Commercial Restaurant Construction

Meat Moot Al Khawaneej - Commercial Restaurant Development

Al Khawaneej, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

2,800 sq ft restaurant construction for Meat Moot Al Khawaneej. Shell-to-finish build including kitchen and dining. Completed 2024.

Client

Meat Moot Restaurant Group

Completed

2024

Size

2,800 sq ft

Project Overview

This was a 2,800 sq ft shell-to-finish restaurant build for Meat Moot in Al Khawaneej — a suburban residential area in eastern Dubai. Unlike the City Walk location which sits inside a managed retail destination, Al Khawaneej is a standalone commercial unit in a low-rise strip, which changes the construction dynamics. There's no developer tenant coordination office managing access, but there's also no shared building infrastructure to connect into — everything from the grease exhaust to the signage structure had to be built independently.

We were appointed to deliver the entire conversion from a raw commercial shell to a fully operational restaurant, including MEP first-fix, kitchen infrastructure, dining area fit-out, facade works, and external signage.

This was the second Meat Moot location we built, which gave us an advantage on procurement. We already had approved suppliers for the kitchen equipment, the brand's preferred finish materials, and working relationships with the specialist trades. That familiarity cut lead times on shop drawing approvals and meant fewer surprises on site.

In-Depth Look

Project Details

Shell Conversion and Kitchen Infrastructure

The unit was handed over as a bare shell — concrete floor, block walls, basic electrical supply, and a single water connection. Everything else had to be built. Our MEP team started with the distribution boards, sub-circuits, plumbing risers, and drainage runs before any partition walls went up. In a restaurant, the kitchen drainage layout dictates the floor design — grease traps, floor gullies, and pipe falls all need to be cast into the slab or screed before anything else can happen on top.

The kitchen was designed for the same menu and throughput as the other Meat Moot locations, so the equipment list and layout were largely standardised. That said, every site has different ceiling heights, access points, and utility positions, so the ductwork routing and equipment placement needed fresh coordination drawings for this unit.

The grease exhaust was a key difference from City Walk. Here, we installed a standalone rooftop exhaust fan with external ductwork running up the rear facade — no shared building riser to connect into. The duct run needed to be insulated, fire-rated at the roof penetration, and positioned so the discharge wouldn't affect neighbouring units. Dubai Municipality and Civil Defence both inspected this before we could commission the kitchen.

Programme management was simpler than City Walk in terms of access restrictions, but the standalone nature of the unit meant more scope — we were responsible for the full MEP infrastructure rather than just connecting to an existing building system.

Dining Fit-Out and Facade

The dining area build followed Meat Moot's brand guidelines — the same material palette and design language as their other branches, adapted to the dimensions and layout of this particular unit. Wall treatments included timber slat panelling, exposed-brick-effect tiles, and painted surfaces with the brand's signature colour accents.

Flooring was commercial-grade porcelain tile, chosen for durability under heavy foot traffic and ease of cleaning — practical considerations that matter more in a restaurant than in any residential setting. We installed the tiles on a levelled screed with expansion joints at partition lines to prevent cracking.

The ceiling was a combination of exposed painted services in the main dining area (an intentional design choice for the industrial look) and a plasterboard bulkhead over the service counter to conceal the kitchen extract ductwork transition. Getting the "exposed" look right actually requires more work than a standard ceiling — every pipe, cable tray, and duct needs to be routed neatly and painted consistently, not just left raw.

Facade works included aluminium composite cladding, a glazed shopfront system, and externally illuminated signage. Since this was a standalone unit rather than a managed retail destination, signage approvals went through Dubai Municipality directly rather than through a developer's design team. We handled the permit application as part of the project scope.