Today I decided to review the restaurants I eat at here in hopes that it helps out other students who come to Sana'a. I'll also be including useful street directions because I spent 40 minutes one night trying to meet up with friends at the Al-Sham Restaurant. It was good to practice Arabic with the Yemenis by asking for street directions but disappointingly, 3 out of 4 of the Yemeni's I asked that were working within 800 metres of the Al-Sham Restaurant, hadn't ever heard of the restaurant!
I'm also working on a map of Sana'a that I'll use to mark places of interest to students such as restaurants, shisha bars, fun city and the language schools. I should have the first version of that finished in a couple of weeks and I'll update the map as I visit more restaurants and other sights.
4 days ago I went and played volleyball with some new friends and followed another guy's lead and drank from the water fountain as he did. It was safe for him to drink so it was safe for me, right? I was only going to have a mouthful. That little amount can't hurt me, right? I've been here a while and my body should be adjusting to the water, right? *Baaarrr* For 3 days running I was sick from that mouthful of water and this has been the 4th time I've been sick from tap water. Perhaps I'll actually learn my lesson on this occasion.
So anyhow, last night, Friday night, the last night of the weekend, I was hungry after being sick for so long and I felt like Lebanese food. YLC gives a list of student recommended restaurants in their welcome pack so I picked out one of the 3 Lebanese Restaurants listed which was closest and called the Helwani Restaurant. The restaurant is located on Al Zabayrei St. It is on the left hand side if you are coming from the old City end of the street and up on the western end of the end, just past the Zabayrei and Hadda St intersection. There is a down stairs area and an upstairs area which you get access to by taking the next door just past the entrances to the bottom part of the restaurant. I arrived at 9pm and the range available was very minimal which I suspect was because most of the food had been eaten at the break of the Ramadan fast for that day. There was no tabouleh available and the only meat on show was kufta. I noticed LaHm mishwee on the menu but kufta was the only kufta offering. LaHm mishwee though meaning literally grilled meat, is used to refer to delicious pieces of lamb grilled on skewers along with pieces of bacon (haha), capsicum (peppers for the foreigners) and onions. LaHm mishwee is completely my favourite food so the kufta feel considerably short of my expectations. The salad was without dressing but ok. The hummos was okay, but my stomach wasn't totally into eating it at that point. The service was
So here are my scores
Food quality 3/5
Value 4.5/5
My meal came to a nice and cheap 460R.
Service 5/5
The service was friendly and the meal took no longer than 5 minutes to arrive in front of me
Atmosphere 3/5
No complaints. Atmosphere doesn't affect my dining experience too much but places like the Al-Sham or Al-Hamra' are considerably nicer.
Food sickness symptoms
Nil!
I'm also working on a map of Sana'a that I'll use to mark places of interest to students such as restaurants, shisha bars, fun city and the language schools. I should have the first version of that finished in a couple of weeks and I'll update the map as I visit more restaurants and other sights.
4 days ago I went and played volleyball with some new friends and followed another guy's lead and drank from the water fountain as he did. It was safe for him to drink so it was safe for me, right? I was only going to have a mouthful. That little amount can't hurt me, right? I've been here a while and my body should be adjusting to the water, right? *Baaarrr* For 3 days running I was sick from that mouthful of water and this has been the 4th time I've been sick from tap water. Perhaps I'll actually learn my lesson on this occasion.
So anyhow, last night, Friday night, the last night of the weekend, I was hungry after being sick for so long and I felt like Lebanese food. YLC gives a list of student recommended restaurants in their welcome pack so I picked out one of the 3 Lebanese Restaurants listed which was closest and called the Helwani Restaurant. The restaurant is located on Al Zabayrei St. It is on the left hand side if you are coming from the old City end of the street and up on the western end of the end, just past the Zabayrei and Hadda St intersection. There is a down stairs area and an upstairs area which you get access to by taking the next door just past the entrances to the bottom part of the restaurant. I arrived at 9pm and the range available was very minimal which I suspect was because most of the food had been eaten at the break of the Ramadan fast for that day. There was no tabouleh available and the only meat on show was kufta. I noticed LaHm mishwee on the menu but kufta was the only kufta offering. LaHm mishwee though meaning literally grilled meat, is used to refer to delicious pieces of lamb grilled on skewers along with pieces of bacon (haha), capsicum (peppers for the foreigners) and onions. LaHm mishwee is completely my favourite food so the kufta feel considerably short of my expectations. The salad was without dressing but ok. The hummos was okay, but my stomach wasn't totally into eating it at that point. The service was
So here are my scores
Food quality 3/5
Value 4.5/5
My meal came to a nice and cheap 460R.
Service 5/5
The service was friendly and the meal took no longer than 5 minutes to arrive in front of me
Atmosphere 3/5
No complaints. Atmosphere doesn't affect my dining experience too much but places like the Al-Sham or Al-Hamra' are considerably nicer.
Food sickness symptoms
Nil!
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