A fine-dining kitchen in a street food footprint.
Alba Street packages an award-winning Japanese kitchen into a counter format built for malls, food halls and travel retail — and makes it available to operators outside the UAE.
Request the franchise packThe proposition
A counter, not a restaurant
The whole concept is built into a compact counter footprint. There is no dining room to fit out, no table service to staff and no reservation book to run.
Sites others cannot take
Malls, food halls, airports, transport hubs and dense urban retail. The format fits units a full-service Japanese restaurant structurally cannot occupy.
Delivery-native from day one
The Dubai counter runs on three aggregator platforms — Deliveroo, Talabat and Careem. Delivery is not an add-on to the model: the menu was engineered to travel.
A menu engineered for throughput
Skill sits in the prep, not the pass. Nothing on the menu requires a decision at the moment of service, and nothing on it falls apart in a delivery bag.
Why it travels
Built by a fine-dining team
Alba Street was specified by the kitchen of Alba, an award-winning contemporary Japanese restaurant, not by a brand agency working backwards from a price point.
Premium positioning, street price point
Guests get genuinely premium product — A5 Japanese wagyu, king crab, cut-to-order fish — in a format they can afford to repeat. That combination is rare and it is the reason people come back.
A global category with thin premium supply
Japanese food is a mature global category. Japanese food executed to fine-dining standard in a fast format is not — most markets have a great deal of the first and almost none of the second.
It does not need a sushi labour market
The menu reads as authentic without depending on hiring specialist sushi chefs in every city — the constraint that stops most Japanese concepts from scaling internationally.
What a franchisee gets
Menu & recipes
Full recipe specification, prep schedules and portioning standards.
Supply chain & sourcing spec
What to buy, to what grade, and how to qualify a local supplier against it.
Kitchen design & equipment spec
Counter layout, workflow and the equipment schedule the format is built around.
Opening team & training
An opening team on site, plus a training programme for the floor and counter roles. Some kitchen positions do require prior Japanese experience — we help you hire for them.
Brand & creative system
The full BITE FIRST identity: art direction, photography grammar, packaging and campaign assets.
Delivery platform playbook
How the menu is structured, merchandised and photographed for aggregator platforms.
Ongoing operational support
Standards audits, menu development and campaign calendars after opening.
Ideal partner profile
An operator, not a passive investor
We are looking for existing F&B operators, or groups with an operating partner already in place.
Access to the right real estate
Existing relationships with mall, food hall or travel-retail landlords are the single strongest thing a partner can bring.
Multi-unit ambition
The format is designed to repeat inside a territory. We prioritise partners who want a territory rather than a single site.
GCC or international
We are speaking to operators inside the GCC and well beyond it. Tell us your market and we will tell you where it stands.
The process
- Same week
Enquiry
You complete the form below. It is short, and it is the only gate that is open to everyone.
- Within 2 weeks of enquiry
Qualification & intro call
A conversation about your market, your sites and your operating capability. No documents change hands yet.
- Days
NDA
Mutual confidentiality, signed before anything commercially sensitive is shared. This step is not negotiable and it protects both sides.
- Immediately after NDA
Franchise pack & financial model
The full commercial picture — model, terms and territory structure — released to you directly. This is where the numbers live.
- 4–8 weeks, site dependent
Territory & site review
We review your proposed sites against the format requirements, and agree the territory shape.
- Build timeline set by the site
Agreement, build & open
Franchise agreement signed, kitchen and counter built to spec, opening team on site for launch.
Credibility
Press
Reviewed by The National, the UAE national English-language title.
Guest ratings
Published star ratings on Google, Tripadvisor and Deliveroo are visible on the consumer site.
Recognition
Alba Street holds no recognition of its own — it opened in 2025. Alba, the fine-dining restaurant whose kitchen this format came out of, is included in the Gault&Millau UAE guide for 2025 and 2026.
Operating track record
Alba Street has traded at Social Distrikt since 1 April 2025. Metafoodies Group has operated in Dubai for longer, across Alba, Bisou and Himitsu.
The group behind it
- Alba
Award-winning contemporary Japanese restaurant, Downtown Dubai. The kitchen behind Alba Street.
- Bisou
French restaurant with Middle Eastern touches, by Dubai Opera.
- Himitsu
Hidden bar inside Alba, with an omakase cocktail programme.
- Alba Street
Japanese street food, Social Distrikt, Dubai Mall – Fountain Views.
Register your interest
The more precise this is, the faster we can come back to you with something useful.
Franchise
Franchise questions
What is the total investment?
We do not publish investment figures, and that is deliberate. Numbers on a public page are read by competitors as much as by partners, and in several markets any public financial representation has to be filed as part of a formal disclosure document. The full financial model is released after we have had an intro call and signed an NDA — step four of the process below. Tell us your territory and your operating experience in the form and we will move quickly.
Which territories are open?
We are speaking to operators across the GCC and internationally, with a preference for partners who can commit to a multi-unit territory rather than a single site. Availability moves; name your market in the form and we will tell you where it stands.
What kind of site does the format need?
A compact counter footprint rather than a full restaurant: malls, food halls, airports, transport hubs and high-density urban retail. No dining room, no table service and no reservations means the site requirements are materially lighter than a full-service Japanese restaurant.
Do I need Japanese kitchen experience?
No. The menu is engineered so it does not depend on finding a specialist sushi labour market in every city. Recipes, prep specification, equipment spec and the opening training programme come from us, delivered by an opening team on site.
How long does the process take?
From enquiry to signed agreement is typically a few months, driven mostly by site availability and lease negotiation on your side. Build and opening follow the site. The process below sets out each stage.
Is delivery part of the model?
Yes, from day one. The Dubai site runs on Deliveroo, Talabat and Careem, and the menu was designed to travel in a delivery bag without falling apart. The platform playbook is part of what a franchisee receives.
What does Metafoodies Group operate today?
Four concepts in Dubai: Bisou, a French restaurant near Dubai Opera; Alba, a contemporary Japanese restaurant in Downtown Dubai; Himitsu, a hidden bar inside Alba; and Alba Street.