Ruhi

The glass-walled kitchen is the first thing you notice, with one cook slapping bread against the inside of a tandoor, another lowering long skewers into the fire, and a third stirring something deeply fragrant. It sets the tone for the rest of the meal at this North Indian restaurant inside The Zone, an open-air complex of pavilions in Riyadh. The room mixes industrial bones with traditional paintings, and the spicing is careful enough to let the produce speak.

One honor, in evidence: