British expats and M&S devotees in the UAE, take note: the largest Marks & Spencer Foodhall outside the UK is opening at Dubai Festival City in December 2026, and it's not just a bigger version of what's already there.
The 15,327-square-foot store will be the first place outside Britain to carry the full M&S Food range. That means more than 3,500 core M&S products sourced from over 200 UK suppliers, plus around 500 locally sourced items, all under one roof — enough to do a full weekly shop without hopping between stores across the city.
A few firsts make this opening more interesting than a straightforward retail expansion. M&S flowers will be sold internationally for the first time here, and the store will feature the brand's first Patisserie in the Middle East. There's also a fruit butcher, a sushi counter, rotisserie chicken and a pizza oven, along with entirely new store concepts M&S hasn't rolled out anywhere before.
The launch is a joint effort between M&S and Al-Futtaim, the Dubai-based retail group that already runs the brand's fashion business across the Middle East. Wassim Arabi, Al-Futtaim's President of Retail, framed it as setting a new benchmark for food retail in the UAE, while M&S international managing director Mark Lemming said the aim is to make M&S Food a bigger part of customers' everyday routines in the region.
So why should a traveller care? If you're a Brit heading to Dubai and you always make time for a Foodhall run, you'll no longer need to squeeze it into your trip home. And for anyone else, it's a genuinely different thing to do between beach and brunch — a one-stop spot for a proper M&S meal deal fix, fresh flowers and a sushi lunch, all in one of Dubai's most accessible mall districts. Just note that an exact December opening date hasn't been confirmed yet, so keep an eye out before you plan a detour.
