The Best Middle Eastern Food in Saudi Arabia

Portions sized for sharing are the clearest signal at this bright Lebanese café, part of a family-run group that has spread across the Middle East and landed in Riyadh with the same unhurried generosity. The menu runs long and covers all the classics, priced in a way that makes ordering too much feel reasonable rather than reckless. The riz bi halib is the dessert to plan ahead for. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

A tree trunk suspended from the ceiling sets the tone at this Saudi restaurant, where the kitchen draws on five distinct regions of the country and folds in a few wider Middle Eastern traditions alongside. The name translates as "in your heart," which the portions take literally: they arrive built for sharing, so bring a crowd. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and the sharqawi rice with caramelised onions gives you a sense of why.

Tucked into a cluster of renovated mud-brick buildings inside Dar Tantora, Joontos feels less like a hotel restaurant and more like wandering into a small medina, narrow passages and cob walls included. The menu leans Middle Eastern with a Mediterranean pull, portions run generous, and the flatbreads alone justify the detour. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks for a place this relaxed about being this good.

Kabsa flavoured with AlUla's own oranges is the detail that tells you this is the real thing. Tofareya is a casual Saudi restaurant tucked into a village house in Old Town, with two small dining rooms, rooftop tables over a palm grove, and a few chairs spilling onto the pavement. The menu runs traditional regional dishes with some broader Middle Eastern company. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, which tracks with the prices.

Fresh produce stacked on central columns and chefs working smoking grills in open view set the tone at this Riyadh fast food institution with branches across the city. It's a canteen, not a sit-and-linger spot, built around shawarma, falafel, baba ghanouj, and the fresh juices that made its name. The grilled meats come off with a proper char. Nobody here is overthinking it, which is exactly the point.

The floor-to-ceiling glass frames a sweep of Ashar Valley desert that makes it hard to focus on the menu, which would be a shame because the pan-Arabic cooking at this hotel restaurant is the actual reason to sit down. The team navigates the menu with you rather than reciting it at you, which helps. Non-guests can walk in on a restaurant reservation, so the view isn't strictly a room perk.

A domed stone oven anchors the center of this sprawling Lebanese restaurant inside the Shangri-La Jeddah, and the terrace with its Red Sea views tends to settle the question of where you're sitting. The menu runs from classic Lebanese to dishes with a more contemporary edge, with the kebabs doing most of the heavy lifting. Bespoke mocktails round things out in a city where that matters.

Warm lighting and a menu that runs from breakfast through late evening signal the ambition here: a Lebanese restaurant built for staying a while. The kitchen leans on the classics, generous portions of dips, grilled kebabs, and milk pudding, with a few wider regional nods. The team pushes sharing, which is sensible given the scale of the plates. A Michelin Selected spot that draws a loyal local crowd.

The wooden terrace hanging over AlUla's largest palm grove is the reason to book a table here. It's a casual Middle Eastern restaurant where the menu leans on Egyptian and Lebanese classics, then nudges them sideways, shawarma in a bao bun being the obvious example. The room inside mixes wrought iron, deep cushions, and dune frescoes, which sounds chaotic but reads as comfortable. A Michelin Selected Restaurant.

A Saudi restaurant at Al Bujairi Terrace where the team spent years traveling the country's regions, pulling local recipes into a menu that looks modern but tastes like it belongs. The cooking is bold and textured, the kind that reads as familiar even if you can't place exactly why. Locals and visitors fill the room in roughly equal measure, and the staff handle the bustle without making you feel it.

The mahalabia with honey is the kind of dessert that makes you think someone's grandmother is running the kitchen, and in spirit, someone is. This is a cosy Lebanese-leaning restaurant built around the owner's memories of home, with a menu that wanders into Turkish territory along the way. Sambousek, grilled kebabs, fresh salads, and dips make up the bulk of it. When the weather cooperates, the terrace is the obvious move.