Dubai Restaurant Week 2026 is back from May 1 to 17, with more than 125 restaurants on the roster, including 30-plus Michelin Guide-listed venues and a Michelin-starred kitchen. Two tiers this year. AED 125 (USD 34) for a two-course lunch. AED 250 (USD 68) for a three-course dinner. Bookings run through Careem DineOut.
This is the strongest year the format has had. The official rule for 2026 is that menus must be built around signature dishes, not scaled-down versions. Most kitchens are honoring it. Some are not. Here are the set menus we are booking, the ones we are skipping, and the four-question test that tells you which is which before you commit.
How Dubai Restaurant Week 2026 actually works
Two prices. AED 125 for lunch, two courses. AED 250 for dinner, three courses. Drinks, service charge, and 5 percent VAT are not included in the headline price unless the restaurant has chosen to include them. Most have not. A AED 250 dinner with two glasses of wine, plus 10 percent service and VAT, lands closer to AED 380-450 (USD 103-122) per person depending on the wine list.
Bookings are exclusive to Careem DineOut this year. The strongest restaurants release prime-time slots in waves rather than all at once, so checking the app twice across the 17 days catches re-releases. Worth a daily glance.
Wow-Emirates Expert Tip: Call the restaurant directly the morning of the day you want to book. Cancellations and no-shows free up tables that never return to the booking platform. This is how regulars get into the Michelin-starred slots.
The four-question test for a real-value Restaurant Week menu
Before you book anything, run the menu through these four questions.
- Are the set-menu dishes actually the kitchen’s signatures? The 2026 rule says yes. Most kitchens are honoring it. Quick check: open the restaurant’s regular à la carte menu and see if at least 2 courses from the set menu are listed there at full price. If they are, you’ll get the kitchen at full strength.
- Does the upgrade pricing read like a trap? Some restaurants list an AED 250 dinner and then add surcharges of 30 to 50 percent for any swap. Branzino instead of salmon, AED 80 extra. By the third upgrade, you are paying full menu price for a tasting you did not order. The well-run set menus include one or two genuine choices per course with no upgrade fee.
- Is there a time restriction that pushes you to off-peak slots? A set menu that only runs between 4pm and 6pm exists to fill empty covers. Restaurants holding their prime evening slots for Restaurant Week are confident in the offer. The rest are using it as inventory clearance.
- Has the restaurant joined Restaurant Week before? First-time entrants tend to over-deliver to win regulars. Restaurants that have entered every year for a decade often run a tighter, more cynical version each time. This year’s 10-year anniversary of the format has brought stronger kitchens back. Worth the spot-check.
The set menus we are booking this week
Four picks across price tiers and cuisines, with the reasoning for each. All have prime-time evening slots available as of this week, all are running signatures, and all sit on the right side of the four-question test.
Thiptara at Palace Downtown
The Thai kitchen on the Burj Khalifa fountain side. The Restaurant Week dinner is built around Pomelo Salad, Tom Yum Goong, and Mango Sticky Rice, three of the dishes the kitchen is actually known for. AED 250 (USD 68) for the three-course set. The view is the upsell that does not appear on the menu, and you do not pay extra for it. Best booked at the 8pm slot when the fountain show runs. Best Restaurants With a View Dubai
Cetara on Bluewaters Island
Italian, with Burrata in basil pesto, Grilled Mediterranean Sea Bass with fregola sarda, and a tiramisu finish. The three courses on the set menu are taken directly from the regular à la carte. AED 250 dinner. Sea-facing tables on the upper deck are the ones to ask for when you call. The team here is on the floor most nights.
Girl & The Goose by Gabriela Chamorro
Central American kitchen on the homegrown side of the roster. Less famous than the Michelin imports, which is exactly why the set menu is generous. Chef Chamorro has built her name on this format and uses Restaurant Week as a recruiting tool for regulars. Voice is the strongest pick on the list.
Canary Beach Club
Latin-Japanese, citrus-forward, kitchen confident enough to put its core flavour profile on the set menu unedited. AED 250 dinner. Worth booking the late-afternoon slot when the beach side of the room is in full sun.
| Restaurant | Cuisine | Tier | Why we are booking | Best slot to ask for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thiptara, Palace Downtown | Thai | AED 250 (USD 68) dinner | Signature dishes (Pomelo Salad, Tom Yum Goong) on the set menu. Burj fountain view at no extra cost. | 8pm fountain show |
| Cetara, Bluewaters Island | Italian | AED 250 (USD 68) dinner | Three à la carte signatures lifted directly onto the set menu. Sea-facing tables and a kitchen on form. | 7:30pm upper deck |
| Girl & The Goose | Central American | AED 250 (USD 68) dinner | Chef Gabriela Chamorro is using the format to win regulars. Generous portions, kitchen confidence. | Any evening |
| Canary Beach Club | Latin-Japanese | AED 250 (USD 68) dinner | Core flavour profile presented unedited. Beach-side seating is the upsell. | Late afternoon, beach side |
| Lunch tier (any of the above) | Various | AED 125 (USD 34) lunch | Two courses, no drinks pressure. Best for auditioning a kitchen before the dinner commit. | 12:30-1pm weekdays |
The Michelin-starred picks are worth the price
Thirty-plus Michelin Guide-listed restaurants are running set menus this year, including one Michelin-starred kitchen. The starred slot at the AED 250 dinner tier is the headline value play of the format. Set menus from kitchens helmed by internationally recognized chefs (Nobu Matsuhisa, Gordon Ramsay, Akira Back, Izu Ani, Alvin Leung) are also on the roster.
Two honest notes on the celebrity-chef tier. First, the Restaurant Week menus at these venues tend to lean toward safer signatures rather than experimental ones. You are getting the brand promise, not the chef’s most ambitious work. That is the trade-off for the price. Second, the kitchens here have stronger standards on supplier integrity than the mid-tier, so the AED 250 set is genuinely in the same quality range as the regular à la carte.
Worth booking if you have not been to one of these kitchens before. Less interesting if you are already a regular at full à la carte prices.
Wow-Emirates Expert Tip: The strongest hack of the 17-day window is the lunch set menu at a Michelin Guide kitchen. AED 125 for two courses at a venue where dinner mains regularly run AED 220 to 320 (USD 60-87) each. Lunch covers are quieter, the kitchen has more time, and you avoid the evening service rush.
What to skip
Three patterns recur every year. Worth avoiding.
The brunch-volume venue is running a Restaurant Week dinner. Most Dubai brunch operations are built for high-volume Friday and Saturday service. Their weeknight dinner programs are inconsistent. A restaurant that does 800 covers on a Friday brunch and 60 on a Tuesday dinner has two different kitchens, even if the address is the same.
The mall-anchor restaurant is doing the AED 250 dinner with no clear chef ownership. Mall locations with Restaurant Week menus tend to be overworked from lunch tourist traffic and run an exhausted kitchen by 8pm. The set menus reflect that.
Any restaurant that has entered Restaurant Week for 8 or more years and recycles last year’s menu with the prices updated. The Careem DineOut listing shows the menu in advance. If the dishes look identical to a 2025 review you can find on Time Out or Khaleej Times, the kitchen is on autopilot.
What to do if your first-choice restaurant is fully booked
The strong restaurants disappear fast. By May 8, the AED 250 prime-time slots at Michelin-listed entrants are usually sold out. Three workarounds.
Set a daily reminder to check Careem DineOut at 10 AM and again at 5 PM. Cancellations are released in two waves, and the app does not push notifications when slots open up.
Ask for the off-peak time. The 5 PM dinner or 10:30 PM last seating at a strong kitchen is occasionally better than peak because the chef has time to plate properly. Ask the front-of-house when you call.
Book the same restaurant for the week after Restaurant Week ends. Many extend their set menus by 7 to 10 days at the same price to clear remaining bookings. This is the quietest value play of the format.
Frequently asked questions
Dubai Restaurant Week 2026 runs from May 1 to May 17 across more than 125 participating restaurants in the city.
Two tiers. AED 125 (USD 34) for a two-course lunch and AED 250 (USD 68) for a three-course dinner. Drinks, 10 percent service charge, and 5 percent VAT are typically excluded.
Bookings for 2026 are exclusive to the Careem DineOut app. Restaurants release slots in waves, so checking morning and evening across the 17 days catches re-releases.
No, in almost every case. Restaurants set their own drink-pairing options at additional cost. Confirm with the restaurant directly before booking.
More than 30 Michelin Guide-listed restaurants are participating, including one Michelin-starred kitchen. The lunch tier at these venues is the format’s headline value.
No. Set menus are excluded from Entertainer, hotel loyalty discounts, and credit card dining offers in almost every case. Restaurant Week pricing is treated as the promotional rate and cannot be stacked.
Images: Official Websites
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