Moonlight Investments changes the format to suit each city. MYA Dubai is a flagship restaurant, AMAYA Lounge Erbil a lounge, AMAYA Baghdad a premium dining room and MYA Cafe Cairo an all-day café. All four are run by Dubai hospitality group Moonlight Investments.
Where MYA began
MYA started in Dubai in 2022. Moonlight Investments opened it on the first floor of The Dubai Mall, on the Waterfalls side, with direct views of Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Fountain.
The restaurant was first known as Amaya and now trades as MYA. It serves creative fusion cuisine and premium signature shisha across breakfast, lunch, sunset and dinner, and hosts corporate events and private dining.
The location set the tone. A view of Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Fountain makes a strong first impression, but guests return for the food, the service and the atmosphere. MYA was built to deliver those from morning to late evening.
From the beginning, MYA was run with its own standards, not as a one-off venue. That decision is what made the next three cities possible.
What stays the same
Every venue shares a few things. Guests should feel the same warmth of service, the same attention to setting and the same social atmosphere, whether they are in Downtown Dubai, Erbil or New Cairo.
Behind the scenes, the same operating standards apply. Training, service steps and quality checks come from one playbook, managed by Moonlight Investments.
The care taken over music and atmosphere carries across too. In Dubai a curated playlist runs from breakfast to dinner. Each new venue takes that attention to mood and applies it to its own room.
What changes from city to city
The format changes most. Each city gets the version that suits how people there like to eat and meet. A lounge, a premium dining room and a café ask for different spaces, hours and menus.
The menu adapts too. Dubai is known for creative fusion cuisine and signature shisha. Erbil and Baghdad lean on international flavours. Cairo centres on breakfast, brunch, coffee and desserts.
Local rules and habits shape the rest. MYA Cafe Cairo, for example, is alcohol-free and built around outdoor seating, which suits an all-day neighbourhood café in New Cairo.
Iraq: a lounge in Erbil, premium dining in Baghdad
AMAYA Lounge Erbil opened in 2025. It brings upscale dining and a social atmosphere to the Kurdistan market.
Here the format leans towards a lounge. International cuisine sits in a refined lifestyle setting where guests gather and stay. It was the group's first step outside the UAE.
Erbil showed that the group's atmosphere could work away from the Dubai Mall setting. Without the Burj Khalifa view, the experience has to rest on service, food and the room itself. That is a useful test for any brand.
AMAYA Baghdad followed in 2026. It is premium dining in Iraq's capital.
Baghdad has a strong social dining scene, so the focus is on the table. Modern hospitality and international flavours give guests a reason to gather, celebrate and return.
With Erbil and Baghdad both open, Moonlight Investments now has two venues in Iraq. Lessons from one city can inform the other, while each venue keeps its own character.
Cairo: the café
MYA Cafe Cairo opens in January 2027 in Mivida, New Cairo. It is the most relaxed version of the brand so far.
The café runs all day, with breakfast, brunch, coffee and desserts. It is alcohol-free and has outdoor seating. The idea is accessible everyday luxury: MYA for a weekday coffee as well as a weekend brunch.
The café format also opens new types of site. A relaxed, all-day venue suits residential communities like Mivida, where guests visit often rather than for one big occasion.
What comes next
MYA Saudi is in development, bringing MYA's luxury hospitality and international dining identity to one of the region's fastest-growing lifestyle markets.
Alongside MYA, Moonlight Investments is developing an underwater fine-dining concept inspired by Dubai's pearl-diving heritage. It shows the same thinking applied to a very different idea: start with a clear story, then build the operation to deliver it.
The pattern stays the same. Choose the right format for the city and run it to the standard set in Dubai. That is how Moonlight Investments plans to grow across the region and beyond.
Common questions
Moonlight Investments runs MYA Dubai, AMAYA Lounge Erbil and AMAYA Baghdad. MYA Cafe Cairo opens in January 2027, and MYA Saudi is in development.
No. Each uses a different format: a flagship restaurant in Dubai, a lounge in Erbil, premium dining in Baghdad and a café in Cairo.
MYA started at The Dubai Mall in 2022, on the 1st Floor, Waterfalls side, facing Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Fountain. It was created by Moonlight Investments.