Dubai's Michelin Guide reveals its fifth edition tonight
The ceremony at Atlantis The Royal updates a list that already holds 19 starred restaurants, including two with three stars, before a single new name is announced.
The Michelin Guide Dubai reveals its 2026 selection on Tuesday evening at Atlantis The Royal, Palm Jumeirah, its fifth edition since the city's debut in the guide.
The ceremony runs in partnership with Dubai's Department of Economy and Tourism. Five restaurants are confirmed to serve tastings at the reception: Row on 45, holder of two stars; avatāra and Hōseki, both one star; Berenjak, a Bib Gourmand address; and Glass Hostaria, a guest restaurant carrying one star in Italy's own 2026 guide.
Before tonight's update, Dubai held 19 starred restaurants, including two with the maximum three: FZN by Björn Frantzén and Trèsind Studio, the first Indian restaurant anywhere to reach that rank.
A guide that keeps its three stars and adds more names every year is still building, not yet defending anything.
Five tables set the tone
Putting a Bib Gourmand address on the same reception line-up as two-star Row on 45 is a deliberate signal. Michelin's Dubai guide has used its reception restaurants in past years to show the spread of the list, not just its peak, and Berenjak's presence does that again this year.
Inspectors score every restaurant, from Bib Gourmand to three stars, against five fixed measures: ingredient quality, mastery of technique, harmony of flavour, the cook's own personality on the plate, and consistency across repeat visits. The same scale applied in September to the Netherlands guide's new stars, a reminder that the method travels even when the cuisine doesn't.
A young guide still filling in
Dubai's Michelin history is short. The city entered the guide in June 2022, five months ahead of Abu Dhabi's own debut, and has added restaurants every year since without yet losing one of its three-star names. That is still rare among young guides: Toronto's 2026 edition added no new stars at all, a sign that growth is not automatic once a market gets its first guide.
The kitchen scene behind tonight's list keeps expanding regardless of the outcome. Manna opened two more Gulf sites this year, part of the same wave of openings Michelin's inspectors have been working through since January.
Which names move up, which stay put and which drop out will be known within hours. Tonight's ceremony, not this preview, settles that.
