Only two restaurants won a first MICHELIN star in Dubai this year: Birch, where chef Arslan Berdiev cooks from his Turkmen heritage in an open kitchen, and KIGO, a Japanese room offering sushi omakase and kaiseki. Both were announced at the fifth MICHELIN Guide Dubai ceremony at Atlantis The Royal on 6 October 2026, and they take the city's one-star tier to 14 restaurants.
Alongside them, Michelin singled out three other people: the executive chef of Ossiano, who won the Young Chef Award; the front-of-house leader at KIGO, who won the Service Award; and the cook behind Window in Al Serkal, named Opening of the Year. Together they give a picture of who is shaping Dubai's next chapter.
Birch: a Turkmen chef and an open kitchen
Birch is led by chef Arslan Berdiev, whose contemporary cooking draws on his Turkmen heritage and his travels. It is rare to see Central Asian roots at the centre of a Gulf fine-dining menu, and the guide's recognition gives that perspective a visible place in the city.
Michelin describes the cooking as produce-focused and cites dishes that feature Uzbek tomatoes. It also draws attention to the room. In its citation, the inspectors say that an immaculate open kitchen brings the cooking into view, which means diners can see the work as it happens. A hanging installation in the dining room evokes birch bark, echoing the restaurant's name.
The sources read for this article do not give Birch's address, so diners should confirm the location when they book.
KIGO: seasons on the plate
KIGO serves seasonal Japanese cuisine in two forms: a sushi omakase at the counter, or a kaiseki menu at the table. The two terms are worth explaining. Omakase means leaving the choice to the chef, so the meal is a sequence the kitchen decides. Kaiseki is Japan's formal multi-course seasonal meal, in which each dish is arranged to reflect the time of year.
Michelin's citation praises superb produce handled with care to create delicate, harmonious flavours, and it describes the presentation as having an understated sense of theatre. That phrase suits a counter, where guests sit close to the work and the preparation is part of the experience.
The sources read do not name KIGO's head chef or give its address, so those details are left out here.
The people behind the awards
KIGO also took the MICHELIN Service Award, presented to Akinori Tanigawa and the team at the restaurant. A service award recognises the dining room rather than the kitchen: the timing, the explanation of each dish and the sense that guests are looked after. Giving it to the team, rather than to a single person, matches how a counter restaurant works, with cooks and service staff working in plain view of the same diners.
The Young Chef Award went to Rémy Marquignon, executive chef of Ossiano. The restaurant keeps its one star in the 2026 guide. Ossiano is the underwater-view restaurant at Atlantis The Palm, and the award recognises a chef whose responsibility is a hotel dining room with a distinctive setting.
The Opening of the Year award went to Gonzalo Platero and Window in Al Serkal. Michelin recognised the restaurant for wood-fired cooking that highlights the natural flavours of ingredients. Cooking over fire is among the oldest techniques there is, and the award suggests it remains a living form of fine dining.
What the choices say about Dubai
Taken together, the results point in the same direction as the wider guide. Dubai's 2026 selection lists 122 restaurants across 38 cuisines, and the people honoured this year include a Turkmen chef, a Japanese service team, the executive chef of a hotel restaurant and a wood-fire cook. None of them fits a single template.
The mix also shows the range of settings. KIGO and Birch are new additions to the starred list, Ossiano is an established star inside a resort, and Window is a recent opening that has already been named the best of its year. Chefs from Central Asia, Japan and elsewhere are working in Dubai, and the guide now recognises their cooking at its different levels.
There is a practical side for diners curious about the 2026 results. The sources read do not give booking details or prices for Birch or KIGO, so it is best to ask the restaurants directly. KIGO's counter and table menus, and Birch's open kitchen, are the formats to look for.
What comes next
The next steps for these restaurants are for the inspectors to decide, but the 2026 guide already marks a turning point. Dubai now has 14 one-star restaurants, four with two stars and two with three, with 19 new entries in this edition.
For now, Dubai's newest stars belong to a cook from Turkmenistan and a counter built on Japanese seasons.
Sources: MICHELIN Guide, What's On, Gulf News