Restaurant and Bar in Dubai Mainland: Complete Guide
Permission to serve alcohol attaches to the premises and not to the company, which is why a lease should never be signed on the assumption that it will follow.
The trade licence is the fastest part of opening a venue on Dubai mainland. What sets the opening date is everything beneath it: the municipality food permit and approval of the kitchen layout before fit-out, Civil Defence sign-off, tenancy registration, and the alcohol permission tied to the premises. Also covers platform and franchise terms, staffing and inspections.
Opening a restaurant or bar on Dubai mainland is a permitting exercise before it is anything else. The trade licence from the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism is the document people talk about, and it is the one that takes the least time. What decides whether the venue opens on schedule, and whether it stays open, is the layer underneath: the food permit for the premises, the fit-out approvals, the separate permission needed to serve alcohol, and the conditions attached to each of them.
The licence and the activities on it
The trade licence lists the activities the business may carry on, and in food and beverage those distinctions have teeth. A café, a restaurant with a full kitchen, a venue with live entertainment and a venue serving alcohol are not the same activity, and the permissions that follow differ accordingly. Adding a service later — delivery, catering off-site, retail sale of packaged goods — usually means amending the licence rather than simply starting.
Shareholding is rarely the obstacle it once was. The 51% UAE-national requirement for mainland companies was removed by Federal Decree-Law No. 26 of 2020 with effect from 1 June 2021, and only activities on the strategic-impact list still attract a restriction, so a chef-founder or an overseas group can normally hold the operating company outright instead of carrying forward a nominee arrangement designed for the old rule. The company itself, and the powers of the manager named on the licence, run on Federal Decree-Law No. 32 of 2021, the Commercial Companies Law that replaced Federal Law No. 2 of 2015. Which individual is named as manager is worth deciding deliberately, because that name appears on the paperwork every permit and inspection is issued against.
Tax and the other registrations
Opening a venue carries the ordinary tax obligations rather than any sector relief. VAT applies at 5% under Federal Decree-Law No. 8 of 2017, as amended by Federal Decree-Law No. 18 of 2022, and registration follows the ordinary rules once the business meets them. Corporate tax under Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022 reaches financial years starting on or after 1 June 2023, with nothing payable on taxable income up to AED 375,000 and 9% on income above that figure. Two questions are cheaper to settle with an accountant before the doors open than after the first return: whether menu prices are quoted inclusive of tax, and how service charge is recorded when it is collected from the customer and paid on to staff.
Food safety belongs to Dubai Municipality
The food side of the business is supervised by Dubai Municipality, which permits the premises, inspects it, and approves the layout before the kitchen is built. The approvals that hold projects up are usually physical: separation of raw and cooked preparation areas, ventilation and grease extraction, water and drainage, storage temperatures, pest control arrangements, and staff facilities. Getting the kitchen drawings approved before fit-out begins is materially cheaper than rebuilding a wall afterwards.
Operating conditions continue after opening. Food handlers must hold the required training, the premises must have a person accountable for food safety, and inspection findings are graded and acted on. Menus, labelling and claims about ingredients are part of the same regime, not a marketing matter — a dish described as containing something it does not is a compliance issue as much as a consumer one.
Alcohol is permitted separately, and to the premises
Serving alcohol is not covered by the trade licence. It requires a distinct permission granted under the emirate's own licensing regime, and that permission attaches to the specific premises and to categories of venue rather than to the company generally. It comes with conditions — on hours, on where alcohol may be served and consumed within the venue, on age verification, and on advertising and promotion, which is restricted in ways operators arriving from other markets consistently underestimate. Conditions also apply during Ramadan.
Two commercial consequences follow. First, a lease should not be signed on the assumption that a licence to serve alcohol will follow, because the permission depends on the premises and its setting; a conditionality provision in the lease is the appropriate protection. Second, purchasing must go through the authorised supply channel, and a venue's stock records are part of what is inspected. Shisha service, where offered, requires its own approval and carries location conditions of its own.
The lease, the landlord and the fit-out
A mainland tenancy needs to be registered as required in Dubai, and the registration is the first thing looked at if the relationship goes wrong; disputes go to the Rental Disputes Centre at the Dubai Land Department rather than the ordinary courts. In a mall or hotel location the lease will also contain operating covenants — trading hours, permitted use, service charge, sometimes turnover rent — that constrain the business more tightly than the licence does. The fit-out itself needs Civil Defence approval for fire safety systems and municipality approval for signage and any outdoor seating.
Delivery platforms, franchises and suppliers
Most Dubai venues now earn a substantial share of revenue through delivery aggregators on the platform's standard terms. Those terms allocate responsibility for the condition of food on arrival, control the use of the venue's brand and customer data, and generally reserve broad rights to suspend a listing. They are worth reading properly, particularly the sections on refunds funded by the restaurant and on exclusivity.
Where the venue operates an international brand, the franchise or licence agreement governs standards, supply, territory and termination, and it will normally impose the franchisor's law and forum. Whether a particular distribution or franchise arrangement engages the UAE's commercial agency registration regime is a question to settle before signing, not after a termination notice arrives. Supply contracts for produce and equipment fall under the Commercial Transactions Law, Federal Decree-Law No. 50 of 2022, which replaced Federal Law No. 18 of 1993.
Kitchen and floor staff
The employment relationship is governed by Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, which replaced Federal Law No. 8 of 1980. Two things generate most of the trouble in a venue. The first is drift between the job as it is done and the job as it was documented, which is easy in a kitchen where people are moved between stations and roles change as the menu does; when a claim is filed it is the registered contract that is read, not the rota on the office wall. The second is money that is not salary. Service charge and tip distribution should be set out in writing and applied consistently, because the absence of a written policy is what turns a payroll question into a claim before the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation.
When enforcement arrives
Municipality inspection results, suspension of a permit and closure of premises are administrative decisions with their own review routes, and they move faster than litigation. A separate exposure runs alongside: a guest who is harmed can bring a civil claim, and the venue's insurance, its supplier contracts and its indemnity position determine who ultimately pays. Handling hospitality and commercial disputes well generally depends on records created long before the incident — inspection logs, temperature records, supplier certificates and staff training files.
We work with food and beverage operators in Dubai on the permits that sit behind the trade licence, on premises and lease terms, on franchise and platform agreements, and on inspection and closure decisions once they land. Speak to Nour Attorneys about a particular site or a particular problem.
Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Readers should seek professional legal advice tailored to their specific circumstances before making any decisions or taking any action based on the content of this article.
Nour Attorneys Team
