What's On Dubai Awards 2026 Names Four Defining Restaurants and Chefs

DUBAI, June 5, 2026 — What's On Dubai has named four Editor's Choice winners at its 2026 annual awards, recognizing the restaurant, chef, newcomer and homegrown concept that the publication's team judged to have most meaningfully shaped the city's food and dining conversation over the past year. The awards were presented on June 4 at The Agenda in Media City during the What's On Dubai Awards 2026 ceremony, which spans 47 categories in total the majority decided by public vote, and four reserved exclusively for editorial judgment.

The What's On Dubai Awards 2026 Editor's Choice selections this year span a Michelin-starred tasting menu that earned its star in five months, an underground supper club turned MENA-listed restaurant, London's most celebrated tapas institution making its first international move, and a bookshop-café opened by a former Google executive on Alserkal Avenue. Together, the four winners reflect a Dubai dining scene that has grown both in international standing and in homegrown depth.

What's On Dubai Awards 2026: Manāo Named Restaurant of the Year

Manāo, located at Wasl Vita in Jumeirah, earned the Restaurant of the Year award after becoming one of the fastest-starred restaurants in UAE history receiving a Michelin Star just five months after opening. The 34-seat tasting menu restaurant is built around Chef Abhiraj Khatwani's exploration of Thailand's culinary heritage, incorporating heritage grains, ancient ferments and layered flavor profiles drawn from deep research into Thai culinary traditions that most diners in Dubai will not have encountered in this form.

Khatwani also won the Michelin Young Chef Award in the same cycle his restaurant received its star. His co-founder is Mohamad Orfali, the chef behind Orfali Bros named the Best Restaurant in the Middle East three consecutive years running. Manāo entered MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2026 list at No. 9 in its debut year.

What's On described the Restaurant of the Year award as going to the establishment that has most shaped Dubai's dining conversation over the previous 12 months, noting that the Michelin Star was confirmation of what the restaurant had already achieved rather than the defining reason for the recognition.

Chef Gabriela Chamorro Wins Chef of the Year for Girl and the Goose

Gabriela Chamorro, the Costa Rican-born chef behind Girl and the Goose, took the Chef of the Year award following a career arc described by What's On as one of the most compelling stories in Dubai's hospitality industry. In 2019, Chamorro launched a 10-seat supper club from her Dubai apartment, serving Central American cooking rooted in her grandmother's recipes. Over five years, she cooked 5,000 meals from that apartment before opening a permanent location inside the Anantara Downtown Dubai Hotel in 2024.

Girl and the Goose landed at No. 43 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants list in its debut year. The menu introduces Central American cuisine including pupusas, miso seabass ceviche, clay-pot short ribs in toasted cornmeal and house-fermented hot sauce to Dubai diners through what What's On called the first serious standard-bearer for that culinary tradition in the city.

Chamorro trained at the Culinary Institute of Barcelona and Copenhagen's MAD Academy, and previously worked as an Emirates cabin crew member, accumulating culinary experiences across cities before returning to Dubai to build her food venture from scratch with no venue budget and no external PR support.

Barrafina Dubai Earns Newcomer of the Year at DIFC Gate Village

Barrafina, the London tapas institution founded by brothers Sam and Eddie Hart, opened its first restaurant outside the United Kingdom in Dubai this year earning the Newcomer of the Year award in the process. The 55-seat counter at Gate Village in DIFC marks the end of an 18-year period during which the brand operated exclusively across five London locations, declining to expand internationally despite sustained global interest.

The Dubai outpost replicates the format of the original Dean Street location: counter seating, an open kitchen and a menu of Spanish tapas gambas rojas, tortilla made to order and served slightly undercooked, chicken thighs with romesco executed without theatrical additions or experiential embellishments. What's On framed Barrafina's decision to expand to Dubai as a signal of the city's maturity as a global dining destination, arguing that the brand would only have extended internationally to a market serious enough to receive it without requiring the restaurant to change.

Gate Village in DIFC places Barrafina directly alongside Zuma, Gaia and Torno Subito, positioning it within Dubai's existing fine-dining concentration rather than attempting to create a standalone market in a secondary location.

Middle Child Alserkal Avenue Wins Homegrown Restaurant of the Year

Middle Child, opened on Alserkal Avenue in 2025 by former Google executive Lynn Hazim, received the Homegrown Restaurant of the Year award. The concept combines an all-day eatery and a curated pantry of small-batch condiments, honeys and preserves in a stripped-back Alserkal Avenue warehouse. The menu labneh with yuzu kosho, cured sea bass, pappardelle Bolognese and a club sandwich that What's On noted has built near-mythological status among regulars operates without reservations from an eight-seat counter.

MENA's 50 Best Restaurants granted Middle Child its One to Watch Award within months of opening. What's On selected it as Homegrown Restaurant of the Year on the basis that the award exists to recognize Dubai-born concepts built by Dubai residents with a clear culinary point of view and that Middle Child delivers both with unusual clarity for a venue that has been open only a short time.

The full list of winners across all 47 categories at the What's On Dubai Awards 2026 is available via the What's On Dubai website. For broader context on the trends shaping Dubai's dining and hospitality market in 2026, BBC Good Food offers international coverage of the Middle East's evolving food culture.

More information about Indian cuisine and its regional diversity can be explored through Indian cuisine history and traditions.

Businesses monitoring hospitality expansion trends can also explore restaurant industry growth trends for 2026 to understand how regional food concepts are shaping dining markets.