Updated: 22 September 2026
Chuseok Dubai 2026 falls on Friday 25 September — Korean Thanksgiving, the harvest festival on the full moon of the eighth lunar month, with the holiday running 24 to 26 September. This year it is the opening night of Dubai K-Fest, which is why three of the festival’s official food deals are Chuseok menus. Koreans mark it with family, ancestors and a harvest table: songpyeon, jeon, galbi, japchae. In Dubai and Abu Dhabi the everyday version of that table is a Korean BBQ restaurant, and Mukbang Shows keeps the Chuseok dishes on its menu all year.
TL;DR
– Date: Friday 25 September 2026; holiday Thursday 24 to Saturday 26 September.
– Same night: the free ONEUS and Kwon Eunbi concert that opens Dubai K-Fest at Festival City.
– Official Chuseok deals: HANU’s AED 259 five-course menu, Koreana’s Chuseok sharing spreads with buy-3-get-1 on mains, 1004 Gourmet’s Chuseok special.
– Everyday Chuseok table: Mukbang’s pajeon and kimchi jeon AED 53, LA galbi AED 109, japchae AED 55, unlimited BBQ from AED 69 — in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
When is Chuseok in 2026?
Friday 25 September 2026, with the public holiday in South Korea running from Thursday 24 to Saturday 26 September. Chuseok falls on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunisolar calendar — the harvest full moon — so the date moves every year on the Western calendar; it was in early October in 2025 and comes forward to late September in 2026.
The encyclopaedia entry on Chuseok calls it “a major Korean mid-autumn harvest festival which occurs on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunisolar calendar, on the full moon”, and notes that in South Korea the holiday lasts three days, the day before and the day after included. It is the year’s biggest homecoming: Koreans “visit their ancestral hometowns”, and the roads out of Seoul fill for days.
For a Korean family in the UAE, that means the weekend of 24 to 26 September is the holiday whether or not the office knows it — and in 2026 the city has put a Korean festival on the same dates.
What is Chuseok, and how is it celebrated?
Chuseok is the Korean harvest thanksgiving: a family gathering to honour ancestors and give thanks for the year’s crop, built around a table of freshly harvested rice, rice cakes, meat, fruit and vegetables. The customs are older than the holiday’s modern name. Charye is the memorial rite for ancestors held at home on the morning of Chuseok, with the food laid out in a set order. Seongmyo is the family visit to the ancestral graves, and beolcho the tidying of those graves — clearing the summer’s weeds — often done in the weeks before.
Around the table there are games and dances: ssireum, the Korean wrestling that once crowned a village champion at Chuseok, and ganggangsullae, the circle dance under the full moon. The encyclopaedia’s line on the spirit of the day is that the celebration “strives for the next year to be better than the last”.
None of that needs a festival. It needs a family, a table and the right food — which is why the food is the part of Chuseok that travels best to a city like Dubai.
What do Koreans eat at Chuseok?
Songpyeon first, then jeon, galbi and japchae — a harvest table rather than one dish. Songpyeon are small half-moon rice cakes made from new rice, filled with sesame, sweet beans or chestnut and steamed over a bed of pine needles; the encyclopaedia entry on songpyeon has the family making them together the night before, and the saying that a well-shaped songpyeon means a pretty child. Jeon are the savoury pancakes — seafood, kimchi, courgette, fish fillets in egg — fried in quantity for the charye table and eaten for days.
Galbi, the marinated beef short rib, is the holiday meat, grilled or braised as galbijjim. Japchae, the glass-noodle stir-fry with vegetables and beef, is the party dish that appears at every Korean celebration. The sweet things are hangwa — yakgwa honey cookies and other traditional confections — with sikhye, the sweet rice drink, and the first fruit of the autumn: pears, apples, persimmons, chestnuts.
The pattern matters for finding it abroad. Songpyeon and hangwa are home and bakery foods; jeon, galbi and japchae are restaurant foods, and every Korean restaurant in the UAE prints at least two of them. Our guide to jeon, the Korean pancake and our guide to galbi cover the two holiday dishes in full.
Why does Dubai K-Fest open on Chuseok?
Because the festival’s opening night, Friday 25 September, is Chuseok day. Dubai K-Fest 2026 — the ten-day citywide Korean festival organised by the Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment from 25 September to 4 October — opens with a free concert at Festival Bay, Dubai Festival City Mall: the IMAGINE Show at 7:30pm, then ONEUS and Kwon Eunbi from 8pm, with fireworks. The official Dubai K-Fest page on Visit Dubai has the listing; our complete Dubai K-Fest 2026 guide has the whole programme and every deal.
The overlap shows in the festival’s food. Of the eight official “Taste Korea in Dubai” offers, three are built on Chuseok: HANU’s five-course menu “curated around Dal:On, honouring the warmth of the full moon”, Koreana’s “Chuseok-inspired sharing spreads”, and 1004 Gourmet’s “limited edition Chuseok special for K-Fest”. The full moon in Dal:On is the Chuseok moon.
Chuseok Dubai 2026: the official K-Fest Chuseok menus
| Venue | Chuseok offer | Where | Price | Runs | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HANU | “Taste of Korea” five-course menu around Dal:On — harmony starter, interactive tabletop Korean BBQ with Hanwoo cuts, maesaengi custard, traditional sweets in a hanok-inspired box, a Chuseok storytelling moment | Dubai | AED 259 per person | From 6pm daily, 25 Sept – 4 Oct | Confirm directly on licence and dietary needs |
| Koreana Restaurant | Chuseok-inspired sharing spreads within a 120-dish menu; buy 3 main dishes, get the lowest-priced 4th free | Al Barsha 1 | Offer on mains | 25 Sept – 4 Oct | Book in advance to unlock; +971 4 392 9918 |
| 1004 Gourmet | “Limited edition Chuseok special for K-Fest” | — | Not printed | K-Fest | Confirm directly |
| Mukbang Shows | No festival-only menu; the Chuseok dishes are on the standard menu — Haemul Pajeon 53, Kimchi Jeon 53, LA Galbi 109, Japchae 55, Tteokguk 51, Tteok Mandu Guk 59 — beside unlimited BBQ from AED 69 | Deira, JBR, DWTC (Dubai); Muroor Road, Electra Street (Abu Dhabi) | À la carte 51–109; unlimited 69–129 per person | All year | 100% halal, beef and chicken only, no alcohol; minimum two for unlimited |
Two things stand out. HANU’s is the only full Chuseok set menu on the official list, and at AED 259 a head it is the festival’s second-most expensive offer. And the only Chuseok table available in Abu Dhabi is the everyday one — the Dubai festival stops at the emirate’s border, but Mukbang’s Muroor Road and Electra Street branches print the same jeon, galbi and japchae as its Dubai ones.
Where can a family sit down to a Chuseok table in Dubai or Abu Dhabi?
At a Korean BBQ restaurant, which already serves the holiday’s three restaurant dishes — jeon, galbi, japchae — around a grill that a family cooks on together. That is the everyday Chuseok, and it is the one available on a Friday night in either city without a set menu.
At Mukbang Shows the unlimited tiers put galbi and bulgogi on the family’s own grill: Gangnam AED 69 a person at Deira, Muroor Road and Electra Street and AED 79 at JBR and DWTC, Daegu 89 / 99, Jeju 99 / 109, Bukchon Hanok 129, each with seven kinds of beef and chicken BBQ, eight banchan, two gimbap, soup and steamed rice, minimum two, AED 60 for meat left on the table. The Chuseok plates come à la carte around it: Haemul Pajeon (seafood pancake) AED 53, Kimchi Jeon AED 53, LA Galbi AED 109, Japchae AED 55, Tteokguk (rice-cake soup) AED 51, Tteok Mandu Guk AED 59, and Bingsu AED 37 for the sweet end.
A family of four on Gangnam with a pajeon and a japchae is AED 384 at Deira or in Abu Dhabi.
The branches: Deira (Al Ittihad Road, Port Saeed, +971-4-886-4494 — the nearest to the K-Fest concerts at Festival City), JBR (Plaza Level, Bahar 7, The Walk, +971-54-523-1898), DWTC / Love Mukbang (The Apartments Block A, Sheikh Zayed Road, +971-54-524-5904).
In Abu Dhabi: Muroor Road (547 Sultan Bin Zayed The First Street, Al Danah, +971-50-158-9433) and Electra Street (Zayed The First Street behind Sun and Sand Sports, Al Danah, +971-2-564-0446). Mukbang is 100% halal — beef and chicken only, no pork, no alcohol served — and it is an official Taste Korea in Dubai participant on the K-Fest deals page. Our Korean family restaurant guide for Dubai and our guide to the best Korean food in Abu Dhabi cover both cities.
What does Chuseok look like for Koreans living in the UAE?
A long weekend without the homecoming. The UAE’s Korean community cannot drive to a hometown on Chuseok, so the holiday narrows to the two things that travel: the food and the family table. In practice that means a home-cooked charye table for families who keep the rite, jeon fried in quantity the night before, and a restaurant table for the rest — which is why Korean restaurants in both cities are at their fullest on the holiday weekend.
Chuseok Dubai 2026 adds a third thing: a public celebration. For the first time the holiday weekend has a free Korean stage at Festival City, official Chuseok menus at three restaurants, K-beauty pop-ups and a citywide raffle — a festival built by Dubai’s tourism department rather than by the community, but landing on the community’s own holiday. For a Korean family in Abu Dhabi the festival is a drive away; the everyday table is not.
Is Chuseok food halal?
The dishes are; the venue decides. Jeon, japchae, galbi, songpyeon and tteokguk carry no pork by nature — galbi is beef, jeon is seafood or vegetable, japchae is beef or vegetable — so the halal question at Chuseok is the kitchen, not the menu. Mukbang Shows is 100% halal across the menu, beef and chicken only, no alcohol. HANU, Koreana and 1004 Gourmet publish their own menus; confirm directly on licence and ingredients. Our halal Korean food guide for Dubai lists the kitchens whose printed menus carry no pork.
Chuseok Dubai 2026 and the K-Fest weekend: the honest line
Mukbang Shows is not running a Chuseok event, a songpyeon-making session or a festival-only menu — the Chuseok dishes it serves are the ones it prints all year, and its official K-Fest listing is its standard unlimited ladder from AED 69. There is no hangwa on the menu and no sikhye; the sweet end is bingsu or Korean tea. A family that wants a curated Chuseok dinner with storytelling should book HANU and budget AED 259 a head.
What Mukbang offers on Chuseok is the everyday version done properly: galbi and bulgogi on the family’s own grill, pajeon and kimchi jeon on the side, japchae for the table, rice-cake soup for the elders, halal certainty for everyone, five branches in two cities including the two in Abu Dhabi that the Dubai festival does not reach, and the nearest Korean BBQ to the opening-night concert. Our guide to the best Korean BBQ in Dubai compares it with the rest of the city.
How to spend Chuseok Dubai 2026
Thursday 24 September: the holiday begins in Korea; in the UAE it is a working day, so this is the evening for a family dinner without the festival crowd. Friday 25 September, Chuseok day: the free ONEUS and Kwon Eunbi concert at Festival Bay from 7:30pm, then a Korean BBQ table — Mukbang Deira is the nearest, minimum two. Saturday 26 September: AIKI and Youngjun Choi at Festival Bay, or HANU’s Chuseok menu from 6pm, or Koreana’s four-for-three. In Abu Dhabi, the same three days at Muroor Road or Electra Street, with the same jeon, galbi and japchae.
Chuseok Dubai 2026 is the first year the holiday and a citywide Korean festival have shared a weekend. The moon will be full on the Friday either way.
FAQ
When is Chuseok 2026?
Friday 25 September 2026, on the harvest full moon of the eighth lunar month; the South Korean holiday runs Thursday 24 to Saturday 26 September.
What is Chuseok?
Korea’s mid-autumn harvest thanksgiving: families gather, hold the charye rite for ancestors, visit and tidy family graves, and share a table of new rice, songpyeon, jeon, galbi and japchae.
Is Dubai K-Fest on Chuseok?
Yes. Dubai K-Fest 2026 opens on 25 September, Chuseok day, with a free ONEUS and Kwon Eunbi concert at Dubai Festival City, and three of its official food deals are Chuseok menus.
Which Dubai restaurants have a Chuseok menu in 2026?
On the official K-Fest list: HANU (five-course Dal:On menu, AED 259 a head, from 6pm daily to 4 October), Koreana in Al Barsha 1 (Chuseok sharing spreads, buy 3 mains get 1 free, book ahead) and 1004 Gourmet (Chuseok special, price not printed).
What is songpyeon?
Half-moon rice cakes made from new rice, filled with sesame, sweet beans or chestnut and steamed over pine needles — the defining Chuseok food, made at home by the family the night before.
Where can I eat galbi and jeon on Chuseok in Abu Dhabi?
Mukbang Shows Muroor Road and Electra Street print LA Galbi AED 109, Haemul Pajeon and Kimchi Jeon AED 53 and Japchae AED 55 all year, beside unlimited Korean BBQ from AED 69 a person; the Dubai festival’s deals do not extend to Abu Dhabi.
What does Chuseok look like for Koreans living in the UAE?
A long weekend without the homecoming. The UAE’s Korean community cannot drive to a hometown on Chuseok, so the holiday narrows to the two things that travel: the food and the family table. In practice that means a home-cooked charye table for families who keep the rite, jeon fried in quantity the night before, and a restaurant table for the rest — which is why Korean restaurants in both cities are at their fullest on the holiday weekend.
Chuseok Dubai 2026 adds a third thing: a public celebration. For the first time the holiday weekend has a free Korean stage at Festival City, official Chuseok menus at three restaurants, K-beauty pop-ups and a citywide raffle — a festival built by Dubai’s tourism department rather than by the community, but landing on the community’s own holiday. For a Korean family in Abu Dhabi the festival is a drive away; the everyday table is not.
Is Chuseok food halal?
The dishes are meat-free or beef and seafood by nature; the venue decides. Mukbang Shows is 100% halal with no pork and no alcohol; confirm directly with other kitchens.
