Food & beverage
Restaurant licence in Dubai
A Dubai restaurant needs a DET mainland licence, a registered Ejari, municipality food safety approval and civil defence sign-off — and, if the concept involves a bar, a separate alcohol licence that is not available in every emirate.
The market
What the sector actually looks like.
The UAE foodservice market sits at roughly USD 12.8bn in 2026 and is forecast to reach about USD 23bn by 2035. Dubai alone issued over 1,200 new restaurant licences in 2024, which is both an indicator of opportunity and a warning about how crowded the market is. Quick service accounts for the largest share at around 44%.
Figures on this page
UAE foodservice market valued around USD 12.8bn in 2026, forecast to roughly USD 23bn by 2035 (6.7% CAGR); UAE cloud kitchen market USD 430m in 2025, forecast USD 1.08bn by 2032 (14.1% CAGR); Dubai issued over 1,200 new restaurant licences in 2024; UAE online food delivery forecast to pass USD 2.8bn in 2026 with around 5.5m active users.
Market research aggregates, 2025–26
How the business actually makes money
Rent, staff and food cost are the three numbers that decide whether a restaurant survives, and in Dubai the first is the one that kills concepts. Prime mall and podium space carries service charges and chiller costs on top of base rent, and lease structures that look manageable at signature become punishing in a slow August. The operators who last tend to have negotiated a rent-free fit-out period, a turnover-linked component, or both.
Why here
Regional advantages
Genuine spending power and a tourist top-up
Dubai received 19.59 million international visitors in 2025. Few markets of this size have that level of transient demand layered on top of resident spending.
Ingredient supply is excellent
Almost anything is importable and the wholesale supply chain around Deira and Al Aweer is deep. Menu ambition is rarely limited by sourcing.
Licensing is quick relative to the fit-out
The trade licence is not the bottleneck. Municipality and civil defence approvals are, and they run in parallel with construction.
And the other side
Regional disadvantages
It is one of the most competitive F&B markets anywhere
1,200 new licences in a single year in one emirate. Differentiation is genuinely hard and copycat concepts appear within months.
Rent and service charges are unforgiving
Prime locations price in the footfall they deliver. A concept that needs prime frontage to work usually cannot afford prime frontage.
Seasonality is severe
Summer and Ramadan reshape trade dramatically. A model that only works at peak will not survive the trough, and landlords do not discount for it.
Why this is different
Not just food & beverage.
Restaurants are the most approval-heavy consumer business in the UAE. The trade licence is the quick part; premises approval, extraction, grease traps and civil defence determine when you can open.
Approvals beyond the trade licence
Municipality food control, kitchen and extraction approval, civil defence fit-out sign-off, signage permit, food handler cards, and an alcohol licence where relevant.
Where to license it
The food & beverage activity in full · The general setup guide
Questions
The licence is a minor line. Tenancy, fit-out, kitchen equipment, civil defence approval and working capital dominate, and vary so widely by location and concept that a single figure would mislead. We cost it per site rather than per licence.
Only serving that zone's own occupants. A restaurant open to the general public is a mainland activity licensed by the emirate's economic department.
Typically four to eight months from lease signature. The licence takes days; municipality kitchen approval, civil defence sign-off and the fit-out itself set the real timeline.
One question
Who will be paying your invoices?
Unusual for food. Most F&B revenue is domestic by nature — people eat where they are — so if you genuinely sell abroad you are probably manufacturing or exporting product rather than serving customers, and that changes the licence entirely.
Compare the two routesOr just ask usAlmost certainly mainland. Anything the public eats or drinks on premises requires a mainland licence, municipality food approval and civil defence sign-off, and no structure avoids that. Free zone F&B serves only that zone's own occupants.
Compare the two routesOr just ask usWorth separating properly. A production kitchen supplying wholesale and a venue serving the public are different licences with different premises requirements, and running both on one is the mismatch that surfaces during inspection.
Answer five questions insteadOr just ask us