Dar Al Kunafa, a Middle Eastern dessert brand built in Oman, is making a move on India. The company has opened franchise recruitment for the Indian market, betting that a country with a deep sweet-tooth culture but few authentic Kunafa specialists is ready for a genuine Arabic dessert concept.
Dar Al Kunafa was founded in 2016 in Sohar, Oman, by an entrepreneur who moved between the oil-and-gas sector and food. A single outlet serving fresh, live-made Kunafa found an audience quickly. As demand grew, the brand built its own facility to produce Kunafa flour — a way to lock in consistency — and later added Baklava. Today it runs three outlets across Oman, including in Muscat.
India has an enormous dessert market but very few organized, authentic Kunafa brands. Many Indian consumers already know the dessert from travel to the Gulf, which gives Dar Al Kunafa a warm start rather than a cold one. A crucial detail for the market: the menu is 100% vegetarian, removing a common barrier for Western F&B brands entering India. The core recipes stay intact, with only light localization through select flavors.
Authentic Kunafa brands remain rare in India’s organized dessert retail space.
The brand prepares Kunafa and Baklava fresh in front of customers, using cheese, cream, dates, pistachios, walnuts and signature sauces, with Arabic and Turkish coffee alongside. Experienced Middle Eastern chefs, including baklava specialists, anchor the authenticity claim.
Working with Franchise India, the brand has structured two entry routes:
The brand runs a QSR-style operating model, keeping staffing lean, and offers end-to-end support covering site selection, store design, kitchen setup, training, supply chain and launch marketing.
Dar Al Kunafa is a small but telling example of a bigger current: regional F&B brands using franchising to cross borders that were once the domain of large multinationals. A three-store Omani dessert concept can now credibly plan a multi-city Indian rollout because the franchise model distributes the capital and local know-how required to do it. For the wider restaurant franchising space across MENA and South Asia, authenticity plus a vegetarian-friendly format is proving to be a workable export formula. Coverage via Indian Retailer.
