Locals will tell you: you haven’t visited Amman if you don’t visit Hashem restaurant. Located in the heart of the hustle and bustle of the old town, it’s bound to be busy and packed full of locals and tourists alike. It is considered one of the oldest restaurants in the city and in fact the whole country and it has to be a stop on your travels here. This will be your gateway to levantine cuisine.
One of the oldest establishments in Jordan
Hashem was founded in 1956, making it one of the oldest establishments in the country. That date itself tells its own story, but that’s for another post I guess. They’re open 24 hours, but they essentially do breakfast food that can easily be consumed throughout the day. The seating is of two types: one is inside the restaurant and one is a unique outside but still inside kind of seating. Meaning you feel like you’re out but there’s a roof over your head. A very charming and authentic feel and you feel it as soon as you walk in. Let’s now talk about the food that they serve.
What’s on the menu?
What’s the food? Typical Shaami (Levantine) breakfast food. Shaam is a region that includes Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. The food includes dishes like hummus, ful, falafel, fattah and mutabal. You’ll easily find this food in other countries in the Arab world, but arguably the best will be found in this region. All vegetarian, all fresh ingredients, all healthy (except for falafel 🧆). It truly is one of our favourite spreads of food and it proves that food doesn’t have to be unhealthy to be delicious. In the West, you’ll find these dishes in Arab restaurants but as starters and not the main characters. They are like the cold or hot mezze spread you get before your main meal. But here, these are the main meals: this is how you start your day in this part of the world and to be honest, it’s one of our favourite breakfasts in the world!
The dishes: Hummus and Ful
Let’s describe the Hashem dishes a little. Hummus, quite possibly the most popular dip or side in western Arab restaurants, here it is THE star of the show. Hummus is a mash up of chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, garlic and olive oil. Strong flavours when combined you’re in dream land! Ful, which is fave beans stew, is probably most famously an Egyptian dish, but it can also be found in Arab countries. You can get a variety of types of Ful from fully mashed up to whole fava beans and in reality it depends where you’re eating it. Lemon juice and garlic just elevates this and makes it a fresh dish. It is probably heavier than the rest of the dishes as fava beans (or Ful) is a common man food in Egypt and it is supposed to keep them full for cheap for long.
The dishes: Falafel, Fattah and Mutabal
Falafel is bite sized balls of deep fried chickpeas and it is the only unhealthy dish here (well actually they do serve chips too). Fattah is a unique dish compared to the others because even though it looks like Hummus, Ful and Mutabal, it is consumed with a spoon directly without any bread. The reason for this is that it includes the bread within it – toasted flatbread is mixed with chickpeas (and the usual hummus ingredients) and a deliciously flavoured yoghurt to make this one dish super dish! And last but not least is Mutabal. This is an aubergine dip; a smoky aubergine dip! It sounds and looks different, but it often steals the show due to its flavours!
Our experience
Hashem was our first restaurant we visited in Amman. After a long flight, we rested for a bit and we went straight out. It was in the evening, so we didn’t get the full breakfast experience. As we walked in we felt the atmosphere and feel of the restaurant straight away. It felt like we had truly arrived in Jordan and you should’ve seen – it coincidently reenergised and lifted everyone’s moods too! We sat down and a gentleman came and handed us the menu, which was like a small slip of paper. You tick the items you want and how many and he then comes back and takes the slip off of you. No interaction. Swift and efficient. I can see how this works in the busy morning period. And then before you know it (within minutes) our food started arriving on our table. How did the food taste? Everything was sensational! What was our favourite dish? I think within the group it was a toss up between the hummus and mutabal.
Prominent flavours here at Hashem are: chickpeas (hummus and falafel), lemon, garlic, fava beans (ful), and aubergine (mutabbal). All fresh dishes consumed with freshly baked bread. You just can’t go wrong. Once you’ve had proper hummus, you ain’t looking at subpar hummus the same way!
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If you’re traveling to Jordan, especially for the first time, you’ll need a tour guide and transportation. It will make your life easier and the holiday that much more enjoyable. Visiting places like Petra, Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea in a country where English is not spoken much can be challenging. Get in touch to get more details on who we used and would recommend.
Getting there
Google Maps link
