Sanaa Restaurants

This place has a steakhouse, middle eastern restaurant, coffeeshop and a real bar in one well secured compound. The place has a good German manager, Robert. I had the middle eastern food, pasta and a great steak sandwich on various nights. The bar was a great place to listen to music or watch TV and kill some time chatting up the waitstaff. The drinks were about 50% of the price you pay at the big hotels.

Favorite Dish: Steak sandwich, pasta carbonara.

'Shaibani' is a region of Yemen that is famous for its food and cooking. So basically 'Shaibani' is the equivalent of 'good food'. However, as 'branding' is not on the top of the list of most Shaibani restaurant owners, they all call themselves 'Al-Shaibani' and you as a foreigner can hardly tell them apart.

But this one is very famous among locals, and hence it's called 'Super Deluxe'!

Nice modern interior, clean tables and floors, good service, food comes very quickly. English menu (although not always make sense!) Very reasonable price, tasty food. We went there three times during our visit to Sana'a.

Favorite Dish: Banana with bread, Dates with bread, Shafu, Leg of lamb on saffon rice, grilled fish and mixed seafood

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had only local food, but was good
have pictures on menu if it helps to you to choose and they hardly speak english, so best to make sure that they will give what you want not what they have to eat :)
we asked taxi driver to take us there and it was really exelent and cheap, we paid 10usd for 3 of us

Favorite Dish: bread!

they have local food and some other types, pasta wasnt very italian but eatable, we prefered the local food, was fresh and very nice

Favorite Dish: local food and bread
courtyard with trees and flowers, very releaxing
tchay - yemen tea with milk, mmm with cardamon

There are many kinds of local Yemeni foods- like SALTA ( a kind of soupy meaty dish in a hot bowl made of stone!) Kepsa ( nice flavourful rice with meat) which one eats with a spoon or in my case, with my fingers, and sharing with a friend across from you as the portions are big and served on a big plate. There also is a spicy red sauce, and something called Helba ( I dont care for this much- it reminds me of a drink made in Polynesia in which kava is used and it looks like this drink- the women chew and spit their saliva in the kava and you drink it ) I know that Helba is NOT prepared at all like this Kava drink, but it reminds me of it and tastes a bit like it, so I don't care for it.. There also is the YUMMY milk tea which I feel is made best in the Arab world! I never could get enough of it... Also, fresh fruit drinks like mango, lemon, or cantalope!! ( only 25 cents US a drink!) anyway,
i wandered around the old city a bit to find a particular restaurant which I spotted earlier and went with a friend to, but couldn't find it so i went to a small shop and , in my rusty arabic, asked about a restaurant which would serve such and such a food. the shop assistant pointed to some direction but told me that i will have lunch with them in their shop instead! He grabbed my shirt and i followed him further into the shop where i saw many guys and an old man already sitting on the floor with a lot of interesting food prepared, and they were just starting to eat and welcomed me to join them all! what fun! i practiced my now rusty arabic with them and had a lunch with locals! Who said there is no such thing as a free lunch!!
In the local kinds of restaurants it is mostly a "man " place ( although I did at one time see a table of female tourists together)- lots of loud noise, guys all sitting around staring and smiling at me, trying to coax me to join them with their lunch,- then after finishing eating, it is a group thing to wash your hands together at the sink at the back of the restaurant. FUN experience!

These guys are pretty good. Need a quick bite to eat and a cold drink while you are out? The friendly outside staff in their clean uniforms will have you on your way in no time. Stop in a grab a table if you want to rest your feet. Cheap, good and fast. On a hot day they also have that needed cold drink as well.

Please note: There are several places with the name ‘Broast’ displayed and the exact same coloured uniforms. I think they may be owned by the same people and they have the same food. I ate at just about all of them!

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A wonderful restaurant with helpful staff and a great cosy garden, where you can also eat (and have a shisha). Definitely my favourite restaurant - and very much family oriented... Which means a woman is not looked at all the time.

Favorite Dish: The mix grill, despite being served with french fries, was delicious. Even better, however, was the lemon and mint juice... really refreshing. To die for...

Al Waleema Restaurant: Lebanese and Yemeni food - not memorable but not bad either. We ened up there because Al Fakhir was fully booked on that night... and we were just lucky since Al Fakhir proved to be totally disappointing.

The restaurant's interior is quite "grey" "and "cold"... impersonal to the point that oen does not want to linger on after the meal - it comes as no surpise that many people just use it as take-away.

Favorite Dish: The best was the manakish - quite tasty and spicy. The big let down is that our food came with nasty (and unwanted) French Fries