving.
For someone who spends their days moving between Dubai’s restaurants, offices and home deliveries, SHUKR’s small menu has an appealing simplicity. Hospitality veteran Panchali Mahendra, together with Yakhlef and their third partner, chose to concentrate on a single product rather than build another sprawling restaurant concept. Every detail could then receive attention, from dough and fermentation to the balance between sweetness, salt and cheese.
Then there’s the coffee. SHUKR’s signature drink isn’t simply a familiar brew placed beside the pastry. Cheese is part of the specially developed recipe, creating a pairing designed specifically for the ensaymada. It’s an unexpected combination, but that’s exactly what makes the first sip worth investigating.
Even the packaging turns the delivery into part of the experience. Inspired by postage stamps, parcels and origin marks, SHUKR presents itself as a small postal house of gratitude, with collectible details built into the visual identity. Your order should feel like mail worth opening. Its first chapter, Origin Stamp, Issue No. 01, carries the playful declaration, “Thank God for Ensaymadas.”
That sense of gratitude runs deeper than the branding. Shukr means gratitude in Arabic, while its sound also nods playfully to shakkar, the word for sugar familiar across South Asian languages. For a concept born in the UAE, the connection feels especially fitting, bringing Arabic and South Asian references together through something as approachable as a pastry.
By September 10, Dubai residents can order SHUKR through all major food delivery platforms, making the concept particularly suited to the city’s delivery-first habits. A late-night sweet after dinner, an office box shared over coffee, or a weekend pastry without leaving home all fit naturally into its format. Keep it simple.
SHUKR launches with one bake, one drink and a surprisingly rich story behind both. For Dubai’s Filipino food lovers, pastry hunters and anyone who believes cheese belongs on more things than it currently is, this is one delivery worth making. Order it, tear one open, and see what the fuss is about!
