My flight arrives at 5:35 am into DXB for my connection, but I do not like breakfast and also want to get on a different time schedule.

Are you allowed to order other stuff besides breakfast items at that time? Can you order lunch or dinner options?

In a word, yes.

In more words: you can order anything off the menu, but if you order things out of the usual hours it may take longer to prepare.

It was not indicated by the OP. We assume the CONNECTING flight is in F or J, and therefore can access the lounge.

We assume outbound flight (from DXB) is in F.
If in J, it will be J lounge, unless OP is platinum.

It's al F... I want to order lunch or dinner items

Apparently the Vice President of Zimbabwe was coming in that day, as I looked at the manifest when I was going to be seated at the restaurant podium, and he was highlighted on the paper. I'm glad to see Zimbabwe spending it's tax dollars so efficiently.

I ended up ordering whatever I wanted, which was delightful. They didn't have a dinner or lunch menu, but I just said I felt like chicken breast and fettuccine alfredo. No problem at all the waiter said that it would just be a little extra time cause they were serving breakfast food. I was really impressed. That lounge is quite amazing. You can have anything made for you at any time of day, whether its on the menu or not. All you have to do is ask. I also ordered a sweet lassi, no problem at all. It actually tasted traditional too. I ordered a strawberry banana smoothie, also no problem and was blended up nicely.

This was in contrast to my flight on the outbound which was on Etihad Apartments. I have to say I actually like Emirates better. The ground experience obviously blows Etihad out of the water. Etihad really needs to finish building their F lounge already. But surprisingly I actually like the in-flight experience better on Emirates more than on Etihad. This is because there is no way to just relax. On Etihad you have the full bed in front of you made out of the ottoman, or a seat that barely reclines. There is really no in between to just relax.

Emirates F is truly my favorite airline, and I tell everyone you haven't flown until you've flown Emirates F.

Commercial F for a deputy head of state is quite frugal IMHO. Certainly not a proponent of the Zim regime but can't hold this against them.

Glad you are making the most of it before the devalutaion

There's people literally starving in Zimbabwe. If it was a modernized, western head of state where nobody was starving, yeah I'd agree with you. But in this case, he can fly J or Y even and use the mass difference in fares to feed some families.

Not the kind of debate we should be getting into, but Air Force One costs 180,000$ to fly for an hour, that's how many F tickets for the Zim govt?

Is the dining that good there to show up 12h early?

Nowhere is *that* good to turn up 12h early - and I say that working in the hospitality industry

Good to know.

The Lounge is pretty freakin' awesome. I would never mind a long layover there.

As far as the Air Force One Issue, yeah you're right, but nobody is literally starving to death in America. Even if you've fallen on hard times we have food banks, charities, and the Salvation Army among many other things. You can get a meal if you really want to. Nobody in the US is starving to death. I wish I could say the same for Zimbabwe. That's the point.

Not sure whether it was a new change, an anomaly or simply an inflexible server, but at the FCL B at around 8am today, I was told only items from the breakfast menu (or sandwiches) can be ordered.