We managed to kill two whole hours wandering aimlessly around Saco after we had successfully purchased our patio furniture. We marveled at the myriad of niche kitchen appliances available - hotdog warmers and cupcake makers and about a dozen brands of air fryers and rice cookers. We noted the practical ingenuity of memory foam prayer rugs, and the multitude of tea and serving sets in the homegoods section. Also snake bite kits. We even stumbled upon a second floor of furniture that despite having been our fourth visit to Saco World, we never noticed before. All of this was to structure our timing just right for dinner.
The restaurant - Menara Moroccan Cuisine was located in a little strip mall on the side of the highway about a 15 minute drive from our compound. A Persian rug was rolled down the three steps leading up to the front door. In the lobby, which was all mosaic tile, trickling wall fountains, and giant brass-top tea tables, there was a small hallway with what I assume were private dining rooms up and down either side. The host was able to give us the last table available upstairs despite our not having a reservation.
We were placed in a tiny elevator and brought up to the second floor, which much like downstairs consisted of a broad hallway with doors to private dining room up and down the aisles, and with a large central seating area which looked like it was used for tea service as opposed to a full dinner.
Saudi Arabia has a very prominent dining culture and families go out to eat at restaurants often. The normal time for dining is much later than we are accustomed to in the US, to account for the final prayer time. Meaning that the typical “dining rush” is closer to 8:00 pm. It is also typical that the employees working at a restaurant, the servers are Filipino or Indian. Our Filipino waiter escorted us to the first dining room on the left hand side of the hallway. The room was approximately 10 feet wide and square, with a tiled square-shaped dining table and the middle and an L-shaped bench around two sides. On one wall hung a 32” flat screen TV and on the other wall was the door to the room. We each took a seat on one of the benches and were handed the remote control for the TV. At the time, it was automatically running through photos of some of the most prominent menu items, though our server showed us how we could easily change the channel to the soccer game. The room also came with a wireless button that was connected to a pager the server wore on his belt, so that we could call him to the room if we needed service or when we were ready to order.
These private dining rooms are common in Riyadh, due to the separation of genders and single men and families. In a private dining room, a woman would be comfortable removing her veil to eat unincumbered. The server always always knocks on the door before entering, and asks, “Is it okay for me to come in?” and waits for verbal confirmation before even opening the door. This allows the women a chance to cover back up before a man comes into the room.
After flipping through some of the menu photos, we turned off the TV and paged our server to place our order. Because we were so thrilled to be having our first date night out since arriving, we did not hold back and ordered what was truly enough food to feed four people, just because we were curious to taste as many things as we could. We ordered an appetizer of Moroccan “salads” which consists of four mini plates of things like pickled olives and peppers in olive oil, hummus and stewed eggplant. This was served with fresh hot pita bread. We also tried the traditional rice and chicken dish that is cooked inside of a clay pot sealed with pita bread over the top. When this is served at the table, the server slices open the bread lid with a knife, and dumps the steaming rice and chicken onto a platter. Very fun. We also ordered some sort layered pastry that involved ground chicken, crushed almonds and pistachios, cinnamon and some sort of clear sweet syrup on the side. It was combination of sweet and savory, and all sorts of textures that just really had us puzzled. I’ve never had anything similar to compare it to, but this wound up being Justin’s favorite dish. And of course, we had what has become our favorite dinner cocktail - mint lemonade with crushed ice.
We also weren’t shy to order dessert, and sampled a creme brulee which was served with cardamom and pomegranate seeds on top, and a flaky sticky pastry similar to baklava. To round out the meal, we ordered Moroccan mint tea. This was served on an elegant silver tea platter, with short class cups and a *charming* tea cozy meant to resemble some sort of traditional person. You can check it out in the pictures, but I’m unsure as to the culture reference here…
Finally when we had finished our feast and tea party, we packed up all our leftovers and settled the tab, which was an incredibly reasonable 300 riyals (approximately $100 USD), not bad at all for a date night out and leftovers for days.
We were so happy with our find that we talked about bringing our other DINK friends out to this restaurant for a triple date night sometime soon. And even though we did get lost on the way home, both of our cell phones died, we took two wrong turns, and took an hour to do what should have taken only 15 minutes, it was a great adventure and something I’m sure we’ll do again soon.
grt
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