Opening a restaurant in Dubai takes two approvals that run side by side: a trade license from the Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) that names your exact food activity, and Dubai Municipality's approval of the premises, which starts with the kitchen layout before any construction. The Dubai Food Code then adds the rule most new owners miss: a restaurant needs a food safety Person in Charge, certified, on every shift.
How to Start a Restaurant in Dubai – Quick Overview
- Choose the exact food activity. The license must state it, and the restaurant cannot trade outside it.
- Get DET's initial approval and reserve the trade name.
- Lease a unit that can be a restaurant, and register the tenancy in Ejari.
- Have Dubai Municipality approve the layout before the fit-out starts.
- Fit out to the approved plan, pass the inspection, and certify a Person in Charge for every shift.
- Hold a valid trade license before you open, then add the permits your format needs: signboard, late hours, service outside the shop.
What License Is Required to Start a Restaurant in Dubai?
A commercial trade license from DET with a food service activity on it. The Dubai Food Code treats restaurants, cafés and cafeterias as food service establishments, and it requires that every food establishment holds a valid trade license before it starts operating, that the license states the exact activity, and that the business carries out no activity that is not on it.
That last rule decides more than the license fee. A restaurant that also sells packaged food over the counter, runs a catering kitchen or trades food wholesale needs those activities on the license too. Foodstuff trading is a separate activity, and so is a cafeteria.
Key Approvals Required for a Restaurant Business
| Approval | Authority | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Trade license with the exact food activity | DET | Always, before you open |
| Tenancy registration (Ejari) | Dubai Land Department | Always; registration is mandatory |
| Layout approval, then inspection | Dubai Municipality, Food Control Department | Before construction or renovation |
| Certified Person in Charge | Dubai Municipality (Food Code) | Every shift where high-risk, ready-to-eat or raw food is prepared |
| Menu in Arabic and English, allergens and non-halal items marked | Dubai Municipality (Food Code) | Always |
| Signboard and name board permits | DET | Before the sign goes up |
| Late-hours or 24-hour permit | DET | If you open beyond regular hours |
| Permit to serve outside the shop | DET | If you seat or serve customers outside |
| Food import registration (FIRS) | Dubai Municipality | Only if you import food yourself |
Step-by-Step Process to Start a Restaurant in Dubai
Seven steps, in the order the approvals depend on each other. The premises set the timetable: the layout is approved before construction, the fit-out follows the plan, and the inspection follows the fit-out.
1. Choose the Restaurant Business Activity
Pick the activity that matches what you will actually do: a restaurant, a cafeteria, catering or another food service. The license must state it exactly, and adding an activity later is a change to the license, which the DED schedule prices at AED 500 per change.
2. Reserve Your Restaurant Trade Name
Reserve it with DET: the DED schedule prices a reservation at AED 200, and a foreign or numeric trade name carries an application fee of AED 2,000 under the DED schedule, so settle the name before you design the signboard.
3. Obtain Initial Business Approval
DET's initial approval confirms the activity and lets you lease premises and apply to the municipality. It does not let you open.
4. Secure a Restaurant Location
Choose a unit that can legally be a restaurant, then register the lease in Ejari, which Dubai Land Department makes mandatory. The Food Code requires the total area to meet the minimum in Dubai Municipality's layout guideline, and every food activity, washing up and storage included, has to stay inside the area on the approved plan. Its own example is the restaurant whose kitchen is too small for the customers it serves.
5. Submit Restaurant Layout for Municipality Approval
Dubai Municipality's Food Control Department must approve the layout before construction or renovation starts, and any later change to the layout or the process flow needs its approval again. The Code expects room for preparation, cooking, cooling, storage, utensils and cleaning, with toilets, clean-up and chemical storage kept apart from the food areas.
6. Complete Restaurant Fit-Out and Municipality Inspection
Build to the approved plan and expect an inspection: Dubai Municipality carried out 34,700 food inspections in the first half of 2025, when about 2,336 new food establishments opened. Before it, certify your Person in Charge. The certificate comes from passing the food control department's examination and lasts five years, and a restaurant preparing high-risk, ready-to-eat or raw food must have one present on every shift, not just one on the payroll.
7. Receive the Restaurant Trade License
The license has to be valid before the first customer. Then add what your format needs: the signboard and name board permits, a late-hours or 24-hour permit if you trade beyond regular hours, and a permit before you serve outside the shop. Staff visas follow the license; what the first hires cost covers them.
Your menu has its own rules. The Food Code requires it in Arabic and English, with allergens and non-halal items clearly identified; a restaurant serving non-halal food must say so on the first page and use separate serving utensils.
Restaurant License Cost in Dubai
DET states the license amount on the payment voucher it issues during the application, and its fee pages could not be read from our side, so we will not print a figure we cannot source. What Dubai has published is the fee and fine schedule of the Department of Economic Development, Executive Council Resolution No. 13 of 2011: AED 600 to issue or renew a license, plus the permits a restaurant adds. Treat the 2011 figures as the floor of DET's line, not your invoice; since Decree No. 13 of 2024 the fees sit in a DET manual that is not public.
Published fees a restaurant meets
| Item | Fee | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Issuing or renewing the license (the economic department's line) | AED 600 | DED schedule, 2011 |
| Changing license details, such as adding an activity | AED 500 per change | DED schedule |
| Reserving a trade name | AED 200 | DED schedule |
| Foreign or numeric trade name | AED 2,000 | DED schedule |
| Advertising signboard permit | AED 250 | DED schedule |
| Name board on the facade | AED 350 | DED schedule |
| Working until 2:00 am | AED 2,000 | DED schedule |
| Working 24 hours | AED 3,000 | DED schedule |
SwiftHub's Dubai mainland license starts at AED 10,999; your quote itemises what that covers for a restaurant and shows the government fees separately.
Hidden Costs When Opening a Restaurant in Dubai
The license is the small line. These decide whether the budget holds, and we do not put numbers on them because they move with the unit and the concept:
- Fit-out to the approved layout, including the separation the Food Code requires between food areas and toilets, clean-up and chemical storage.
- Kitchen equipment that suits the menu and the approved plan, and a grease trap with a cleaning contract.
- People: a certified Person in Charge for every shift, trained food handlers with Dubai Municipality occupational health cards, and a visa for each employee.
- A pest control contract with a licensed company, and the record of its visits.
- Permits for the signboard, late hours and service outside the shop, priced above.
- Rent and its Ejari registration, which renew every year.
Documents Required to Open a Restaurant in Dubai
For the license: passport copies of the owners, a residence visa and Emirates ID if you live in the UAE, the trade name reservation, DET's initial approval and the Ejari certificate. For the inspection, Annex A of the Food Code lists the records to keep together in one folder. For a restaurant, they include:
- the food inspection book and the Person in Charge handbook
- a copy of the trade license and the layout approved by the Food Control Department
- occupational health cards for the food handlers, food safety training certificates and the Person in Charge certificate
- the pest control contract and record of visits, the grease trap cleaning contract and the water tank cleaning contract
- the cleaning programme and supplier details
- time and temperature records for receiving and storing high-risk food, cooking, and hot and cold holding
- calibration records for thermometers and similar equipment
- sick food handler reports and staff sick leave records
- permits for any food transport vehicles, if you deliver with your own
- a complaint record and a recall form
Restaurant License Renewal Cost in Dubai
The license renews every year. The schedule's line is the same AED 600 as issuing, and the rest of the renewal stack (rent, permits, the chamber, visas) is set out in what a Dubai trade license renewal costs. Two restaurant renewals sit outside it: each Person in Charge certificate lasts five years, and if your Person in Charge leaves you have 30 days to name a replacement, who must be certified within 45.
Penalties for Late Renewal
The 2011 schedule sets AED 250 for failing to renew in time and AED 200 for each month of delay. Opening without a license is fined AED 5,000, serving outside the shop without a permit AED 1,000, and working beyond regular hours without a permit AED 1,500.
Get Professional Help to Start Your Restaurant in Dubai
We run the DET side (activity, trade name, initial approval, license) and coordinate the municipality approvals, so the layout is approved before you build rather than after. Our PRO service can keep the permits and renewals on a calendar. Tell us the concept, the unit and the hours you want to open, and you get a written quote; the cost calculator gives a first figure for the company side.
Restaurant setup questions
It depends on the unit and the concept, and the fit-out and equipment dwarf the license. On the government side, Dubai's published schedule sets AED 600 for the license line plus permits such as AED 250 for a signboard; DET's voucher gives the exact license amount. Ask for a quote that separates government fees, our fee and your fit-out.
A DET trade license with the exact food service activity on it, plus Dubai Municipality's layout approval and inspection under the Food Code.
Yes, if the restaurant prepares high-risk, ready-to-eat or raw food, which most do. The Food Code requires at least one certified Person in Charge present during every shift, and their name displayed where customers can see it.
Some free zones license food service activities: Meydan Free Zone, for example, lists restaurant and mobile food service activities. Where you may serve customers depends on the zone's rules, so confirm the premises with the zone first. For a restaurant on a Dubai street, the license is usually a mainland one from DET.
The premises decide it: layout approval before construction, the fit-out, then the inspection. The DET steps are quick by comparison, so plan around the unit.
The fit-out to the approved layout, kitchen equipment and grease trap, certified staff and their visas, a pest control contract, the permits for signage, hours and outdoor service, and rent.
Yes. The Food Code requires the Food Control Department to approve the layout before construction or renovation, and the premises are inspected.
The economic department's line in the published schedule is AED 600, renewed yearly; rent, permits, the chamber and visas sit on top. See what a Dubai trade license renewal costs.
The license itself does not fix a number; the quota is set when the company's immigration file is opened. If you need a large kitchen team, tell us before you sign the lease so we can check what the premises will support.
Sources
- Dubai Food Code, Dubai Municipality: food service establishments (definitions), trade license (2.1), approval of plans (2.2), design and construction (2.4), spatial requirements (2.5), Person in Charge (3.1.1), imports and FIRS (7.1), menus (8.3), non-halal food in restaurants (8.7.4), records (Annex A). Read 22 October 2026.
- Executive Council Resolution No. 13 of 2011, the DED fee and fine schedule: Schedule 1 nos. 1, 2, 5, 7, 54, 55, 56 and 60; Schedule 2 nos. 1, 5, 6, 20 and 26. Read 22 October 2026.
- Decree No. 13 of 2024: the Invest in Dubai digital window and DET's fee manual. Read 22 October 2026.
- Dubai Land Department tenancy guide: Ejari registration is mandatory.
- Dubai Municipality Food Safety Department and its first-half 2025 inspection figures.
