The Dubai Openings Worth Watching in 2026
Drive past any stretch of new Dubai and the skyline is half scaffolding, half promise: renderings on hoardings, ground-breaking photographs, "coming soon" banners over sites that have gone quiet. The city announces more than it opens, and a fair share of what's announced slips a season, or two, or disappears altogether. So the useful question isn't what's been announced for 2026 — it's which of those projects have real provenance behind them, a brand or a kitchen that means something, and a date worth keeping loosely in mind.
What follows is that shorter list. All of it is still ahead of us, so read every date as expected rather than promised.
The hotels
On the quiet West Crescent of Palm Jumeirah, away from the busy trunk, Six Senses The Palm is the one most people in the city are watching. It's the brand's first address in the UAE — its fourth in the Middle East. Sixty-one suites, a large wellbeing club with a longevity centre, and the restraint Six Senses is known for. Stays are slated to open from the autumn, around the third quarter of 2026.
Sculpted, angled glass meant to echo cut crystal — that's the first thing about Baccarat Hotel & Residences, the French crystal house arriving in Downtown Dubai with towers by Studio Libeskind. Developed by Shamal Holding, with a 144-key hotel beneath the Le Rouge and Le Noir residences. Expected through 2026.
Sitting on the Business Bay Canal, minutes from the Burj Khalifa, Kimpton Dubai is a quieter proposition — IHG's first Kimpton in the country, a 280-room lifestyle hotel. Three dining concepts and a rooftop pool, pitched as much at residents as at visitors. Slated for early in the year.
Floor-to-ceiling aquariums and full Italian Riviera dress make InterContinental Resort Portofino the maximalist counterpoint: 466 rooms on The World Islands, inside the Heart of Europe development. It's IHG's first InterContinental resort in Dubai, built by the Kleindienst Group, and expected to open early in 2026. Whether the archipelago around it feels finished is the open question.
The beach clubs
The most interesting beachfront news is folded into a hotel taking shape at Port de La Mer in Jumeirah. Gran Meliá Dubai, a five-star resort on track to finish by the end of 2026, is the address bringing two names worth the trip.
The izakaya menu that made the original a fixture, moved onto 140 metres of shoreline: Zuma Beach House will be Zuma's first beachside venue in the Middle East, with a day-to-night beach-club rhythm. Alongside it, Novikov Beach marks the London group's Dubai debut on the sand — Mediterranean and Asian plates, day beds, a pool over the marina. Both are tied to the resort's completion, so expect them in the back half of the year.
The restaurants
Dubai's 2026 dining calendar leans heavily on London imports, and the strongest of them are landing in DIFC.
Tandoori lamb chops and game biryani are the headline: Gymkhana, JKS Restaurants' Michelin-starred ode to the members' clubs of pre-independence India, is making DIFC its third home after London and Riyadh. No firm date yet; the word is later in 2026.
A row of stools and a kitchen working in front of you: Barrafina brings its counter-only Spanish tapas to DIFC's Gate Village. No reservations, no fuss — a format Dubai hasn't really had at this level. Expected early in the year.
Black cod miso and the yellowtail with jalapeño come to One Za'abeel's Link, where Nobu opens another outpost trading on the Japanese-Peruvian repertoire that's been imitated everywhere and bettered rarely. Slated for the start of 2026.
Out on the Palm, contemporary Turkish cooking with an Aegean, Greek-leaning accent marks a change of register: Avlu, reportedly arriving in February. A gentler counterpoint to all the marble and crystal elsewhere on this list.
How to keep track without the noise
The trouble with any openings list is that it's accurate for about a week. Dates move, soft launches drag, and the genuinely good rooms take a few months to find their feet — which is usually right when the press cycle has moved on.
That gap is the reason Better Taste exists. The Dubai catalogue is curated and kept current, so rather than bookmarking a post you carry the whole edit in your pocket, filter it by neighbourhood or mood, and save the places you want to get to before they're crowded. Start with the names above, then browse the rest of the city.