Restaurant & F&B consultants — Dubai

We open restaurants that work, fix the ones that don't, and run them for you.

Fourteen years on the floor and in the numbers, across the UAE, Oman, Lebanon and Singapore. Four venues opened from scratch. We've signed the leases, hired the teams and closed the month-end — so you don't have to learn it the expensive way.

I'm opening a venue → My venue isn't working →
Photo — dining room or terrace you delivered, evening light
Photo — kitchen pass in service, or hands plating
14 yrsAcross UAE, Oman, Lebanon & Singapore
4Venues opened from scratch
475k → 1.2MMonthly revenue grown, in AED
32% → 26%Food cost brought down and held
Feasibility studiesSite searchConcept developmentInterior designKitchen planningLicensingMenu engineeringSupplier sourcingRecruitmentStaff trainingSoft openingsCost controlFull management

Brands and institutions served across our founder's career

Cartier CHAUMET VFS Global Digital Dubai Dubai Municipality Crown Prince Court Level Shoes Kempinski InterContinental Crowne Plaza Cipriani

Who we work with

Two problems. Two ways in.

Photo — a raw shell unit, or a site walkthrough with an owner
First venue

You have the capital and the idea. You've never done this before.

Most first-time owners don't lose money on food. They lose it on the wrong site, a kitchen that can't produce the menu, a fit-out that runs six months late, and a payroll built for covers that never arrive.

  • An honest feasibility study before you sign a lease
  • A costed model you can show investors or a bank
  • One team running design, contractors, licensing and suppliers
  • Staff hired and trained before day one, not during it
How we open a venue →
Photo — a busy service, or a P&L on a table with coffee
Turnaround

You're open, you're busy, and the money still isn't there.

Busy and profitable are different businesses. Usually it's food cost, a menu selling the wrong dishes, over-staffed shifts, or a kitchen fighting its own layout — and the P&L alone won't tell you which.

  • A two-week diagnostic across kitchen, floor, menu and numbers
  • Menu re-engineering — what to cut, reprice and push
  • Food and labour cost brought back to target
  • A 90-day plan with named owners and weekly checkpoints
Book a diagnostic →

Sound familiar?

Tell us which one is yours.

These are the things owners actually say to us. Tap one for the short answer.

Prime cost is above 65%. Food, beverage and labour together are eating the whole margin. We go line by line and find where — usually a mix of uncosted recipes, over-portioning and shifts scheduled to a hope rather than a forecast. On our own P&L we took food cost from 32% to 26% and held beverage between 12% and 18%.
The quietest margin killer in Dubai. Too many items means dead stock, slow tickets and a team that can't hold consistency. We cut the mix down to what sells and what the kitchen can actually execute at volume.
It's one of three things. No recipe costing, no stock control, or theft. Live inventory tracking with POS-linked recipe costing tells you which one within a fortnight — that combination is what took six points out of our own food cost.
That's a missing management layer, not a staffing problem. There's no written standard for anyone to run to. We build the structure — SOPs for service, finance, inventory and purchasing — and train someone into it. Or we run it for you until there is.
You modelled the headline commission. After promotions, packaging and the discounts the platform runs on your behalf, the real number is far higher. Delivery needs its own menu and its own pricing. We've opened and run four channels — Deliveroo, Talabat, Careem and Drivo — and know what each actually costs.
If site one only works because you're in it, site two breaks both. We test that first — can the venue hold its numbers for a month without you on the floor? If not, we fix site one before we look at site two.
The rent-to-revenue ratio was wrong at signing. That decision gets made before you open, which is why we run feasibility before a lease and not after. What's left now is a revenue problem, a cost problem, or a renegotiation — we'll tell you which is realistic. Sometimes the answer is more covers: we took one site from 45 to 160 seats by building a terrace.
Then don't sign anything yet. We model the site, the concept and the covers first. If it doesn't work, we tell you that — a fee spent on feasibility is the cheapest money you'll ever spend on this project.

What we do

Six phases.
Take one, or all of them.

Scroll to explore →
01

Feasibility & Concept

Before money is committed. The phase that decides whether the rest is worth doing.

  • Market & competitor study
  • Site and rent-to-revenue analysis
  • Concept and positioning
  • Financial model & break-even
  • Go / no-go recommendation
02

Design & Build

Delivered with our partner design and fit-out firm, coordinated by us.

  • Space planning & seat count
  • Kitchen flow & equipment schedule
  • Interior design direction
  • Contractor tender & supervision
  • Authority approvals
03

Pre-Opening

The quiet months that decide what opening week looks like.

  • Menu engineering & costing
  • Supplier sourcing & negotiation
  • Licensing & permits
  • Hiring & payroll modelling
  • SOPs and staff training
04

Launch

On the floor with your team, not on a call from somewhere else.

  • Soft opening & menu calibration
  • Marketing & PR direction
  • Delivery platform setup
  • 90 days of floor supervision
05

Operations & Turnaround

For venues already trading that need fixing, not running. Advisory, fixed term.

  • Diagnostic & mystery audits
  • Food & labour cost correction
  • Menu re-engineering
  • Monthly P&L review
  • Expansion planning
06

Post-Opening Management

You own it. We run it. A full management contract for owners who want the returns without the daily operation.

  • Day-to-day venue management
  • Team leadership, rotas & payroll
  • Supplier and stock control
  • P&L ownership to agreed targets
  • Monthly owner reporting pack
  • Standards audits & guest feedback

Track record

Where the numbers come from.

Amethyste is new. The experience behind it isn't. These are venues our founder opened, ran and turned around — with the figures he was accountable for.

Photo — the d3 terrace, or a Cartier event setup
Growth & full P&L

The Host Catering Services

Dubai Design District — Operations Manager, 2021–2026

Full P&L ownership across kitchen, HR, finance and purchasing. Opened the restaurant end to end, built a catering division serving government and luxury clients, and secured an exclusive F&B partnership with VFS Global — three coffee stations inside the world's largest visa centre.

475k → 1.2MMonthly revenue, AED
32% → 26%Food cost
45 → 160Covers, via a new terrace
10 → 48Team, 80% retained
AED 558k19-day Cartier activation, 2,000 guests
Photo — sports lounge or beach deck, Muscat
Opening from scratch

Countdown Sports Lounge & Zale Beach Lounge

Kempinski Hotel Muscat, Oman — Restaurant & Lounge Manager, 2019–2020

Opened Oman's largest sports lounge from an empty space — layout planning with contractors and designers, OS&E procurement, SOPs, and the full costed beverage programme. Ran a second outlet concurrently and delivered a beachfront deck expansion, then led both venues through the COVID pivot to delivery and residence room service.

2 outletsRun concurrently
+300 seatsBeachfront deck expansion at Zale
LargestSports lounge in Oman
Photo — bar or nightlife venue, Beirut
Opening & commercial ownership

Pitch Black Night Club

The Bridge, Beirut — General Manager, 2017–2019

Opened the venue as GM with full commercial ownership — accounting, payroll, inventory and equipment procurement. Built the food and beverage programme with the Executive Chef, wrote the SOPs from scratch, and recruited and trained the entire team through a month-long programme before doors opened.

Full teamRecruited and trained pre-opening
SOPsWritten from zero
P&LFull commercial accountability

Also: Bosporus, Dubai Mall (branch held above AED 1M monthly through the post-COVID reopening) · Crowne Plaza Resort Salalah (four outlets, 21,000 OMR above budget in 2016) · Cipriani Harry's Bar Beirut (opening floor manager) · InterContinental Phoenicia Beirut and InterContinental Singapore.

Photo — Nassim, portrait in a venue, natural light

Who you're hiring

We're not advisors who've read about restaurants. We've opened them, run them, and fixed them.

Nassim El Awar founded Amethyste after fourteen years in food and beverage across the UAE, Oman, Lebanon and Singapore — hotel outlets, restaurants, nightlife and catering. He has opened four venues from scratch and held full P&L ownership of a Dubai catering business, taking it from AED 475,000 a month to 1.2 million while cutting food cost by six points and growing the team from 10 to 48.

He doesn't pretend to be an architect, a chef and a lawyer at the same time. Amethyste brings in a partner interior and fit-out firm, chefs matched to your concept rather than kept on a payroll, and licensing specialists who handle municipality and Civil Defence approvals every week.

You sign one agreement, call one number, and hold one team responsible for the opening date.

  • MBA Plymouth Marjon University, UK
  • Diploma Strategic Business Management, SCQF Level 11
  • IHG Leading Others · Managing Training & Development
  • Certified Food safety & hygiene · Wine, spirits & beer
  • Languages Arabic, English, French

Where are you right now?

Signed a lease, still looking, or already open and losing money — tell us and we'll tell you honestly whether we can help. First call is thirty minutes, no charge.

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