25 UAE restaurants named among MENA’s 50 Best for 2026

The UAE has reaffirmed its status as the Middle East’s culinary capital, with a record 25 restaurants featured on the newly released list of Middle East & North Africa’s 50 Best Restaurants 2026. Accounting for half of all ranked venues, this marks the highest number of UAE restaurants ever featured, up from 22 last year, and includes three in the coveted top five. 

Dubai took the lion’s share with 22 restaurants, marking 44% of the list, while Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia each claimed three restaurants, Kuwait two and Qatar and Bahrain one each.

The awards ceremony, now in its fifth edition, took place at Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental in Abu Dhabi and celebrated exceptional dining across 14 cities. Five of the six GCC nations were represented, underscoring the region’s growing influence in global gastronomy, while 16 restaurants across MENA made their debut appearances. Of these, nine were new UAE entries, including Sufret Maryam (#7), Manao (#9), Kokoro (#15) and FZN at Atlantis, The Palm (#22).