For anyone who’s followed my blog or social media for a bit, will know my love for Yemeni food and especially the breakfast. It was my go to in my time in Saudi Arabia. In Dubai, I noticed that Yemeni food is also popular, but more so the main meal i.e. the mandi. I couldn’t find any place doing Yemeni breakfast and it certainly wasn’t as widespread as in Saudi Arabia. So, when my Uber driver happened to be Yemeni I knew I had to ask for recommendations. He proudly and without hesitation recommended to me Azal, a place that does Yemeni breakfast! So, we went to check it out and satisfy our cravings.
Yemeni breakfast
A Yemeni breakfast spread is made up of some delicious dishes. Including mashed ful, shakshuka (scrambled egg and tomato), adas (lentils aka daal), muqalqal (stir fried meat (lamb or liver) and our personal favourite, the sweet dish of the spread, Ma’soob (a wonderful concoction of mashed chappati, banana, dates, nuts, corn flakes, honey and many other goodies). There’s something for everyone to enjoy and you really can’t go wrong. Unfortunately, it isn’t so widespread. In Saudi Arabia, it is very popular. In London, only recently a spot on Edgware Road opened up serving this food. And in Dubai, the only place we came across that does it is Azal.
Azal Mandi Restaurant
This was a direct recommendation from a Yemeni Uber driver. So, it must be good right? A very big spacious restaurant with both a family and male side. It is located just behind the Al Karama area near the Burjuman metro station. Not many do the Yemeni breakfast in the country and in reality this is the only one we’ve come across. So, we had to check it out. Read on to see what we got and what we thought!
Our experience
We got there a little after 11 and worried that the breakfast time may be over, but thankfully it wasn’t. And at the end when we asked when the breakfast times were, they told us that it is available all day. Prior to this we recently had a proper Yemeni breakfast spread in Madinah where we got some essentials like ful, adas and muttabaq. So, we thought we would try out some of their other breakfast dishes that we didn’t get in Madinah. We got muqalqal, which is a stir-fried strips of meat (lamb or liver) and shakshuka, which is a famous egg and tomato dish. We also got the Ma’soob again, which is our favourite and whenever there is an opportunity, we will not turn it down. How was everything? I’ll keep this brief. Delicious!
Getting there:
Google Maps Location link: click here
