What's On Dubai Awards 2026: Every winner from Dubai's biggest night in food and entertainment

Written by:
Thomas Woodgate
4th June 2026

That’s a wrap on the What’s On Dubai Awards 2026

Manāo claimed Restaurant of the Year just months after earning one of the UAE’s fastest-ever Michelin Stars. Gabriela Chamorro was named Chef of the Year. Barrafina took Newcomer of the Year on its Dubai debut. Here is every winner and highly commended from the What’s On Dubai Awards 2026.

The What’s On Dubai Awards 2026 is done. Across an evening that spanned 47 categories of food, drink, leisure, and entertainment – and drew the crème de la crème of the UAE’s hospitality industry to one room – the trophies have gone home. Voted for by the public, this makes tonight’s results a genuine reflection of what Dubai’s residents and visitors rate most highly about life in this city.

The Editor’s Choice awards, decided by the What’s On team rather than the public ballot, produced the night’s biggest cheer – and it’s there we begin.

Editor’s Choice

RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR: MANĀO

If you need a single number to understand what Manāo has achieved, it is five. Five months from opening at Wasl Vita in Jumeirah to earning a Michelin Star – one of the fastest in UAE culinary history. Behind it: Chef Abhiraj Khatwani, who simultaneously collected the Michelin Young Chef Award, and co-founder Mohamad Orfali of Orfali Bros, named the Best Restaurant in the Middle East three consecutive years running. Ranked ninth on MENA’s 50 Best Restaurants 2026, Manāo delivers a contemporary take on Thailand’s culinary heritage – time-tested techniques, heritage ingredients, and a precision that blurs the line between fine dining and something far more personal. This is the What’s On Dubai Awards 2026 Restaurant of the Year, and it has earned every word of that title.

CHEF OF THE YEAR: GABRIELA CHAMORRO – GIRL AND THE GOOSE

In 2019, Gabriela Chamorro ran a supper club from her Dubai apartment – 10 seats, a WhatsApp booking system, and a warmth at the door that made strangers feel like they’d been invited to dinner by a friend. Five years and 5,000 home-cooked meals later, she opened Girl and the Goose inside the Anantara Downtown Dubai Hotel, landing at No.43 on MENA’s 50 Best Restaurants 2026 in its debut year. Her Central American menu – pupusas, miso seabass ceviche, clay-pot short ribs in toasted cornmeal – is a genuine first for Dubai. What the Chef of the Year award recognises is not only the cooking, remarkable as it is, but the rarer achievement: scaling an underground dining phenomenon into a full restaurant without losing a single note of the intimacy and personal storytelling that made people queue for a seat in her living room.

NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR: BARRAFINA

For 18 years, Barrafina did not leave London. Five locations, a Michelin Star, and legendary queues on Dean Street – and not one venture beyond the UK, until Dubai. The decision to make the UAE the brand’s first international home is a statement about this city’s culinary standing, and brothers Sam and Eddie Hart have honoured it. At 55 seats in DIFC’s Gate Village, the counter dining format translates without compromise: gambas rojas, the Classic Tortilla, chicken thighs with romesco, all emerging from an open kitchen with the unhurried craft that defines the original. No theatrics. No noise. Just the belief – correct, as it turns out – that the best seat in the house is always at the counter.

HOMEGROWN RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR: MIDDLE CHILD

Lynn Hazim spent a decade at Google before opening Middle Child at Alserkal Avenue in 2025 – and the restaurant world is richer for the career change. Part 40-seat all-day eatery, part 500-title cookbook shop, part gourmet small-batch pantry, it is the most quietly radical opening Dubai has seen in years. The menu is personal and precise: labneh with yuzu kosho, cured sea bass, pappardelle Bolognese, and a club sandwich that has achieved near-mythological status in a very short time. No reservations, no pretension, and an eight-seat counter where strangers become regulars. MENA’s 50 Best handed it the One to Watch Award within months of opening. We think it’s already arrived.

The Night’s Other Standout Winners

FAVOURITE ATTRACTION: Global Village

Global Village wins the Favourite Attraction award – the world’s largest multicultural festival destination, with 90+ countries, 3,500 shops, and 40,000 live performances in a single season – edging out highly commended Game Over Escape Rooms and Wild Wadi Waterpark.

FAVOURITE BAR: Mimi Kakushi

The World’s 50 Best Bars and Michelin Guide-recognised Mimi Kakushi at Four Seasons takes the bar award – Dubai’s most effortlessly cool Japanese cocktail destination, and a venue that manages to feel like a discovery even on its busiest nights. Highly commended: Aether Dubai and Amelia Dubai.

FAVOURITE CONCERT, SHOW OR FESTIVAL: Swan Lake at Dubai Opera

Eight thousand seats. Six sold-out nights. The Hungarian National Ballet’s production of Swan Lake at Dubai Opera was the city’s most talked-about live performance of the year. Highly commended: Grease The Musical at Dubai Opera and Ushuaïa Dubai Harbour Experience.

FAVOURITE STAYCATION: DUBAI: Banyan Tree Dubai

Banyan Tree Dubai on Bluewaters Island – 500 metres of private beach, an award-winning spa, and a TakaHisa omakase counter sourcing fish direct from Tokyo’s Toyosu Market – takes the staycation crown. Highly commended: Anantara The Palm Dubai Resort and Sofitel Dubai The Palm.

FAVOURITE SPA: Talise Ottoman Spa, Jumeirah Zabeel Saray

The Middle East’s largest spa – 8,200sqm, 42 treatment rooms, three Turkish hammams – Talise Ottoman Spa at Jumeirah Zabeel Saray wins. Highly commended: Bianco SPA, Jumeirah Golf Estates and The Pearl Spa & Wellness, Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach.

FAVOURITE BURGER: Eleven Green

Wagyu patties on Hokkaido milk buns, born from a competition-winning recipe, built by a husband-and-wife team. Eleven Green is Dubai’s best burger, and this award says so officially. Highly commended: Junk Smash Burger and SMOKD EATERY.

FAVOURITE CASUAL LATIN AMERICAN RESTAURANT: Fusion Ceviche

Twenty-six seats in JLT. A self-taught chef-owner. A World’s 50 Best Discovery listing. Fusion Ceviche is the most quietly extraordinary restaurant story in Dubai right now. Highly commended: Esco-Bar, Palm Jumeirah and Mama Zonia.

FAVOURITE FINE DINING STEAKHOUSE: The Cullinan

The Cullinan at Jumeirah Marsa Al Arab – named after the world’s largest diamond, with 25 premium cuts and a dedicated meat sommelier. Highly commended: leÑa and Prime52, Dubai Marriott Harbour Hotel & Suites.

FAVOURITE FINE DINING MEDITERRANEAN RESTAURANT: Lana Lusa

Dubai’s finest Portuguese restaurant wins its category with garlic-glazed gambas, monkfish rice in terracotta, and pastéis de nata as good as Lisbon. Lana Lusa is the most undersung triumph on tonight’s list. Highly commended: Kira and Shimmers, Jumeirah Mina Al Salam.