Café François heads to Dubai's DIFC in early 2027
Group François will bring its all-day Paris-inspired café, including the Maison François trolley service, to Dubai's financial district in a joint venture with Keybourne Group.
Café François, the Paris-leaning all-day café from London's Group François, opens in Dubai's DIFC financial district in early 2027, the brand's first site outside the UK.
The restaurant is a joint venture with Keybourne Group, which already runs Rowley's and Grupo Anderson's in Dubai. “Café François is a love letter to the café culture we have enjoyed on our travels,” says founder François O'Neill, who adds that the two companies have spent three years developing the project together.
Group François was founded in 2020 by O'Neill and Ed Wyand, with Matthew Ryle as executive chef. Maison François opened in St James's that year, followed by the more casual Café François at Borough Yards, near Borough Market, in 2024.
A very London café, trolley and all, is about to find out if it travels to the Gulf.
Dubai's version keeps the format: French classics with outside influences, served from breakfast through dinner, seven days a week. The signature trolley service that carries desserts and charcuterie through the Borough Yards dining room is expected to travel with it.
A design built to travel
Studio Shayne Brady, which designed the London sites, is behind the Dubai interiors too. Oak-panelled banquettes, mosaic tiling, neon signage and the brand's wall clocks are all expected to reappear, echoing the Borough Yards original rather than reinventing it for the Gulf.
No address, seat count or menu pricing has been released. DIFC already holds a dense cluster of imported restaurant names, from steakhouses to members' clubs, competing for the same lunch and dinner crowd.
Dubai's restaurant scene has moved fast this year. The emirate's Michelin guide reached its fifth edition in October, covering 122 restaurants at a ceremony held at Atlantis The Royal, and new international names keep arriving at a pace few Gulf cities can match.
Why Dubai, why now
The opening adds to a run of European and British names moving into the emirate, alongside this year's two-Michelin-star promotion for Orfali Bros and the growing list tracked in AMUSE's Dubai dining guide. For Group François, it is a first test of whether a very London format travels.
Group François has not said whether further international sites are planned once Dubai opens.
