A new Manchester City cafe is coming to Yas Residences in Abu Dhabi. Discover details on the match-day terrace and its location at Yas Canal.
The Manchester City Café announced for Abu Dhabi is a planned venue inside Manchester City Yas Residences by Ohana at Yas Canal. It is not open yet. As of 9 October 2026, the official project website confirms the café concept but does not publish an opening date, menu, prices, hours, booking link or access policy.
Related: explore our full Yas Island area guide for Ferrari World, Yas Waterworld, Etihad Arena and things to do.
The City Café, City Lounge and Match Day Terrace are separate planned amenities on the developer’s site. That distinction determines how to read the announcement: a café concept does not establish a public match-screening venue. Our advice is to wait for the actual venue launch and access rules before making a trip for food or football. The residential project’s announcement is not a restaurant opening.
| Question | Verified answer on 9 October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Is the Manchester City Café open? | No opening announcement or live venue page has been published. |
| Where will it be? | Inside Manchester City Yas Residences by Ohana at Yas Canal, Abu Dhabi. |
| Is it at Yas Mall? | No. Manchester City Challenge and the CityStore at Yas Mall are separate, existing venues. |
| Will it show matches? | The official plan assigns shared match experiences to the separate City Lounge and covered Match Day Terrace. It does not yet publish a screening programme for the café. |
| Can non-residents visit? | Not confirmed. Public, guest and resident access rules have not been announced. |
| Are the menu and prices available? | No official menu, pricing or food-and-beverage operator has been named. |
What the Manchester City Café will actually be
Ohana’s current project site lists City Café as a planned amenity alongside a separate City Lounge and Match Day Terrace. It does not give the café’s food menu, operator, opening hours or public-access terms. Those are the details that matter for a visit. Treat the café as part of the future residential community, not an operating sports bar with a confirmed fixture programme.
The broader development is built around Manchester City branding, sport, recovery and waterfront living. Its published amenities include a Manchester City training academy, gym, pools, parks, spa, medical facilities, restaurants and a canal promenade. The café sits within that residential ecosystem rather than being announced as a standalone attraction.
Renderings show what the completed development is intended to look like, but they are not photographs of an operating café. Ohana also states that its graphic and textual materials are illustrative and not a contractual obligation. Treat visualisations as design intent until the venue opens.
City Café, City Lounge and Match Day Terrace are not the same venue
| Planned space | Officially described purpose | What has not been confirmed |
|---|---|---|
| City Café | Planned café within the residential community. | Menu, operator, seating capacity, hours and public access. |
| City Lounge | A signature lounge designed to bring football culture into a more refined setting. | Match schedule, reservations, minimum spend and age policy. |
| Match Day Terrace | A covered terrace intended for shared match experiences. | Screen size, capacity, ticketing and weather-season operation. |
| Fine Dining Restaurant | A separate destination restaurant within the community. | Name, chef, cuisine, opening date and prices. |
Choose the planned space according to its announced purpose. City Lounge is described with a match-day atmosphere, while Match Day Terrace is a separate covered space for shared match experiences. City Café is another amenity. There is no published café screening programme to use for a football-night booking, and no reason to assume one reservation will cover all three spaces.
Where is Manchester City Yas Residences?
The project is at Yas Canal in Abu Dhabi. The official website positions Yas Island about five minutes away and gives marketing estimates of 10–15 minutes to Zayed International Airport, 15–20 minutes to Louvre Abu Dhabi and Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, and 25–30 minutes to the Corniche. Actual journey times will depend on traffic and the final access roads.
Do not navigate to Manchester City Challenge at Yas Mall expecting to find the new café. City Challenge is an existing indoor football experience with a CityStore; Manchester City’s annual report says the Yas Mall store opened as part of that attraction in January 2024. The planned café belongs to the separate residential development at Yas Canal.
When will the Manchester City Café open?
No café opening date is published on the current project site. Ohana’s partnership announcement dates to January 2026, and the developer reported AED 6 billion in project sales within 72 hours in March. Those are residential-project milestones. They do not establish when a café kitchen will begin service, which operator will run it or whether non-residents will be admitted.
The current project site presents townhouses, duplexes and villas, with property payment plans and amenity descriptions. It does not provide a café construction milestone or hospitality opening schedule. A residential payment date or an estate-agent handover estimate is not a café reservation date. Use a venue-specific opening announcement for that decision rather than turning a property timetable into dining advice.
What is confirmed—and what is still marketing
Manchester City’s partnership announcement describes a club-branded residential development spanning 1.67 million square metres along Yas Canal. Ohana’s March sales announcement uses the same area. The scale explains why several hospitality and football-related amenities appear in the plan, but it does not establish a current public dining destination. A property’s size is not evidence of a café’s capacity or opening status.
The project’s existence, partners, Yas Canal location and published amenity concepts are confirmed by first-party sources. Claims about a “giant screen”, immediate public access, match-day crowds, a completed waterfront view or a particular menu are not yet supported by those sources.
Before you plan a visit
Wait for an opening notice from Manchester City or Ohana, then verify each of the following before travelling:
- the venue’s exact map pin and entrance;
- whether access is public, resident-only or guest-controlled;
- opening hours and any match-day changes;
- whether the café, lounge and terrace require separate reservations;
- the fixture-screening schedule;
- menu, prices, age rules and minimum-spend policy;
- parking, taxi drop-off and accessibility arrangements.
Until those details exist, posts inviting fans to “visit” are premature. The useful answer today is that the concept is real, the location is known and the hospitality plan is more ambitious than one café—but the consumer information needed for an actual visit has not been released.
Why this project is significant for Manchester City fans
The café is one element in a much broader Abu Dhabi presence. Manchester City’s official announcement says more than 3,500 children attend City Football Schools sessions each term across seven locations, while the Manchester City Abu Dhabi Cup brings together youth players from the UAE and overseas. The planned residential project extends that presence into everyday living, hospitality and wellness.
The partnership is between Manchester City and UAE developer Ohana. Its consumer appeal is a football-themed residential community with planned hospitality spaces, rather than a new match venue that can already be booked. For fans, keep the existing Yas Mall attraction and the future Yas Canal development separate when planning a day out. The shared club branding does not make them the same destination.
Facts checked on 9 October 2026. The café remains a planned amenity; the current official project pages do not publish the consumer details needed to book a meal.
