The Franchise Pipeline Connecting London, Dubai and Riyadh
London restaurant brands now reach the Gulf through licences, franchises and local partners, and the route no longer runs in one direction: some arrived in Riyadh before Dubai.
The usual picture of how a London restaurant reaches the Gulf is a straight line: prove the concept at home, open in Dubai, then go to Riyadh. The brands now expanding show a more tangled map. Gymkhana reached Riyadh three years before it reached Dubai. Berenjak opened in Dubai and Sharjah first and arrived in the Saudi capital this April. Chotto Matte took the Gulf route through Doha and Riyadh, with Dubai still to come. What connects them is less a geography than a deal structure.
Three brands, three routes
Gymkhana, the Michelin-starred Indian restaurant that the Sethi siblings opened in Mayfair in 2013, expanded to Riyadh in 2023 and to Las Vegas in December 2025. Its Dubai restaurant opened on 1 September in Gate Village at the Dubai International Financial Centre: two floors, seating up to 137, and a menu of chaat-style sharing plates, tandoori grills, curries and biryanis plus dishes made only for Dubai. The National’s review on 14 September found a full dining room. It is the part of the story our Gymkhana report covers in detail.
Berenjak followed a different path. The Persian kebab house opened in London in 2018, won a Michelin Bib Gourmand there, and reached the UAE in 2023, in Dubai and Sharjah. Berenjak Al Maha, in Doha, was named a Bib Gourmand in the Michelin Guide Doha 2026. Its first permanent Saudi restaurant opened at Via Riyadh on 2 April, in a collaboration with Cool Inc, the Saudi operator behind Gymkhana, Ferdi and Madeo, according to FACT Magazines. The restaurant followed a pop-up in the capital the previous year. We examined that opening in our report on Berenjak and Cipriani Dolci.
Chotto Matte, the Nikkei restaurant that Kurt Zdesar founded in Soho in 2013, announced what Restaurant Online called the first of its international franchise deals in January 2020, with an unnamed Saudi partner. Its Doha and Riyadh sites were announced in 2021 as franchised but managed by Chotto Matte, and the Riyadh restaurant opened in the King Abdullah Financial District in January 2025. Its recognition in the Kingdom is covered in our awards story.
How the deals work
Franchise, licence, management contract and collaboration are used loosely in restaurant announcements, and the differences matter. The US International Trade Administration says foreign brands usually enter the UAE through a local partner acting as master franchisee. Chotto Matte’s own wording for Doha and Riyadh, franchised but managed by Chotto Matte, points to a hybrid: a local partner holds the franchise while the brand keeps day-to-day operation. FACT Magazines describes Berenjak’s Riyadh restaurant only as a collaboration with Cool Inc, without giving the terms.
Saudi Arabia adds statutory detail. According to a January 2020 summary by the International Franchise Association, written as the law was being finalised, franchisors must give prospective Saudi franchisees a disclosure document at least 14 days before signing or taking any payment. Agreements and disclosure documents must be in Arabic and registered. A concept must also have operated for at least a year, by at least two operators or in two units, before it can be franchised, and a master franchisee cannot sub-franchise until a comparable business has run in the Kingdom for a year. Operators should check the rules as they stand today.
Why the direction is not fixed
The companies’ own explanations are about fit rather than sequence. JKS’s global chief executive called Dubai a natural home for Gymkhana’s next chapter. Zdesar said Riyadh’s appetite for Japanese-Peruvian flavours, and the energy of the financial district, suited Chotto Matte. And once one concept sets up in a development, others follow: Berenjak joined Gymkhana at Via Riyadh, according to FACT. Our reading is that the pipeline follows where a partner and a ready site coincide, not a fixed ladder from London through Dubai.
The common thread is the local partner. Brands rarely arrive alone. Operators such as Cool Inc, and the unnamed partner that first signed Chotto Matte, carry the capital, the permits and the staffing, while the brand carries the name and the recipe. The model fits the wider pattern described in our report on international brands in Saudi Arabia.
The risks that travel with the model
Control is the main one. A franchise or management partner can scale a London recipe quickly, but consistency depends on training, supply and the brand’s ability to inspect. The Saudi disclosure rules exist partly because those relationships can unwind. For a London restaurant weighing its first Gulf site, the real decision is whom to partner with, not which city to enter first.
Sources & fact-check9
- Gymkhana to open in Dubai this SeptemberRestaurant Online, 7 July 2026
- Gymkhana review: Michelin-starred Indian restaurant from London dazzles in Dubai debutThe National, 14 September 2026
- From London to Riyadh: Berenjak opens a permanent restaurant in Via RiyadhFACT Magazines, 16 March 2026
- One New Star Shines in the MICHELIN Guide Doha’s Second EditionAAP (MICHELIN Guide press release), 10 December 2025
- Chotto Matte announces expansion plans including second London openingThe Caterer, 2021
- Chotto Matte heads to Saudi ArabiaRestaurant Online, 15 January 2020
- After London and Doha, Chotto Matte is now open in RiyadhCurly Tales, 2025
- UAE franchise opportunities for US companiesUS International Trade Administration, 30 July 2025
- Saudi Arabia’s new comprehensive franchise lawInternational Franchise Association (Gray Plant Mooty), January 2020
Every name, number and date in this story was checked against the sources above before publication. Spotted something wrong? Tell us — we correct errors openly. See our editorial standards.
