
03/04/2026
The best restaurants in the Dubai Mall – a guide for 2026
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Bartosz Jaglarz
1 March 2026

Dubai is a city of world records and impossible achievements. In the city centre, in the heart of the Downtown district, is the Dubai Mall – the largest shopping centre in the world in terms of total area. How many shops are there in the Dubai Mall, what is the total area of this unique building, and what does it consist of? Dubai Mall area – discover the secrets of the largest shopping centre in the world!
You don't have to like shopping to visit the Dubai Mall. Really, no one checks or verifies this! Okay, jokes aside, let's get to the heart of the matter. The Dubai Mall is a unique entertainment centre, and it's hard to comprehend just how big it is. You'll find literally everything here: shops, restaurants, tourist attractions, a waterfall, interactive entertainment centres for children, places to relax, beauty salons... the list goes on and on. We have described all this in our guide to the Dubai Mall in Dubai. Today, we will focus on the size of this unique facility and how large the retail space in the Dubai Mall is.
How big is the Dubai Mall in square metres? Dubai Mall square metres – the area of the Dubai Mall in square metres is approximately 1,124,000 m² (112.4 ha)! This makes the Dubai Mall the largest shopping centre in the world in terms of area. This is one of the 20 most interesting facts about Dubai and another incredible record for this city. It also confirms the fact that the Dubai Mall is so large and spacious that during a trip to Dubai, it is better to spend at least a few hours exploring this facility.
Now that we know the dimensions and size of the Dubai Mall, it's time to look at the number of shops inside. In the Dubai Mall, you will find OVER 1,200 SHOPS (!), which consist of two shopping pavilions, but also hundreds of restaurants and cafés. In the Dubai Mall, the size of the shopping centre matters, but if you want to buy something in a shop that you think is impossible to find, you will find it here.

The Dubai Mall is not just about shopping, as it is the largest shopping and entertainment centre in the world. You can try cuisines from around the world in over a hundred restaurants in the Dubai Mall, see a variety of sea creatures and even a shark in the Aquarium & Zoo, go ice skating on an amazing ice rink in the middle of the shopping centre, go up to one of the viewing terraces of the Burj Khalifa, watch the Dubai Fountain show, the KidZania theme park for children, and a giant cinema complex. As you can see, the shops and attractions at Dubai Mall can take up a whole day of your holiday. The sheer size of the Dubai Mall, its area and number of shops can be overwhelming, so it is worth choosing accommodation in Dubai in private apartments in the Burj Khalifa area or in Dubai Marina, which is conveniently accessible by metro in 20 minutes.

Yes, Dubai Mall is the largest shopping centre in Dubai and Dubai Mall is the largest shopping centre in the world. Other largest shopping centres in the world include New South China Mall in Dongguan, China, known as the largest shopping centre in the world in terms of retail space, but mostly empty at the moment, SM City North EDSA in Quezon City near Manila in the Philippines, Central WestGate in Nonthaburi, on the outskirts of Bangkok in Thailand, IOI City Mall in Putrajaya near Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, and Mall of America in Minnesota in the USA.
In Dubai Mall, the retail and leisure areas and the total usable area differ from each other. Which parts of the Dubai Mall are the largest in terms of area? How is the area of the Dubai Mall divided between shops and entertainment? We have not found any precise data in the publicly available information, but most of the total area, more than half, is taken up by retail space, followed by storage space, and then entertainment and recreation.

The Dubai Mall is the largest shopping centre in the world in terms of area, with a total usable area of over 1,124,000 m² (approx. 112 ha). This includes over 550,000 m² of usable space inside the buildings, with a leasable area of nearly 350,000 m². The total area is equivalent to over 160 football pitches!
If you are planning a visit to the Dubai Mall and shopping and entertainment are not your only goals, but you want to explore the entire Dubai Mall with all its interesting corners, you will need a whole day or even two days! The optimal time is 2 hours for a short tour and a quick meal, and 5 to 8 hours for a thorough tour of the shops, aquarium, ice rink and Dubai fountains, including a meal.
The Dubai Mall breaks records and statistics per capita. The size of the Dubai Mall, including its attractions and shops, has permanently entered the world record books. The Dubai Mall is the largest shopping centre in the world in terms of floor space, has the largest number of shops in a single shopping centre, i.e. over 1,200, has the largest acrylic panel in an aquarium and breaks records in terms of the number of parking spaces, with 14,000.
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