FoodWork is a cloud kitchen setup and operations company working across Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi. We handle the trade licence, the kitchen, the menu and your listings on Talabat, Deliveroo, Careem, Noon Food and Keeta. Then we cook, pack and dispatch ever
A cloud kitchen is a food business that cooks only for delivery, with no dine-in space. FoodWork sets them up and runs them across Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, for people opening their first delivery brand and for restaurants adding one to a kitchen they already have.
Six services, one team, one timeline:
Trade licence, kitchen sourcing, equipment, suppliers, staffing and platform listings, handled by one team on one timeline. From paperwork to first order.
We lift your position on Talabat, Deliveroo, Careem, Noon Food and Keeta by fixing menu structure, price position and rating health, then keep working it every week.
We turn the hours your kitchen sits idle into a second delivery brand, built from ingredients you already stock, with its own menu, pricing and platform listings.
We cook, pack, dispatch and quality-check to your recipes in our kitchen, so you sell on delivery without leasing space or hiring a team. Platform payouts go straight to you.
Setup, licensing guidance and platform onboarding, then six months of managed operations, so the brand launches and stabilises without you building the operation.
We test whether your cuisine sells in your area, work out what you keep per order, and give you a written go or no-go before you sign a lease or a licence.
FoodWork onboards and manages cloud kitchen listings on Talabat, Deliveroo, Careem, Noon Food and Keeta. Between them, these five platforms carry almost all food delivery demand in Dubai and the wider UAE.
From your first listing through ongoing ranking and rating work, we keep your menu, pricing and photography consistent on every platform your customers actually order from.
Launching a cloud kitchen is not hard because of the idea. It is hard because five vendors each own one piece of it and none of them owns the result. A licensing agent who has never seen a kitchen. A landlord who does not care about your rating. An agency that has never watched your prep line. FoodWork is one team that owns all of it, including the cooking.
We work with people ready to execute rather than explore. Five profiles make up most of what we do in the UAE, from a first delivery brand to a restaurant group standardising across every unit.
First-time cloud kitchen founders / People opening their first delivery brand in the UAE who want one team handling the licence, the kitchen, the menu and the platform listings.
Existing restaurants launching delivery brands / Dine-in restaurants in Dubai adding a delivery-only brand, or a second and third, from the kitchen they already run.
Multi-unit operators / Restaurant groups that want one operator and one reporting standard across every unit and every delivery platform.
Investors entering the UAE F&B market / Investors backing a delivery-first food business who want the operation run and reported on, without running it themselves.
Restaurants with idle kitchen capacity / Operators whose kitchen sits underused between peaks, and who want those hours earning through a delivery brand.
Across Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, from first licence through to live orders on the delivery platforms.
Talabat, Deliveroo, Careem, Noon Food and Keeta, onboarded and managed directly rather than through a reseller.
— Cloud Kitchen Founder, Dubai
— Delivery brand operator
Built from scratch, or launched from a dine-in kitchen using ingredients the restaurant already stocked.
Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, each with its own licensing route and municipality requirements.
Typical time from first call to first live order, depending on licence type and kitchen availability.
Live listings we build, maintain and report on across the five UAE delivery platforms.
— Cloud Kitchen Owner, UAE
Four stages, with a fixed scope agreed at each one. You always know what is happening now, what is coming next, and who is doing it.
We go through your goals, budget range, target area and operating model, and confirm the concept is worth building before anything is committed.
We line up licensing, kitchen sourcing, equipment, suppliers, staffing and platform onboarding, then agree the timeline in writing before work starts.
We handle onboarding onto Talabat, Deliveroo, Careem, Noon Food and Keeta, build the listing properly, and take the kitchen through to its first live order.
After launch we work on ranking, menu structure, price position and rating health, week by week, so the orders keep coming.
Two free calculators and a launch checklist, so you can test setup cost and rating recovery for yourself before you sign a lease or pay a licence fee.
Estimate what it costs to start a cloud kitchen in the UAE, covering kitchen type, trade licence, equipment, staffing and working capital.
Work out how many 5-star reviews it takes to lift your rating back to a target on Talabat, Deliveroo, Careem, Noon Food or Keeta.
Every step from trade licence and municipality approval to platform onboarding, in the order they need to happen.
Talabat, Deliveroo, Careem, Noon Food and Keeta each ask for different documents, run different onboarding steps and judge performance differently. These guides set out what each one wants before you apply.
Our structured guides help founders understand what is required before applying.
Licensing, kitchen setup, unit economics, ratings and platform growth, written from what we see running kitchens in Dubai every day.
Learn how to negotiate kitchen leases in the UAE with practical terms, cost controls, and licensing checks that protect delivery-first margins early.
What is a ghost kitchen? Learn how delivery-only restaurants work, where margins tighten, and what UAE operators need before they launch and scale well.
Learn how to streamline kitchen dispatch with clear station ownership, order controls, handoff timing, and metrics that protect delivery margins daily.
FoodWork sets up and runs delivery-first cloud kitchens in the UAE. We handle the trade licence, kitchen sourcing, menu and pricing, and onboarding onto Talabat, Deliveroo, Careem, Noon Food and Keeta, then run production, ratings and platform performance after launch. One team owns the whole process instead of five vendors owning a piece each.
It depends on the kitchen type, the emirate, the licence route, your equipment list and how much of the work you want handled for you. Our free setup cost calculator gives you a directional range in a couple of minutes, and we confirm a firm number for your specific concept on a call. Government fees, equipment and platform commissions are always separate and paid at cost.
No, and you should be cautious of anyone who does. What we commit to is the work getting done, a timeline you can hold us to, and honest reporting at every stage. Performance depends on your concept, your area and consistent operations, which is exactly where our work sits.
We are an operator. Consultants write the plan and leave. Kitchen providers rent you the walls. Agencies manage your listing. FoodWork handles the licensing, builds the menu, cooks the food, packs it, dispatches it and reports on it every week. You own the brand and the revenue throughout.
Yes. We identify the right licensing route for your concept and your emirate, then prepare and submit the documentation. Government fees are paid by you directly, but the process is managed by us.
Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi. Each has its own licensing route and municipality requirements, and we confirm what is possible for your specific concept and cuisine on a call.
A cloud kitchen is a food business that cooks only for delivery and takeaway, with no dine-in area. In the UAE it operates from a licensed commercial kitchen and sells through delivery platforms such as Talabat, Deliveroo, Careem, Noon Food and Keeta. It is also called a ghost kitchen, dark kitchen or virtual kitchen.
Most cloud kitchens in Dubai go from first call to first live order in four to eight weeks. The variables are the licence route, how quickly compliant kitchen space becomes available, and how fast each delivery platform completes onboarding.
No. You can lease and fit out your own space, or run through a kitchen FoodWork operates, where we cook, pack and dispatch to your recipes. In both cases you own the brand and the recipes, and platform payouts go directly to your account.
Tell us the concept, the emirate and the timeline you are working to, and we will tell you what is realistic.
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+971 52 288 5400
2101, Court Tower, Business Bay, Dubai UAE
hello@foodwork.ae
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