Moonrise Retains Its MICHELIN Star for 2026, Putting ‘Dubai Cuisine’ in the Spotlight
Dubai-born Chef Solemann Haddad’s Moonrise has retained its One MICHELIN Star in the MICHELIN Guide Dubai 2026, continuing the recognition of one of the city’s most distinctive homegrown dining concepts.
Located atop Eden House in Al Satwa, Moonrise isn’t easily defined by a single regional cuisine. Instead, Haddad describes what he creates simply as “Dubai cuisine” – food influenced by the cultures, ingredients and flavours he experienced while growing up in the city.
The 2026 MICHELIN recognition adds another chapter to a journey that began with Haddad receiving the MICHELIN Guide Young Chef Award in 2022, followed by Moonrise earning its first MICHELIN Star in 2023.
What Exactly Is ‘Dubai Cuisine’?
Dubai’s restaurant scene brings together cuisines from practically every corner of the world, but Moonrise approaches that multicultural identity differently.
Rather than focusing exclusively on one culinary tradition, Haddad uses his own experience of growing up in Dubai as the starting point.
Middle Eastern ingredients and familiar flavours appear throughout the menu, but they are interpreted using different techniques and influences.
The result is a deeply personal tasting menu that reflects the experience of growing up surrounded by multiple food cultures at once.
It also raises an interesting question as Dubai’s homegrown restaurant industry matures: what does food created specifically by and for this city actually look like?
For Moonrise, the answer isn’t necessarily a fixed collection of dishes. It’s a culinary language shaped by Dubai itself.
Inside the Moonrise Dining Experience
Moonrise offers an intimate chef’s table experience built around a multi-course tasting menu.
Guests sit around a counter overlooking the open kitchen, keeping the interaction between the chefs, food and diners at the centre of the evening.
The MICHELIN Guide has highlighted Haddad’s original approach, recognising the largely self-taught chef for the way he brings Middle Eastern ingredients and flavours together through different techniques and influences.
Rather than separating the food from the chef’s story, the two are closely connected.
The dishes reflect memories, experiences and flavours from Haddad’s upbringing, which is what gives Moonrise a particularly personal identity within Dubai’s fine-dining landscape.
From Dubai to Cairo and Almaty
Moonrise’s interpretation of Dubai cuisine has also started travelling beyond the UAE.
Over the past year, the restaurant has participated in international collaborations including Khufu’s in Cairo and AUYL in Almaty.
These collaborations provide an opportunity to introduce the idea of Dubai cuisine to diners outside the Emirates while allowing the Moonrise team to engage with chefs and culinary cultures in other cities.
For Haddad, however, Dubai remains the foundation.
“Moonrise has always been about telling the story of Dubai through the flavours I grew up eating,” he says. “As we evolve, travel and collaborate with chefs outside the UAE, that story keeps growing, but Dubai will always be at the centre of what we do.”
A Homegrown Restaurant With an International Perspective
Dubai’s MICHELIN dining scene includes restaurants and chefs from around the world, making Moonrise particularly interesting as a concept that was born directly from the city and its multicultural identity.
Its continued recognition also reflects a wider evolution taking place across Dubai’s restaurant landscape, where homegrown chefs and independent concepts are increasingly developing identities that aren’t simply imported from established culinary capitals.
Moonrise takes that idea one step further by attempting to define its food through Dubai itself.
With its One MICHELIN Star retained for 2026, the restaurant continues to explore what a distinctly Dubai-born cuisine can become – while taking that story to an increasingly international audience.
Moonrise Dubai – Quick Details
Restaurant: Moonrise
Location: Eden House, Al Satwa, Dubai
Chef: Solemann Haddad
Experience: Intimate chef’s table and multi-course tasting menu
Recognition: One MICHELIN Star, retained in the MICHELIN Guide Dubai 2026
Chef Recognition: MICHELIN Guide Young Chef Award 2022
First MICHELIN Star: 2023
Cuisine: Chef Solemann Haddad describes it as “Dubai cuisine”
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