Michelin Dubai 2022: A Guide to Michelin Star Restaurants in the UAE

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Reviewed August 2023

With so many fine-dining alternatives available in Dubai, it’s not easy to pick and choose a restaurant that will satisfy all of your food cravings. Fortunately, the Michelin Guide has now started a Dubai edition, making the task a bit simpler. You can now browse Michelin-recommended eats near you and check out the best dining spots in town.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Michelin guide in Dubai and its starred restaurants and chefs.

What is the Michelin Guide?

The Michelin Guides are a sequence of guidebooks that have been produced over the years by the French tire company Michelin. The guide offers its restaurant reviews in short summaries, symbols, and well-acclaimed Michelin stars. Restaurants are awarded 0 to 3 stars for their food quality based on specific criteria. The Michelin Guide covers over 36 culinary destinations across North America, South America, Europe and the Asia Pacific.

The Michelin Guide is notorious for bestowing a maximum of 3 stars on select restaurants. Following are the Michelin star rating descriptions:

1 Michelin star: A very good restaurant with great food and is worth a stop.
2 Michelin stars: Excellent cooking and worth a detour.
3 Michelin stars: Exceptional cuisine that is worth a special journey.

Currently, France has the most Michelin-star restaurants with the highest Michelin star rating, followed by Japan and Italy. Moreover, Tokyo alone has 217 Michelin-star restaurants, with a significant lead over any other city in the world. Dubai is the latest addition to the Michelin Guide, and will have a full 2022 selection of restaurants in the city that will be available on the Michelin Guide website and on the app (iOS and Android).

Michelin guide Dubai requirements

The Michelin Guide launched a Dubai edition in June 2022 to help you on your dining quest; here are some things you should know about the Michelin Guide Dubai:

Anonymous inspectors had monitored the city’s restaurants for the past 5 years, understanding and trailing several restaurants on their food quality.
Since Dubai has more than 200 nationalities, the selection of cuisines has been diverse.
The Bib Gourmand – the company’s official mascot used for rating establishments that serve good food at reasonable prices is also present in Dubai.
Michelin Guide printed books are not available in Dubai. The guide is only available online or through the Michelin app.

Michelin inspectors are 100 percent anonymous. The restaurant chefs and staff will not be able to recognize the inspector, which ensures an authentic and fair food rating. The restaurant selection criteria for the Michelin Guide Dubai will be based on the following five criteria:

The quality of the products
The mastery of cooking techniques and flavour
The personality of the chef represented in the dining experience
The harmony of flavours
Consistency between inspectors’ visits

The stars and restaurant selections are updated once a year; if an establishment does not live up to the mark each year, it can lose its place in the Michelin Guide.

Michelin-star chefs and restaurants in Dubai 2023

Securing a Michelin star is the highest privilege for any chef, and a mention in the Michelin Guide speaks volumes about a restaurant’s success.

Here is a list of restaurants in Dubai that have officially received Michelin stars.

Two Michelin Stars

Getting even one Michelin star is a huge feat, getting two is literally double the honour. Only three restaurants in Dubai have been deemed worthy of this achievement so far.

Il Ristorante – Niko Romito

Set in the regal interiors of Bvlgari Resort Dubai, Il Ristorante – Niko Romito sets the bar high for the city’s culinary experiences with sophisticated modern Italian dishes which hold far more complex than meets the eye but are still perfectly balanced in terms of purity and clarity. Chef Niko’s pasta and fish dishes are particularly recommended; the ‘Degustazione’ course is the menu’s highlight.

STAY by Yannick Alléno

The opulent One&Only The Palm hotel invites you to STAY by Yannick Alléno, which sits at the top of Dubai’s gastronomy. The restaurant adopts Chef Yannick’s classic French style, offering modern degustations with wine pairings from the in-house sommelier. With menus titled “Emotions” and “Experience”, you will indeed have all your senses tingled with divine combinations of colours, flavours, textures, and aromas.

Trèsind Studio

The brainchild of Chef Himanshu Saini brings together a beautiful rooftop terrace setting and precisely executed multi-cuisine dishes like ghee-roasted crab, tandoori chicken dumplings, and morel pulao with Assam tea dashi.

One Michelin Star

The highly-coveted Michelin star is the hallmark of high-quality cooking and competent service. Only eleven restaurants in Dubai can boast this badge so far.

Torno Subito

Internationally acclaimed chef-owner Massimo Bottura’s Italian classics, pasta dishes, and desserts all come with his signature twist and are guaranteed to put you in an epicurean paradise.

11 Woodfire

Chef-owner Akmal Anuar brings to your oak, hickory, and hay-smoked grilled perfections through various cuisines, including Portuguese, Indian, Chinese, and Japanese.

Armani Ristorante

Modern Italian cooking meets attentive yet personable service at Chef Giovanni Papi’s restaurant in Burj Khalifa, with classic favourites like agnolotti del plin, filetto di scorfano and agnello al mirto stealing focus.

Hakkasan

Helmed by Chef Andrew Yeo, Hakkasan presents reimagined Cantonese cuisine, highlighted by Dubai-special dishes such as the lychee lobster with yuzu pearl and Assam seafood toban.

Ossiano

Chef Gregoire Berger’s highly creative degustations flaunt his expertise in fine texture contrasts and remarkable flavour clarity, with the signature “Metanoia” menu being an ode to his childhood memories.

Höseki

A nine-seat restaurant led by sixth-generation sushi master Masahiro Sugiyama, Höseki promises a bespoke omakase experience with fine-quality ingredients specially imported from Japan.

Al Muntaha

Relish Chef Saverio Sbaragli’s refined French classics with Mediterranean twists alongside the mesmerising views of Dubai from the top of Burj al Arab.

Tasca by José Avillez

Chef José Anvillez invites you to his open kitchen-style restaurant to soak in the joys of authentic Portuguese dishes that are inimitably vibrant, innovative, and superb for sharing.

Dinner by Heston Blumenthal

Join chef Heston Blumenthal at Dinner and discover British cuisine with a twist, featuring the Meat Fruit, the Tipsy Cake and more, in a spectacular setting at Atlantis The Royal.

avatāra

Experience the reincarnation of soulful Indian food with chef Rahul Rana at Avatāra. This vegetarian degustation menu uses local and seasonal ingredients, each with a story and a secret, in a cosy and intimate space at Voco Hotel.

moonrise

Moonrise is a rooftop omakase by chef Solemann Haddad that blends Middle Eastern and Japanese cuisines with Japanese notes and techniques in a rooftop setting.

One Michelin Green Star

Michelin Green stars are bestowed upon restaurants that are at the forefront of sustainable gastronomy.

Lowe

In 2022, Lowe became the first and only restaurant in Dubai to have received a Michelin Green star in appreciation of its fire-based, nose-to-tail cooking, localised procurement of ingredients, and the “Waste NOT” dinner courses that are prepared with would-be waste products, saved over the previous months.

Boca

Boca is a Mediterranean restaurant that focuses on sustainability and local produce. Their menu features Spanish specialities, including their famous green herb gazpacho, made with freshly sourced ingredients.

Teible

Teible is not only a Bib Gourmand restaurant but also a Green Star restaurant that serves modern cuisine with freshly baked bread and pastries, using seasonal, local and fermented ingredients, in a calm and minimalistic bakery-cum-restaurant.

Bib Gourmand

Apart from the above establishments, 17 restaurants in the city have been accredited a Bib Gourmand in recognition of their value-for-money gourmet experience, priced at around 250 AED for a 3-course meal. So if you crave the finesse of Michelin-star-rated cuisine but don’t want to burn a hole in your pocket, these are the places you should be flocking to.

The restaurants in Dubai having awarded a Bib Gourmand are:

Michelin Special Awards

The Michelin Guide also recognises exceptional talent amongst service professionals in the hospitality field.

The Young Chef Award 2022 went to Solemann Haddad of restaurant Moonrise for his gobsmacking tasty omakase fusion of Japanese Kaiseki with Middle Eastern ingredients.
The Sommelier Award 2022 was awarded to Danijela Tesic of Ossiano for her passion for wine pairing, thought-provoking mix of varietals, and delightful interaction with the diners.
The Welcome & Service Award 2022 was won by the team at Bait Maryam for their genuine hospitality, smoothly-flowing and efficient service, and helpful recommendations.

Michelin Dubai 2023: A Guide to Michelin Star Restaurants in the UAE