With a passion for trying out restaurants, sometimes I end up finding some restaurants which offer some lip smacking food in small corners of the cities which I live in or travel to.
Upto about a year back, I used to set out on Friday early mornings with my son for company and drive around the city of Riyadh trying to find out either new restaurants or those which I had not identified earlier. Similarly I also do like trying out any restaurant which a friend or an acquaintance may talk or recommend. Sometimes we also discover some great eateries when we go along with friends for dinner.
UP Restaurant in the Hara area of Riyadh, is one such 'hole in the wall' restaurant that serves food like simple, home made, North Indian Food. Clean, functional, no nonsense, no frills but a gem that has been satisfying pangs of hunger of bachelors living in Riyadh for decades. Unfortunately there is no family section here and hence you need to take a parcel home if you want the family to eat their fare. It is a favorite haunt for us from our office and we descend there in a group usually.While they serve both Veg and Non-Veg food, I guess their Veg food is more popular amongst us friends here. Their menu changes daily. You will not find some of the vegetables they use in restaurants elsewhere. Some of the dishes that are truly our favorites are Arbi (Colocasia) Masala, Pyaaz Patta (Spring Onion Leaves) Sabzi , Alu Palak, Turai/Lauki Ki Sabzi etc to name a few. They serve steaming hot rotis, soft and fresh out of the tandoor, we usually dip the roti in steaming hot bowls of butter infused dal fry and the sabzis. They also serve the 'Tahiri' which is a UP style masala rice which is also simple and nice. A meal for 4 hungry souls, with 3 varieties of sabzi/curries, daal fry and rotis costs us less than SAR 50 for all of us together. Sometimes we think that the restaurant is doing social service with this pricing and quality. You will find people from all walks of life eating here including us bankers. For anyone interested in knowing precise directions, do write back to me and I will glad to share the same.
Just last week, we were invited for dinner by some friends at the Executive Hotel Suites at Olaya Street in Riyadh which is opposite the iconic landmark, Kingdom Tower in Riyadh. The restaurant is on the mezzanine floor of this pretty, quaint hotel. The ambience is great, service is excellent and impeccably clean. We decided to go for the buffet as the salads looked fresh and we are salad fans!.
The salad spread was fantastic - variety of fresh Middle Eastern & Western salads. The Hummous, Fattoush, Tabbouleh, Muhammara, Baba Ghanoush, Muttabal, stuffed vine leaves, fresh golden yellow corn nibblets, baby corn, Caesar's salad, olives etc etc. They had 2 Soups on the buffet table, the Clear Sea Food Soup and Cream of Chicken Soup. I tried the Clear Seafood Soup which had the right amount of salt, fish and shrimps. Clear soups are easy to make but easy to also mess up as the taste needs to be subtle and there must be a ballad of harmony between the ingredients. This one was perfect.!
The main course spread was limited but that suits us fine as we tend to go low on the main course as we usually stuff ourselves with the salads. The fish in lemon sauce was great and worth mentioning. There was a seafood meddley dish with calamari which was also nice. The desserts were decent too. I guess, the cost per person here is just under SAR 100 and hence great value for money. Will go again.!!
There are many more to write about and across different cities so watch out for more in the future...
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