GCC Restaurant Statistics 2026

By Ralph Homer, founder of Praxis Model · Compiled October 15, 2026 · Updated October 17, 2026 · Refreshed quarterly · Every figure linked to its source

The short answer. The Gulf's restaurant market is measured well in Saudi Arabia and Dubai and thinly everywhere else. Six figures worth knowing, each linked to its source:

• SAR 112.5 billion: total food service sales in Saudi Arabia in 2023, with 14.4% sold through delivery apps. Source: General Authority for Competition via Argaam.
• USD 17.8 billion: consumer foodservice sales in the UAE in 2024. Source: Euromonitor via USDA Foreign Agricultural Service.
• 8,617 restaurants and 5,240 coffee shops and cafeterias: licensed outlets in Dubai in 2025. Source: Dubai Municipality via USDA Foreign Agricultural Service.
• SAR 24 billion: food delivery gross booking value in Saudi Arabia in 2025, nearly 20% of total foodservice spend. Source: Redseer Strategy Consultants.
• 15%, 10%, 5% or 0%: VAT on a restaurant bill in 2026: 15% in Saudi Arabia, 10% in Bahrain, 5% in the UAE and Oman, none in Qatar and Kuwait. Source: PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries.
• No measured rate: no GCC country publishes a measured restaurant survival or closure rate. See what nobody publishes.

How to read this page. "Estimate" marks a figure modelled by a research house rather than measured. "Weak" marks a single or unattributed source, kept only where it is the best public signal. "Via" means the first-named body produced the figure and the linked outlet reported it. Conversions use USD 1 = SAR 3.75.

Foodservice market size

Measured and official figures first:

• Saudi Arabia, SAR 112.5 billion: total food service sales (2023). Source: General Authority for Competition via Argaam.
• Saudi Arabia, about USD 30 billion: foodservice sales, roughly 20% above 2022, projected to reach about USD 45 billion by 2030/2032 (the report gives both dates) (2024). Source: USDA FAS GAIN report SA2025-0019.
• Saudi Arabia, SAR 168.3 billion: operating revenues of all accommodation and food service establishments, up 5.5%; this includes hotels, so it is not a restaurant-only figure (2024). Source: DataSaudi, Ministry of Economy and Planning.
• UAE, USD 17.8 billion: consumer foodservice sales, forecast USD 20.6 billion by 2029 (2024). Source: Euromonitor via USDA FAS GAIN report TC2025-0013.
• Oman, OMR 198.8 million: direct value added by restaurants (2025). Source: NCSI via Times of Oman.

Modelled estimates for all six markets, from one research house so they are at least consistent with each other (Mordor Intelligence; each country links to its own report):

• 53.62%: share of the Saudi foodservice market held by full-service restaurants (2025, estimate). Source: Mordor Intelligence.
• Mordor's UAE and Qatar figures sit well apart from other sources; see where sources disagree.

Restaurants, cafes and licences

• Dubai, 8,617 restaurants and 5,240 coffee shops and cafeterias: licensed outlets (2025). Source: Dubai Municipality via USDA FAS.
• Dubai, about 2,336: new food establishments opened, with 34,700 inspection visits (first half of 2025). Source: Dubai Municipality.
• Dubai, almost 1,200: new restaurant licences issued (2024). Source: Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism via Associated Press.
• Dubai, 119: restaurants in the MICHELIN Guide Dubai across 35 cuisines, including 14 one-star and 22 Bib Gourmand (2025). Source: Government of Dubai Media Office.
• UAE, 17,361: consumer foodservice outlets nationwide (2024). Source: Euromonitor via USDA FAS.
• Saudi Arabia, 102,333: active enterprises in accommodation and food service activities (2024). Source: DataSaudi, Ministry of Economy and Planning.
• Saudi Arabia, 44,800: commercial registrations in the fast-food activity, up 17%; Riyadh 13,644, Makkah 12,028, Eastern Province 5,566 (end 2023). Source: Ministry of Commerce via Argaam.
• Saudi Arabia, 13,039: new commercial registrations in accommodation and food services, 18% of all registrations that quarter (Q2 2026). Source: Ministry of Commerce Quarterly Business Sector Bulletin no. 14 via Qoyod.
• Qatar, more than 6,000: restaurants, per Visit Qatar's communications director, with 30 recommended by the Michelin Guide (October 2026). Source: Qatar Tourism via Gulf Times.
• No official count of restaurants or F&B licences was found for Kuwait, Bahrain or Oman.

Food delivery

• Saudi Arabia, SAR 24 billion: food delivery gross booking value, nearly 20% of total foodservice spend (2025). Source: Redseer Strategy Consultants.
• Saudi Arabia, 20% to 36%: rise in discounts as a share of delivery gross booking value (2025). Source: Redseer Strategy Consultants.
• Saudi Arabia, 60,000+: restaurant locations active on delivery aggregators (2025). Source: Redseer Strategy Consultants.
• Saudi Arabia, SAR 16.2 billion: delivery app sales, up from SAR 2.8 billion in 2018 (2023). Source: General Authority for Competition via Argaam.
• Saudi Arabia, 408 million: delivery app orders, up from 228 million in 2023 (2025). Source: General Authority for Competition via Argaam.
• Saudi Arabia, 124 million+: delivery orders in one quarter, up 60% year on year (Q4 2025). Source: Transport General Authority via Sharikat Mubasher.
• Saudi Arabia, about 32%: Jahez share of delivery orders (over 35% by value), 91 million of 290 million platform orders (2024). Source: TGA data cited by the Jahez CFO, via Argaam.
• Saudi Arabia, 150 million+: Keeta orders in its first year of operation from September 2024. Source: Keeta annual report via Argaam.
• Saudi Arabia, 7.2 billion: Jahez group GMV, up 11%, with net revenue of 2.3 billion and net income of 65.1 million (FY2025); the source page gives no currency, and Jahez reports in Saudi riyals. Source: Quartr earnings summary.
• Saudi Arabia, 2%: customer service fee (minimum SAR 0.5, maximum SAR 2) charged by HungerStation and Keeta; the General Authority for Competition treats a share at or near 25% as possible dominance (January 2026). Source: Argaam.
• GCC and wider MENA, USD 9.5 billion: talabat GMV, up 28%, with USD 3.9 billion of revenue; the GCC was 80% of fourth-quarter GMV (FY2025). Source: talabat Holding results.
• GCC and wider MENA, 55,000+: restaurant partners on talabat, with over 6.5 million active customers (December 2024). Source: talabat IPO investor presentation.

Commission rules by country

Spending on eating out

• Saudi Arabia, SAR 21.8 billion: point-of-sale spending at restaurants and cafes across 750.2 million transactions, about 12% of all POS value (Q4 2025). Source: Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) via Sharikat Mubasher.
• Saudi Arabia, SAR 21.6 billion: restaurant and cafe POS spending (Q3 2025). Source: SAMA via Sharikat Mubasher.
• Saudi Arabia, 62.7 million: restaurant and cafe POS transactions in one week, 23.4% of all transactions, SAR 1.81 billion spent, an implied average bill of SAR 28.9 (30 August to 5 September 2026). Source: SAMA weekly POS bulletin, analysed by Qoyod.
• Saudi Arabia, about USD 1,000: per-capita spending on dining out and home delivery (2024). Source: USDA FAS GAIN report SA2025-0019.

Tourism demand, 2025

In Saudi Arabia, inbound arrivals fell while the total grew: domestic travel drove 2025. Source: Ministry of Tourism via Argaam.

Retail and F&B rents

Units differ by market: square metres in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, square feet in Dubai, and Doha rents are quoted per month.

• Riyadh, 91%: retail occupancy on 4.17 million sq m of GLA; Jeddah 87% (2025). Source: Knight Frank via Enterprise.

Employment in food service

Saudization rules for restaurants

• 40% for restaurants and 50% for cafes: Saudization rates for F&B outlets inside enclosed malls, which are exempt from the 100% mall rule; in force since 4 August 2021 and still the latest published activity rule found. Source: HRSD decision via Gulf News.
• SAR 4,000 a month: minimum wage for a Saudi employee to count as one under Nitaqat; SAR 3,000 to 3,999 counts as half; below SAR 3,000 does not count (Evolved Nitaqat, April 2026 to December 2028). Source: Al Tamimi & Co.
• Fewer than six staff: the small-entity exemption is removed; these firms now fall under Nitaqat and must employ at least one Saudi (2026 to 2028). Source: Al Tamimi & Co.
• Y = M x log(X) + C: a headcount formula replaces fixed percentages, measured across all branches doing the same activity; Low Green loses new visas and Red loses work-permit renewals. The constants for food service are in the MHRSD procedural guide and were not public in the sources found (2026). Source: Clyde & Co.
• 60% and 100%: 60% Saudization for sales and marketing roles (minimum wage SAR 5,500) and 100% for 69 administrative-support professions; these reach restaurant head offices (2026). Source: Al Tamimi & Co.

VAT and consumption taxes by country

Cafes and cloud kitchens

• Saudi Arabia, 61,000+: cafe business licences issued, including 27,000 for traditional neighbourhood coffee shops; these are licences issued, not confirmed operating outlets (2025). Source: Ministry of Commerce via Gulf News.
• Saudi Arabia, 11.82% CAGR to 2031: cafes and bars are the fastest-growing foodservice type (2025 base, estimate). Source: Mordor Intelligence.
• Saudi Arabia, USD 1.3 to 1.9 billion a year: coffee shop market, with about 36 million cups of coffee drunk a day (2025). Weak: a single association figure that does not fit the licence count. Source: Saudi Restaurants and Cafes Association via Gulf News.
• UAE, USD 4,324.9 million: cafes and bars foodservice sales, up from USD 4,184.4 million in 2023 (2024). Source: Euromonitor via USDA FAS.
• Saudi Arabia, about USD 200 million: revenue added by cloud kitchens, with another USD 500 million expected by 2030 (2024). Source: USDA FAS GAIN report SA2025-0019.
• Saudi Arabia, USD 1,085.7 million: cloud kitchen market, forecast USD 2,799.4 million by 2034, CAGR 11.1% (2025, estimate). Source: IMARC Group.

What nobody publishes: closure and survival data

No Dubai or GCC authority publishes a restaurant closure rate; the best measured benchmark, H.G. Parsa's Ohio State study of 2,439 restaurants in Columbus, Ohio (1996 to 1999), found 26% closed in year one and 59% within three years. Any Gulf-specific failure percentage you hear is an opinion, and our Dubai restaurant failure rate fact-check explains why the quoted figures differ. What the public record does hold:

• Dubai, no official closure rate: the authorities do not disclose one, and the "high failure rate" in press coverage comes from unnamed industry veterans (2025). Weak. Source: Associated Press.
• Dubai, a decline in cafes: the number of coffee shop and cafeteria outlets fell while restaurant numbers rose; no count of closures is given (2025). Weak. Source: Dubai Municipality data via USDA FAS.
• Saudi Arabia, SAR 3.2 billion: estimated cost of delivery discounting absorbed by the ecosystem, a margin-stress signal rather than a closure count (2025, estimate). Source: Redseer Strategy Consultants.

The nearest public signals are flows and stock: new licences, new registrations and outlet counts, all listed above. None of them tells you how many restaurants closed or how long they lasted.

Where sources disagree

• Saudi market size is broadly consistent at about SAR 112 to 120 billion. GAC: SAR 112.5 billion (2023). USDA: about USD 30 billion, or SAR 112.5 billion (2024). Mordor: USD 30.12 billion, or about SAR 113 billion (2025). Redseer's SAR 24 billion at "nearly 20%" implies about SAR 120 billion (2025). DataSaudi's SAR 168.3 billion is higher because it includes hotels. For 2025 we use about SAR 115 to 120 billion, anchored on GAC.
• Saudi delivery size does not agree. GAC gives SAR 16.2 billion of sales (2023), Redseer SAR 24 billion of gross bookings (2025), and USDA USD 8.5 billion, or about SAR 32 billion, of "delivery revenue" (2024). The USDA figure is the outlier and probably uses a different scope. Prefer Redseer for 2025 and GAC for history.
• Saudi order volumes come from different periods. TGA data puts platform orders at 290 million (2024) and GAC at 408 million (2025). Keeta's 150 million first-year orders and Jahez's 32% share of 2024 cover different periods, so no clean 2025 market share table exists.
• UAE market size has a 30% gap. Euromonitor via USDA gives USD 17.8 billion (2024); Mordor gives USD 23.21 billion (2025). Growth alone does not explain it, and the same USDA report also prints USD 8.5 billion and USD 18.8 billion elsewhere. Prefer Euromonitor's USD 17.8 billion.
• Saudi and UAE cafe figures are not comparable. Euromonitor's UAE cafes and bars category (USD 4.3 billion, 2024) includes bars. The Saudi association's USD 1.3 to 1.9 billion coffee shop market does not fit 61,000+ cafe licences and is weak.
• Saudi cloud kitchen figures measure different things. USDA's about USD 200 million is incremental revenue added (2024); IMARC's USD 1.09 billion is a modelled total (2025). Both are soft.
• Saudi visitor totals vary between 122 million, 122.6 million and 123 million for 2025 because preliminary and final Ministry of Tourism releases differ.
• Dubai outlet counts are close. The Associated Press gives about 13,000 food and drink establishments (2025); Dubai Municipality via USDA gives 8,617 restaurants plus 5,240 cafes, or 13,857. An older headline of "over 26,000 food establishments" probably counts all food trade, including groceries, and is excluded here.
• Dubai rents measure different units of space. Cushman & Wakefield gives AED 400 to 2,000 per sq ft for super-regional malls and AED 1,000 to 1,100 for Tier 1 prime. The Associated Press gives "more than USD 100", or about AED 367, per sq ft for prime restaurants, without naming a source (weak). Restaurant units are larger and pay below line-store rates.
• Qatar against Kuwait. Mordor puts Qatar (USD 1.98 billion) at little more than half of Kuwait (USD 3.54 billion), although Qatar has more than 6,000 restaurants and higher income per head. Treat the Qatar estimate as low-confidence.

How we use these numbers

Every Praxis feasibility study starts from sourced market data like this. Then I replace the averages with your own site, your menu and your lease: the people who pass that door, the ticket your menu can carry, the rent and terms you are actually offered. A market figure tells you whether a category is worth studying; only your own numbers tell you whether your restaurant will pay back. See how that works in a feasibility study in Dubai or a feasibility study in Saudi Arabia.

Frequently asked questions

How big is the Saudi foodservice market?

SAR 112.5 billion of food service sales in 2023, according to a General Authority for Competition study, with 14.4% sold through delivery apps. The USDA Foreign Agricultural Service put it at about USD 30 billion in 2024, and for 2025 the sources together point to about SAR 115 to 120 billion.

How many restaurants are there in Dubai?

8,617 licensed restaurants and 5,240 coffee shops and cafeterias in 2025, according to Dubai Municipality data reported by the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service. Almost 1,200 new restaurant licences were issued in 2024, per the Department of Economy and Tourism.

What is the VAT on restaurants in each GCC country?

15% in Saudi Arabia, 10% in Bahrain, 5% in the UAE and Oman, and 0% in Qatar and Kuwait, according to PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries for 2026. Oman also charges a 4% tourism tax on restaurants and cafes in tourist areas or run under franchise.

How big is food delivery in Saudi Arabia?

SAR 24 billion of gross booking value in 2025, nearly 20% of total foodservice spend, according to Redseer Strategy Consultants. The General Authority for Competition counted 408 million delivery app orders in 2025, up from 228 million in 2023.

What is the restaurant failure rate in Dubai?

No Dubai or GCC authority publishes a restaurant closure rate; the best measured benchmark, H.G. Parsa's Ohio State study of 2,439 restaurants in Columbus, Ohio (1996 to 1999), found 26% closed in year one and 59% within three years. Our Dubai restaurant failure rate fact-check explains why other figures differ.

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Praxis Model is a GCC restaurant feasibility consultancy. Figures are compiled from the public sources linked on this page as of October 15, 2026; each belongs to its publisher, and estimates are labelled as such. General information, not advice for your specific venture.