talabat Kitchen has grown fast, but the bigger story lies beneath it. This is no longer just about getting food to customers quicker. It is about owning the infrastructure, the data, and increasingly the economics of how restaurants expand. As the cloud kitchen model matures globally, talabat’s approach in the Middle East is starting to look less like a trend and more like a long-term play on how the food ecosystem will operate.
Here, Tarek El Halabi, country lead Talabat Kitchen UAE, discusses how the model is evolving on the ground, what has worked and what has not, and how talabat is positioning itself as competition intensifies. The market moves past the early hype around cloud kitchens.
talabat Kitchen has expanded rapidly across the region. What problem are you really solving for restaurants and for customers, and how has that evolved since launch?
talabat Kitchen was built to solve two things at once: faster delivery for customers and smarter growth and stronger unit economics for our restaurant partners. We enable brands by giving them proximity, data intelligence, and operational leverage at scale.
For restaurants, we’re removing the heavy capital investment barriers that traditionally prevent expansion. Our asset-light, partner-first model allows restaurants – from global franchises to homegrown SMEs – to scale into new communities without technical overhead or major CapEx. Partners maintain full control over their recipes, teams, and food quality while we provide the optimised infrastructure.
For customers, we’re delivering faster service and greater choice by bringing kitchens closer to where they live and work. We’ve achieved delivery time improvements of 9 per cent in the UAE, 13 per cent in Bahrain, and 4 per cent in Qatar compared to traditional brick-and-mortar operations.
Since launching our first kitchen in Khalifa City, Abu Dhabi in 2020, we’ve evolved from a simple infrastructure play to a comprehensive growth platform. Today, we support over 1,000+ restaurant partners across five MENA markets with more than 500 kitchen stalls, and our ambition is to reach 50 kitchens over the next three years.
With over 30 hubs across the MENA region, how do you decide where to open next, what data points matter most, demand density, cuisine gaps, delivery times, or unit economics?
Our expansion strategy is powered by Pepper, talabat’s integrated platform, an in-house system developed by Delivery Hero’s Global Food Services team. Pepper enables predictive demand forecasting, intelligent partner and location matching, and real-time performance monitoring – essentially allowing us to predict where demand will be before the market does. With Pepper, we’re predicting demand, optimising preparation, shortening delivery loops, and identifying the right partners before the market does.
The AI-driven approach considers multiple factors simultaneously: demand density through predictive forecasting, optimal partner-location matching based on cuisine fit and market opportunity, and delivery loop optimisation to ensure we can serve customers faster. Our Pepper lead generation tool specifically identifies “preferred partners” based on cuisine fit, affordability, and market opportunity.
Currently, we operate more than 30 kitchen hubs across the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Jordan, with plans to reach 50 kitchens over the next three years.
This expansion is guided by data intelligence rather than intuition, ensuring each new hub contributes to our goal.
Our approach prioritises markets where we can build sustainable unit economics while delivering value to customers and partners. This is reflected in our approach of maintaining profitability discipline while achieving strong growth.
The cloud kitchen model has seen hype globally, then a reality check. What have been the biggest operational lessons in the Middle East, and where did the early assumptions prove wrong?
Our biggest lesson has been that success comes from being partner-first rather than brand-centric. Unlike many operators built on brand ownership or standardized menus, we’ve learned that our asset-light model scales authenticity more effectively. We give partners control while providing them with proximity and operational leverage at scale.
The assumption that cloud kitchens should operate like “ghost kitchens” proved wrong in the Middle East. All our kitchens operate under licensed safety and hygiene standards, removing the negative perceptions often associated with ghost kitchen concepts. Partners bring their own teams, recipes, and equipment, maintaining full control over food quality and brand identity.
Another key learning was the importance of technology integration from the start. Pepper powers everything from kitchen efficiency optimisation to partner success assessment. This isn’t just about replication – it’s about intelligent infrastructure that can predict and optimise performance across markets.
The sustainability aspect has also proven more important than initially expected. Our proximity-based model reduces delivery miles and carbon emissions, aligning with broader regional sustainability goals while delivering operational efficiency.
How do you balance supporting established brands versus incubating new, digital-first food concepts within your kitchens?
Our partner-first model naturally accommodates both established brands and emerging concepts. We currently support over 1,000 restaurant partners across MENA, ranging from global franchises to homegrown SMEs and startups.
For established brands, we provide expansion capabilities without the traditional barriers. Successful brands leverage our network to reach new markets efficiently.
For emerging concepts, we remove the heavy CapEx barriers that typically prevent SMEs and startups from scaling, offering solutions that can result in up to 90 per cent savings compared to opening a traditional brick-and-mortar location, while also supporting them with licensing, operational setup, and infrastructure readiness.
We also provide marketing, operational, and tech support via dedicated growth managers and our Pepper system. As partners grow and succeed with us, we help facilitate their cross-border expansion, providing a seamless pathway to scale brands across new markets within the region.
What does profitability look like at the hub level, and how close are you to building a model that consistently delivers strong margins?
Profitability for us starts with sustainable unit economics at the hub level. Each kitchen is designed to achieve strong utilisation, optimised delivery loops, and a healthy mix of partners that drive consistent order volume. Because we operate an asset-light, partner-first model, we’re able to scale efficiently without the heavy capital burden traditionally associated with restaurant expansion.
What differentiates our approach is discipline. We focus on building hubs in areas where demand density, operational efficiency, and partner performance align to create long-term value, not short-term growth at any cost. As network density increases, margins naturally strengthen through operational leverage and shared infrastructure.
At the broader platform level, our financial performance reflects this discipline. We’ve demonstrated strong profitability while continuing to invest in expansion, showing that our model is not only scalable but also generates revenue.
Delivery speed is one thing, food quality is another. How are you ensuring consistency and standards across dozens of shared kitchen facilities?
Quality control is maintained through our partner-first operational model, where restaurants bring their own teams, recipes, and equipment, maintaining full control over food quality and brand identity. This ensures consistency because the same teams and processes that deliver quality in traditional locations are replicated in our facilities.
All our kitchens operate under licensed safety and hygiene standards, which removes the negative perceptions often associated with “ghost kitchens” while ensuring regulatory compliance across all locations. We maintain comprehensive food safety standards through a multi-layered approach that ensures excellence at every level.
Our dedicated food safety team conducts routine audits across all stalls, providing professional oversight and regular monitoring for consistent compliance. All our kitchens are HACCP certified, meeting industry-leading food safety requirements while maintaining full compliance with local authority regulations and guidelines.
Additionally, our ground-level kitchen teams are thoroughly trained to proactively address any operational challenges that might impact food quality or disrupt operational flows, ensuring seamless service delivery and maintaining the highest standards from strategic oversight to daily operations.
Our Pepper AI system provides real-time performance monitoring and kitchen efficiency optimisation, enabling consistent operational standards across the network. This technology-led approach ensures that quality and speed improvements are systematically maintained rather than left to individual operator discretion. The measurable delivery time improvements we’ve achieved demonstrate that our operational standards are consistently delivering enhanced performance across different markets.
Saudi Arabia is becoming a critical growth market for food tech. How different is the operating environment there compared to the UAE?
Our current network of more than 30 hubs operates across the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Jordan, with plans to reach 50 kitchens over the next three years. While Saudi Arabia represents a significant market opportunity in the region, our immediate focus remains on optimising operations and scaling sustainably within our markets.
The UAE presents a unique mix of high-density urban centres and suburban areas, which shapes our delivery logistics and demand patterns. Cities like Dubai and Abu Dhabi feature both concentrated demand hotspots and residential clusters, allowing us to strategically place hubs for faster delivery, broader coverage, and operational efficiency.
By leveraging data intelligence through Pepper, we ensure each new kitchen location maximises value for both our partners and customers, while maintaining consistent service standards across the network.
Last month, talabat UAE launched 100 Rent-Free Cloud Kitchen Spaces. What is the purpose behind this initiative, and how does it align with talabat’s broader mission to support and scale the regional food ecosystem? Also, is the initiative specifically for homegrown restaurants?
This initiative was designed to provide immediate, practical support to the UAE’s restaurant sector when it matters most. At talabat, we recognise that we are uniquely positioned across demand, logistics, and infrastructure to step in and make a tangible difference where it matters most.
We are stepping in with practical support, leveraging our infrastructure to help stabilise and sustain the UAE restaurant sector. By offering 100 cloud kitchen spaces rent-free, we are directly addressing one of the most significant cost pressures facing restaurant partners. At scale, this delivers meaningful savings, enabling partners to reinvest in their operations, support their teams, and grow more sustainably.
Beyond cost relief, the initiative is designed to unlock immediate growth and ensure business continuity. These kitchens are fully integrated into talabat’s ecosystem, enabling partners to expand into new locations quickly. This means restaurants can continue operating, scale efficiently, and reach new customers. At the same time, the broader impact extends across the ecosystem – supporting jobs, local suppliers, and ensuring consistent service for customers.
The program is primarily focused on strong, homegrown UAE brands that are operationally ready to activate quickly and scale effectively. This allows us to deliver fast, measurable impact across the sector while reinforcing our commitment to supporting the local ecosystem.
Ultimately, this initiative reflects how talabat is evolving beyond a platform into a long-term ecosystem enabler – leveraging our infrastructure, scale, and data-driven capabilities to drive sustainable growth for partners and the wider food industry.
Going forward, do you see talabat Kitchen remaining a pure infrastructure play or evolving into a data-led platform that shapes menus, pricing, and even food trends?
We’re already evolving well beyond pure infrastructure into a comprehensive, AI-powered platform. Our Pepper system represents this transformation by predicting demand, optimising preparation, and identifying the right partners before the market does.
Our future vision for 2025-2026 positions us as “the regional accelerator for food concepts,” focusing on exporting successful brands from mature to emerging markets. This involves using data intelligence to identify which concepts will succeed in new markets and facilitating that expansion.
The Pepper lead generation tool already identifies “preferred partners” based on cuisine fit, affordability, and market opportunity, demonstrating how we’re using data to shape partner selection and market development.
As we deepen network density so every customer can access their favourite cuisines within minutes, we’re essentially creating a data-driven ecosystem that can influence food trends, optimise partner success, and predict market opportunities. This positions us as much more than infrastructure – we’re becoming the intelligence layer that powers food innovation across the region.
With rising competition and tighter capital markets, what will separate the winners from the rest in the next three to five years?
Our competitive advantages are built into our foundational model: we operate an asset-light, partner-first approach, which gives us resilience in tighter capital markets while enabling rapid scaling.
The scale we’ve already achieved provides network effects and operational leverage that strengthen with growth. Our partnerships with established brands alongside successful SME growth stories demonstrate platform appeal across market segments.
Importantly, this scale translates directly into stronger customer value. As we expand our network, customers benefit from broader choice, faster delivery times through proximity-based fulfilment, and a consistently improved delivery experience. The ecosystem becomes stronger for partners – and more seamless and convenient for customers.
Our sustainability focus through proximity-based delivery reduction and emissions decrease aligns with long-term regulatory and consumer trends, positioning us advantageously for future market requirements.
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