Restaurant and F&B licence in Dubai
A restaurant, café or other food business in Dubai needs a trade licence whose activity is food service, and it needs the food regulator as well as the licensing authority. The UAE government portal says food and beverage businesses are governed by the municipality of the emirate. In Dubai that body is Dubai Municipality. DET’s tourism licence, as this site already describes it, is for hospitality such as hotels, holiday homes and timeshares. A restaurant is not filed as that tourism licence unless the authority’s activity list says so. No restaurant package and no municipality fee are printed here.
Food service is not a hotel licence and not a cloud-kitchen slogan
Start with what you serve and where the kitchen is. A dine-in restaurant, a café, a catering kitchen and a dark kitchen can be different activity lines. DET or the free zone has to accept the line. We copy that line. We do not invent a “cloud kitchen package”. If the business also sells packaged food into shops across the UAE, that distribution may be a commercial activity on top of the kitchen. The general trading page is the goods question. It does not replace the food approval.
The portal names a municipality for each emirate: Dubai Municipality in Dubai, Sharjah Municipality, Ras Al Khaimah Municipality, and the others. A Dubai restaurant file uses Dubai Municipality. A kitchen in another emirate uses that emirate’s municipality. THAJ does not describe a Sharjah kitchen as a Dubai Municipality approval.
What has to be true before filing
- The activity name matches the outlet: restaurant, café, or the kitchen type the authority lists.
- The premises are the ones the authority and the municipality will inspect. Mainland Dubai leases are registered through Ejari.
- External food approvals are identified before the licence is treated as permission to cook.
- Delivery-only still has a kitchen address. It is not the home-based e-Trader licence.
THAJ’s fee is quoted in writing after the activity wording is accepted. Authority charges are extra and are not invented on this page. VAT & Corporate Tax Support is not included: Get connected with our licensed accounting and tax partners for VAT registration, Corporate Tax registration, return filing and bookkeeping.
The outlet does not create a Golden Visa
Staff visas are employment visas under the company’s quota, handled as PRO work after the licence exists. Owners look at investor or partner residence under the licence rules, and at the Golden Visa only if a published category fits. Turnover of a restaurant is not the AED 2 million property test.
Frequently asked questions
What licence does a restaurant in Dubai need?
A trade licence whose activity is the food service you will run, from DET on the mainland or from a free zone if the zone licenses that activity, plus Dubai Municipality’s food and beverage oversight.
Is a restaurant a tourism licence?
Not on the description this site uses. DET’s tourism licence is for hospitality such as hotels, holiday homes and timeshares. We use a restaurant activity unless the authority’s list tells us otherwise.
Do you publish Dubai Municipality’s fees?
No. They are not in our facts file. The written quote uses the municipality’s current charges rather than a number guessed here.
Can I run a restaurant from home on an e-Trader licence?
No. e-Trader is DET’s home-based online selling licence. A kitchen that serves food is a premises and a municipality question.
Official sources
Facts on this page were checked against these sources on 5 November 2026. Rules and fees can change; the authority’s current page always prevails.
- Starting a business in a free zone — The UAE Government portal (u.ae)
- Business licensing — licence types and set-up process — Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism (DET)
- Business set-up options: mainland or free zone — Government of Dubai (dubai.ae)
- Establishing business in the UAE (licence types, trade names, premises) — UAE Ministry of Economy and Tourism
Tell us the kitchen address and what you serve
Dine-in, café or catering. The municipality and the activity line follow that, not a package name.