The Best New Downtown Dubai Openings of 2026

The opening that justifies the tower's hype. Yù & Mì plays the bold heat of Sichuan against refined Cantonese craft in a moody room styled on 1960s Hong Kong, with the city glittering 36 floors below. King crab xiao long bao and Sichuan-glazed beef short ribs open; stir-fried king prawns with chilli and walnuts and crispy rice in lobster broth carry the mains. The set-piece is the Peking Ritual — Wednesday to Saturday, AED 488 for the table, a whole duck carved in the traditional style with a complimentary bottle of wine thrown in. Early diners agree: 4.8 stars across its first 99 Google reviews.

Order: the Peking Ritual (AED 488, Wed–Sat) · Table tip: ask for the window banquettes at booking — sunset hits the Burj-side glass around 6.45pm in June. More Chinese rooms in our Chinese cuisine guide.

Flavio Briatore's Majestas group took the literal top floor for this one — a 'salotto in the sky' that transplants the spirit of the original Lion in the Sun retreat in Malindi, Kenya, to the 62nd storey. Chef Batuhan Piatti Zeynioglu (ex-Billionaire and Piatti) cooks Mediterranean over open fire: whole fish, premium cuts and vegetables that have actually met flame, in a heritage-glam room that photographs like a yacht club. It is the dressed-up dinner of the new crop — 4.6 stars from its first 134 reviewers suggests the room is delivering.

Order: the open-fire fish of the day · Table tip: the terrace-side tables go first — book a week out for Thursday or Friday night.

The smallest opening on this list and arguably the most serious. The team behind TakaHisa opened this 28-seater at Dubai Opera's plaza level on 7 May 2026, and every bowl is built like an omakase course: bluefin tuna from Yamayuki — the revered Japanese tuna wholesaler — in the seafood ramen, and Wagyu, Kobe and Ozaki beef in the meat bowls. Noodles alternate deliberately between house-made (aromatic wheat flour, measured firmness) and egg noodles depending on the broth. A 4.9 from its first reviewers is no surprise to anyone who has eaten the parent restaurant's tuna. Our Japanese guide has the city's wider ramen map.

Order: the bluefin seafood ramen · Seat tip: 28 seats and no real queue system yet — walk in before 6pm on performance nights.

Paris's most fashionable address finally crossed the Gulf. L'Avenue — the Costes brand behind the Avenue Montaigne institution — has taken a second-floor perch on Fashion Avenue at Dubai Mall, Fountain Views side, and imported the formula intact: timeless brasserie elegance, a room that slides from daytime lunch to late-night rendez-vous, and people-watching as a course in itself. It is the new power-lunch default for the Downtown retail crowd, holding 4.7 stars across its first hundred reviews.

Best for: a long lunch that turns into shopping amnesty · Table tip: the fountain-facing edge at 8pm catches the show through the glass.

Billionaire's Dubai relaunch — doors open since 25 November 2025 — trades its old beachfront swagger for a 61st-floor stage. The draw is 'Up in the Sky', an immersive dinner show under artistic director Irma di Paola that unfolds around the tables while the kitchen sends out fine-dining plates. It ranks fifth not because the night is weak — 1,800+ reviews in its first months say otherwise — but because you come for the production first and the food second. Budget accordingly; this is an occasion spend, not a Tuesday dinner. (For Tuesday dinners, our budget guide exists.)

Best for: birthdays and visitors you need to impress · Timing tip: the second seating runs latest and loudest — book the early one for conversation.

The daytime answer to all those sky-high dinners. Noia spreads a modern Greek menu across the 11th-floor pool terrace — 120 seats, cabanas, skyline — with head chef Michalis Margaritis cooking the islands rather than the cliché: raw seafood, seafood orzo, beef giouvetsi, grilled fish, contemporary Greek desserts. Bills average around AED 500 a head once you've settled in, which is exactly what an early 4.9 rating and a Burj Khalifa view from a sun lounger cost in this town. Weekend daytime here already rivals the established names in our best brunch guide.

Order: seafood orzo, then the Greek desserts · Timing tip: book a 5pm table — you get pool light for the first course and skyline glow for the last.

The quiet achiever of the tower: a regional Italian dining room built around handmade pasta — the namesake chitarra cut included — without a single gimmick attached. In a hotel where everything else comes with a floor number and a light show, dinner that is simply very good pasta feels almost radical. We haven't shot Chitarra yet, so no photographs here until we do — it holds the seventh spot on cooking reports and the strength of the rest of the building.

Order: whatever pasta is cut that day · Best for: the Downtown dinner that doesn't need an occasion.