KFC and Americana open first Muse restaurant in Dubai

KFC, in partnership with Americana Restaurants, opened its first KFC Muse flagship restaurant at Jumeirah Beach Residence in Dubai on 31 October 2026. The two-storey venue offers a departure from the conventional fast-food format, combining dedicated drinks stations with chicken prepared to customers’ preferences. It serves as a test site ahead of the concept’s expansion beyond the UAE.

Dubai provides the starting point for a new concept

According to a report published by RetailNews Asia on 1 November, Americana Restaurants developed the site in collaboration with Yum Brands, KFC’s parent company. Americana operates as the brand’s franchisee in the Middle East and North Africa, making the opening directly relevant to the UAE’s franchise sector, rather than simply another addition to an existing restaurant network.

KFC Muse centres on larger premises, longer visits and separate stations for different product categories, rather than relying solely on the traditional fast-food restaurant format. This arrangement aims to increase customer spending, but that remains an objective of the new concept, not a proven financial outcome of the opening.

Dubai’s significance lies in the restaurant’s role as the first test site for this design. The local trial precedes a second opening planned for Seoul, placing the UAE operation at the start of a process that could influence how the brand redesigns its restaurants in other markets. The eventual scale and pace of change, however, cannot be inferred from the first opening alone.

Drinks and customisation at the heart of the experience

The restaurant includes a dedicated drinks station called KWENCH by KFC, serving handcrafted speciality drinks. The menu includes refreshing boba drinks, Krunch Shakes, sparkling lemonade and iced coffee. The station aims to attract orders outside the usual lunch and dinner peaks, giving customers reasons to visit beyond a main meal.

Alongside drinks, the site offers KFC MIX’D, which allows customers to choose their chicken pieces, add sauces and seasonings, then have them mixed together in a container. Customisation therefore becomes part of how the product is served, rather than simply a choice of ready-made menu items. This is one of the defining features of Muse at its first location.

The design brings together two clear approaches: creating more occasions to visit through drinks, and giving customers a greater role in putting together their chicken orders. These additions do not mean the restaurant has moved away from its focus on chicken. Instead, the new experience reorganises how chicken is served alongside a drinks category with its own dedicated station within the same venue.

For the franchise sector, this arrangement highlights how restaurant upgrades can go beyond décor to encompass service layout and the ordering process. At Muse, that approach is reflected in the features announced: two floors, a drinks station and a separate chicken customisation service, rather than a purely visual makeover.

Seoul is next, with the global network offering potential scope

Yum Brands confirmed that the second KFC Muse restaurant will open in Seoul before the end of 2026. The concept’s next announced move will therefore be into East Asia following its Dubai debut, with the trial used to assess the potential for wider adoption.

KFC’s network comprises more than 34,000 restaurants across over 150 countries, according to the report. That scale places the Dubai trial in a broad global context, but it does not mean all those restaurants will automatically convert to Muse, or that a comprehensive conversion timetable has been announced. There is an important distinction between testing a scalable model and carrying out a network-wide upgrade.

The confirmed developments are therefore the opening of the first Dubai site and plans for the second in Seoul. Global expansion remains a possibility for the concept, not an accomplished outcome. Nor does the opening alone demonstrate higher sales or prove that the product stations increase spending. Those objectives will require subsequent operating results to assess.

What does the opening mean for the franchise sector?

The partnership between Americana and Yum Brands highlights the franchisee’s role in developing a new customer experience alongside the parent company. In this case, the activity goes beyond opening a branch in the usual format: it involves launching an initial test site for a concept that combines changes to space, products and service.

For brand owners and operators in the UAE, the opening offers a case worth following for the way it connects restaurant design with different consumption occasions. Drinks outside peak mealtimes and made-to-order customisation are two announced features whose development can be monitored, without assuming they will deliver the same results for every brand or location.

Practical takeaway: When assessing an upgrade to a franchised restaurant, distinguish between the appeal of the concept and its proven results. Dubai’s KFC Muse trial is worth following, but investment decisions require actual operating data, not just the scale of the global network.