Dubai Restaurant Week goes digital
- Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment named Careem DineOut the exclusive booking partner for Dubai Restaurant Week 2026, moving every reservation for the May 1-17 festival onto Careem’s app-based DineOut platform. - The 2026 edition runs for 17 days across more than 125 restaurants, with fixed festival menus priced at AED 125 for two-course lunches and AED 250 for three-course dinners. - The shift makes a single app the gateway to Michelin-recognized and homegrown venues, expanding a festival that now runs beyond its original one-week format. (visitdubai.com)
Dubai Restaurant Week is moving fully onto Careem DineOut for its 2026 edition, making the app the only place to book festival tables from May 1 to May 17. (zawya.com) (visitdubai.com) Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment, part of the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism, is running the event with more than 125 participating restaurants across the city. (zawya.com) (visitdubai.com) The pricing is standardized across the festival: AED 125 buys a two-course lunch, and AED 250 buys a three-course dinner. Visit Dubai says those menus will be available from May 1 through May 17. (visitdubai.com) (careem.com) Careem says diners can either place an AED 1 per-person reservation hold and pay at the restaurant, or prepay in the app and use eligible bank discounts at checkout. The company says prepaid bookings remain fully refundable before the reservation starts. (careem.com) The digital switch changes how the festival works as much as where it is booked. Instead of restaurants handling reservations across separate systems, one platform now manages discovery, menus, deposits and confirmations. (zawya.com) (careem.com) Dubai is also using the festival to widen access to restaurants that usually sit at the luxury end of the market. The official lineup includes Michelin-recognized venues and names such as Gaia, Zuma, Nobu By The Beach, At.mosphere, CÉ LA VI Dubai and 11 Woodfire. (zawya.com) Local lifestyle coverage shows the same mix of imported fine dining brands, celebrity-chef restaurants and homegrown spots, including La Petite Maison, Coya, Pierchic, Girl and the Goose, Reif Japanese Kushiyaki and Gordon Ramsay’s Bread Street Kitchen. (whatson.ae) The event has also outgrown its name. What’s On Dubai notes that this year’s edition spans 17 days, and Visit Dubai lists the same May 1-17 window, extending the promotion well past a literal week. (whatson.ae) (visitdubai.com) Careem executive Bassel Alnahlaoui said the company’s role “goes beyond bookings,” while DFRE’s Alreem Al Redha said the partnership is meant to support both diners and restaurants through a more seamless reservation process. (zawya.com) For diners, the result is simple: one app, one price structure and a short booking window for some of Dubai’s busiest tables. The city still calls it Restaurant Week, but in 2026 it is being run like a citywide digital marketplace. (visitdubai.com) (zawya.com)
