Both three-star restaurants held their ranking, two new one-star restaurants joined the guide, and the selection now runs to 122 restaurants across 38 cuisines.
The fifth MICHELIN Guide Dubai was unveiled on 6 October at Atlantis The Royal. The headline result is continuity at the top and depth below it. The guide now lists 122 restaurants spanning 38 cuisine types, and was produced with the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism as destination partner. That is a 77% increase on the 69 restaurants recognised in the inaugural 2022 edition.
The top tier holds
FZN by Björn Frantzén and Trèsind Studio both retain Three MICHELIN Stars. Trèsind Studio’s position is the more significant one. When it was promoted last year, it became the first and only Indian restaurant in the world to hold three stars. Frantzén’s Dubai outpost adds to an unusual portfolio. The Swedish chef also holds three stars in Stockholm and Singapore. Only around 140 restaurants worldwide hold three stars.
The promotion: Orfali Bros
The night’s only movement in the upper ranks went to a homegrown restaurant. Orfali Bros was promoted to Two MICHELIN Stars just two years after earning its first. Michelin described its evolution from neighbourhood bistro into a flagship of Middle Eastern gastronomy, built on the brothers’ Aleppian, Armenian and Turkish heritage and their Voyage tasting menu. The family’s reach widened further. Three Bros, its more casual sister restaurant, entered the guide with a Bib Gourmand.
The three existing two-star restaurants held their ranking: Il Ristorante – Niko Romito, Row on 45 and STAY by Yannick Alléno.
New stars
Two restaurants entered with One MICHELIN Star. The first is Birch, where chef Arslan Berdiev builds a contemporary menu on his Turkmen roots. The second is KIGO, a Japanese restaurant offering sushi omakase at the counter and kaiseki at the table. Dubai now has 14 one-star restaurants, which brings its starred total to 20.
Beyond the stars
The edition added 19 restaurants in total: two One Star, four Bib Gourmand and 13 MICHELIN-Selected. Among the new MICHELIN-Selected names are international imports Barrafina, Carbone and China Tang. Michelin itself pointed to a different trend. It singled out the rise of standalone concepts and menus increasingly designed for local diners rather than visitors.
Special awards
The full list of special awards was:
- Opening of the Year went to Gonzalo Platero and Window, a wood-fired restaurant in Alserkal.
- The Sommelier Award went to Ninad Jani of avatāra.
- The Service Award went to Akinori Tanigawa and the KIGO team.
- The Young Chef Award went to Rémy Marquignon of Ossiano.
- The Exceptional Cocktails Award went to Zahra Erfanian Azmoodeh of Carbone Dubai.
Why it matters
Five editions in, Dubai’s guide is no longer a novelty listing of hotel restaurants run by visiting names. Its three-star tier is stable. Its biggest promotion went to a restaurant born in the city. Its growth is coming from independent, locally rooted concepts. The international brands keep arriving, but the inspectors’ attention is shifting to what Dubai produces itself. Gwendal Poullennec, International Director of the MICHELIN Guides, noted that the selection now features “nearly twice as many establishments as it did when it was first launched”.
The guide is backed by the city’s own tourism authority. That makes it more than a restaurant ranking: it is a central part of how Dubai markets itself to high-spending travellers. 
At a glance
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