Don’t be fooled by Cacao Sampaka’s facade in its branch in Panorama Mall, Takhasussi. It looks like a simple chocolate shop but it’s actually one part mini chocolate market and one part cafe. With this setup, you don’t only get to enjoy the chocolates, you can enjoy it with your favorite drinks in a cozy setting. We found the tables inside occupied by women circles. No men in sight that night. Cacao Sampaka has firmly established itself as a good cafe where women can hang out with their friends, chill, and talk. I love the walls covered in cacao tree photos; so distinct and sharp that I feel I was in the middle of a forest growing only cacao trees.

While much emphasis is put in their chocolate offerings, Cacao Sampaka Riyadh also indulges in quick bites with sandwiches, pizzas, and salads. I must admit we ignored those as we were in the place for dessert. We went straight to coffee. I had the coffee with caramel and almond flavors while my friend had the bestseller, Sacao, a thick hot chocolate shot. My drink arrived lukewarm that I had to send it back to the kitchen pronto to make it hotter. My friend savored her Sacao, drinking slowly to experience the haute chocolate Cacao Sampaka is known for. She seemed satisfied with it. With a grin, she said each sip comes with an embodiment of rich chocolate that caresses the tastebuds tenderly.

We ordered the chocolate fondant that came in a little ceramic bowl accompanied by a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I wasn’t too impressed with it; the cloying dark chocolate made it a bit too much for my palate. The cookie lava cake, on the other hand, was phenomenal. It has a crisp, crumbly exterior that reveals a chewy, soft, doughy interior filled with fudgy chocolate. I couldn’t resist this. This is what I probably came here for, and what I’ll be coming back for.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to try the chocolates that the Cacao Sampaka shop is famous for. I overindulged in my desserts that I forgot to drop by the chocolate market in front of the store. I would love to sample their chocolates made with authentic cocoa, available in revolutionary forms and flavors. There’s no denying it, I will come back to Cacao Sampaka.

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Pizza Hut Riyadh is of course a famous pizza company in the world. As a matter of fact, it’s the biggest pizza company in the world. Considering its beginnings as a small pizzeria that started with just $600, Pizza Hut did something right, right? While there’s nothing wrong with the usual flavors, they also didn’t tickle my fancy big time. There’s nothing new in them; quite flavorful but they’re still greasy.

We ordered in their take-out branch. The cashier was a bit tired-looking and was a bit rude. We wanted to order the thin crust but he said it’s more practical to order the pan pizza because it comes in a combo at a more affordable price. While I have no problem with getting suggestions from restaurant’s crew, he dismissed my ‘but…’ and punched in the combo anyway. I guess he realized his mistake because our order was promptly made and given to us. I was pretty excited with their Cheesy Pops because it looked oh-so-good in the photos. I was disappointed to find pieces of bread with melted cheese inside. That’s it, and it’s salty. The Super Supreme was just okay and chock-full of toppings. The blend of meat with mushrooms, onions, olives, and green peppers on top was a universal good combination. I ate one slice of the thick deep pan pizza and I was already feeling full. A bit more cheese would have made me happier but the Cheesy Pops made up for it. Since a pack of wings is my favorite item in any menu, I decided to try their Wings in Honey Garlic Barbecue flavor. I thought the sauce would be smeared all over the chicken wings but it just came in a small tub for take-out. I find the coating hard, instead of crunchy but the meat retained its hot temperature and juiciness (maybe because the coating was too hard to penetrate). They have quite a list of pastas in their menu. I’ll try them next time.

It might have been really too long since I had Pizza Hut that I found myself questioning the taste of every thing I ordered. Maybe I’m getting too jaded with pizzas. There’s just too many to choose from that it’s hard to pinpoint which is the best and what is just mediocre. Pizza Hut is leaning towards mediocrity in my scale. It lost some of its grandeur over the 50 years it has been in the market. I hope they step up their game because I’m willing to try them again for delivery next time.

Multiple Locations of Pizza Hut Riyadh

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The interior is setup like most fast food joints across town, however the focus here is clearly on the healthy side of Falafel. Bright green walls contrast well with the crisp white furniture. Walls are plastered with large images of Falafel and bold messages like ‘Just Enjoy’ and  ‘Just Natural Ingredients’ reiterate the healthy side of Falafel,  a welcome change from the greasy alternatives one has become accustomed to.

The menu is extensive and includes a variety of Falafel options which are sure to be a hit with fans of the Middle Eastern snack. Vegetarians take note, as this is one place where you can pretty much eat everything on the menu. A wide selection of country specific Falafel sandwiches are available, so you can try a Falafel sandwich that is Original, Greek, Egyptian, Mexican, American, Italian, Saudi, Arabi, & even Japanese inspired. Halloumi sandwiches are also available, as are some tasty looking Quesadillas. Sides include Middle Eastern dips like Roasted Tomatoe Humous, fries, and some healthy sounding mini Falafel bites, Yummy!

Are you a Falafel Fan? Have you already been here? Be the first to Review it!

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The decor in this place is simply amazing. They have combined ideas from Syria, Jordan, Egypt and the Gulf countries. Set Al-Sham restaurant is a large building on its own on Thalateen street. They even have a parking hall downstairs and you will be taken up to the family section in a lavish elevator.

This restaurant has complete dining privacy for those looking for a secluded setting or an option to dine in the open area around a Syrian style fountain. You can have a choice of different sized private rooms each decorated with Middle-Eastern ornaments. They even have a “hooneymoon” room for two decorated in red and silk which must be booked in advance. It comes with a set menu.

The corridors are lined with decorative lanterns and wooden doors to the private rooms. Rooms have a bell inside that you call to get the waiter to come to you.

The buffet appetizers at Set Al Sham Riyadh are delicious, fresh and neatly displayed and there are plenty to choose from. Many different salads and fresh Arabic flat bread basket will be brought to your table. Their Tabbouleh is one of the best I’ve tried so far. I also enjoyed sampling all the different pastes to dip the bread in.

The main courses are a bit limited but nevertheless tasty and you won’t have much room after all those appetizers any way. I was a bit surprised to find French fries as one of the options in the main courses, but most of the dishes were authentic Arabic foods.

For desert this restaurant has excellent “Umm Ali” and Rose water rice pudding to die for. The good thing is you can have as many as you like. Dates, Arabic coffee and Arabic pastries are also available, if you down them anymore after all the eating that is..

And of course the evening would not be complete without Saudi Champagne, which I would recommend you try here. Set Al Shams version of this drink comes served in a large pint with fresh mint leaves and lemon slices. Very thirst quenching and refreshing.
The restaurant has efficient, knowledgeable and friendly service. The waiters are all from Arab countries and are happy to explain to you all the various dishes. Price for the buffet is 150sr excluding drinks. I would recommend Set Al Sham Riyadh to take your visitors for an authentic Middle Eastern experience.

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According to Corn Dogs Riyadh Facebook page they are “Tender hot dogs wrapped in a crunchy golden coating of our own delicious cornmeal batter; served on a stick to be easily devoured.” Corn dogs Riyadh claims to be the first to bring them into Saudi Arabia. They have a delivery service along with a Twitter and Facebook page. We called them and a friendly man answered all my questions. The menu is very simple; Corn Dogs offers choice of either beef or chicken corn dogs in small or big size. Small will set you back 12 ST and jumbo 14 SR.

You can get a larger batch of a dozen for 155 SR. They do catering and parties and for those occasions they need two days notice.
With each corn dog you get one sauce, they have 12 different varieties, We ordered six corn dogs but they sent us all the sauces which was a nice extra touch.

The order arrived 45 minutes from calling and the food was all still nice and hot. So how do they taste? I must say I was really surprised how tasty these things were. The outer batter is really crunchy and delicious, although perhaps a little bit oily. The hot dog inside is, like they promise, tender and juicy. The beef hot dog had a better flavor than the chicken. I liked them most with just ordinary ketchup and mustard but the Buffalo wing and Jalapeno cheese sauces were also good. It was fun to eat it from a stick!

I would recommend Corn dogs Riyadh for a nice snack or to serve as something out of the ordinary at parties. They would definitely be a hit!

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The Tango Riyadh menu has lots of variety and there is a broad selection of fresh fruit juices and mock tails to choose from. Tango, being situated inside a ladies fitness center, has lots of healthy options available. We ordered fresh fruit juices called “the Immunizer” “The Antioxidant drink” and Multilayered fruit cocktail. They were all very refreshing and the presentation was nice.

Service here is a little bit slow but the waiter was very friendly and we were not in a hurry. We got some light snacks to go with our mock tails. Tango has nice selection of salty crepes, sandwiches and wraps. The chicken Quesadilla crepe was delicious and the crepe was thin and tasty. We also tried the chicken shawarma which was nice and didn’t have those pieces of fat in it that you usually see in shawarma. The chicken wraps were nice too and had a real home made taste to it.

For dessert we had Nutella crepes and soufflé which was recommended by the waiter. The crepes did not disappoint, it seems this place knows how to make really nice crepes. The soufflé arrived in a small cup and was unfortunately served without vanilla ice cream so I had to order it separately. I couldn’t finish the dessert without the vanilla ice cream to balance the strong chocolate flavor.
The prices are very reasonable for such an upscale place and I would recommend going there for a nice atmosphere and some light snacks and drinks in a beautiful and abaya free setting!

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The first taste of the poor customer service was having to wait almost 20 minutes for the waiter to acknowledge us and bring the menus.

Cafe Bateel Riyadh offers a few croissant options, muffins and other pastries, waffles, yogurts and a wide selection of eggs. Choices of coffees leave room for improvement but they do have many nice teas on the menu. I was hoping for more breakfast “packages”, they only had two, Continental and Arabic breakfast. No pancakes or crepes but they do have Belgian waffles. The egg options are fab though, they have impressive selection of egg dishes to choose from including Eggs Benedict, Egg Royale and Umbrian Frittata.

Everything we ordered arrived at the table at different times over a span of an hour and after having to remind different waiters many times about missing items. We ordered two sets of Belgian waffles but received only one serving of sauces with them. The waffles had a tiny amount of syrup sprinkled on top and a dash of whipped cream on the side but no additional syrup was available. The waffles were served with a chocolate and raspberry sauce instead. The waffle itself was perfect, soft, thick and a little bit crunchy.  It tasted even better with the raspberry sauce. The other taster however was disappointed that she couldn’t drizzle it with syrup and didn’t like either of the sauces.

The Umbrian Frittata, which comes with a price tag of 35 SAR was one of the last dishes to arrive but was well worth the wait. It was presented nicely and the dish was tasty and very fulfilling.

We had placed an order for two cheese croissants, waited for half hour and inquired about them many times. The waiter told us after almost 45 minutes from ordering that they do not even have cheese croissants and asked would we like plain ones instead. At this point my friend was in a hurry to leave and her little daughter who the croissant was for had waited the entire time without having anything to eat. They had to box her croissant to go.

Something worth trying at Cafe Bateel Riyadh are the sparkling drinks. They have choice of Pomegranate and Date sparkling drinks you can order by glass or bottle. We tried the date drink and it was so good we bought a bottle to go. It didn’t actually taste a lot like dates at all.

We had a lot of trouble getting the waiter to understand that we wanted the check separated between us, which we had mentioned from the beginning. After two revisions of the check and them trying to charge for items we didn’t even have, he still didn’t separate the check for us. We were tired of the poor service and just figured to sort the bill ourselves.

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The menu is pretty simple, they have three different breakfast packages all include choice of hot beverage, freshly squeezed orange juice and additionally choice of one viennoisserie and omelet. The full breakfast with all proponents is 59sar. I was disappointed that my favorites, pancakes, crepes or French toast were not on the menu. They didn’t have anything especially for kids either.

We ordered two set menus and some hash browns for the side order. The waiters were all friendly and looked very French in their outfits, although all were from the Philippines. The service was a little bit slow and sometimes forgetful and they seemed to be lacking coordination between the staff. They brought a complimentary basket of freshly baked breads which all looked delicious, but they came to the table cold. My husband thought that since this is a bakery, all the bread should be served warm so he requested for the bread to be warmed but the waiter forgot to bring the basket back.

I wanted to try the famous Paul’s Pain Au Chocolate for my viennoisserie choice but they said only cheese and zaatar croissants were available, they had run out of the other options. We ordered one zaatar and one cheese croissant. Another waiter brought us two cheese croissants. Again, they were cold and we asked them to be warmed for us. They came back quickly and were served with PAUL’s own butter and strawberry jam. The croissants were perfect, crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy inside. Easy to break pieces off and not the chewy kind you sometimes have.

After a while they brought the omelet and hash browns. The omelet was OK, but nothing special. The hash browns were absolutely lovely, very crunchy outer layer with a flavorful inside; both omelets and hash browns were served hot.

I was surprised that they didn’t bring everything to the table at the same time, for example we had to ask for our coffees to be served because there was no sign of them although we had gotten all the food already. The coffees were both good and were accompanied by a cute little sponge cake.

We decided to order directly from the bakery a slice of the blueberry pie and the macaroon cake, both 19sar. After 15 minutes and no sign of them, we asked the waiter. He then brought a piece of chocolate cake that was different from what I had ordered, and it was sitting on the plate upside down! I flipped it over the right way and it looked much better. It wasn’t what I had asked for, but I decided to keep it to avoid further confusion with the waiters.

The taste was much better than the appearance, which was rather dull. I can say this chocolate cake was far from dry! It was heavenly! So smooth, moist and rich in chocolate flavor, yet not overly sweet and I was able to finish it easily. The Blueberry pie was equally delicious. It tasted very similar to the one my mother makes. The blueberries in the filling were fresh and plentiful; it was creamy but light, not too sour but not too sweet either. The extremely thin crust was not to my liking though.

The restaurant has ceiling to floor windows which are blackened from the outside. This means also that the restaurant easily becomes very hot and uncomfortable inside. After five minutes of sitting near the windows we had to ask for the A/C to be turned on because we were really sweltering in our winter clothing. After a while it got better, but it still felt somewhat suffocating.

As polite and friendly the staff was, I feel they would still need some additional training and a little bit more attentiveness. I would recommend Paul’s for a delicious breakfast in a unique setting. The bakery is worth stopping by on its own and they offer great value for money.

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I would describe McDonalds Riyadh burgers as adequate. I was surprised when I first came here in Riyadh and saw the burgers of McDo’s because they’re bigger and looks fresher than their counterpart in the Philippines. I took a liking to the Big Tasty because it has a more pronounced beefy flavor that makes the bun-to-burger ratio perfect. It has subtle seasonings, a fresh-looking tomato slice, sloppy lettuce, and cheese that is dependably delicious. I’ve encountered dry patties from time to time but the soft sesame seed buns pull my attention away from the lackluster fillings and condiments. Most of McDo’s burgers are nothing fancy, of course, compared to other burger restaurants but they’re joys considering how affordable they are.

Health-wise, these burgers are quite questionable but we don’t eat them every day do we? I also like Mc Arabia, which is something unique to the Gulf countries. The chicken patty has a certain flavor to it that sometimes, I tend to just get it out of its dry and stale bread wrapper and eat it on its own. The best thing that McDo came up with is their fries. They seem to have perfected it: from the shoestring size that makes it easy to pop in the mouth, to the salt that is not too big or small, to the pleasant crisp and texture that goes with every golden strand. Among the fast food joints, McDo’s french fries still reign supreme in my taste buds. I enjoy them especially with a sundae. Yes, not ketchup but sundae! I find the hot fries and cold ice cream combo so good!

We’ve had McDonalds at the office and at home for several occasions already and their delivery service is fast and reliable; starting from their order center where they save your details so the next time you call, you won’t have to repeat yourself. In McDo branches all over Riyadh, the service is friendly and fast too. I haven’t been disappointed so far. I’m glad that they have breakfast options but I’m disappointed they discontinued their Chicken Wings. I miss those hot, juicy wings.

I’ll be honest: despite the plentiful burger joints sprouting here and there, I think McDonald’s will still be the go-to burger of adults and kids alike. The lines will not shorten and McDonalds will never lose its fame.

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Smashburger is another burger franchise from the States that promises a place with a burger soul. I’m immediately intrigued. What would set it apart from the ordinary fast food burgers and from the healthy, organic ones? Smashburger promises a dedication to “smashed-to-order” burger comprised of 100% Angus beef that is smashed, seared, and seasoned on the grill, a butter-toasted artisan bun, and high quality toppings and condiments. To test this promise, I ordered the Classic with cheese. It’s the simplest burger at SR 28 a piece and the perfect one to undergo a taste test because it’s stripped to the basics. I also ordered a sidekick of sweet potato fries drizzled with olive oil and rosemary.

The burger and the side looked heavenly on my plate. After taking photos (a ritual), I immediately took a huge bite. The bread is indeed, soft, with hints of butter. It kinds of overwhelm the burger patty which started beefy and savory but crumbled to pieces of meat that’s too salty in the middle. I swear I tasted every ingredient in the burger individually before discovering that the saltiness came from the middle part of the patty. The slightly-burnt edges of the patty was nicely-seasoned but the middle, ack! My friend’s BBQ Burger is quite good but she also felt that the bun was too thick in proportion to the patty. I enjoyed the sweet potato fries though. It’s different from the usual potato fries. I like the freedom that comes with the drinks. I was free to get as many ice and soda in my red tumbler.

I’ve been to Smashburger Riyadh just once so I wouldn’t consider the too salty burger patty a consistent product of Smash’s kitchen. I will return to try them again. I’m quite curious over their Saudi Smash (with tahini sauce!) and their hotdog sandwiches. The place is bright and clean and the ordering process is pretty much fast and efficient with free suggestions from the cashier. I’m not sure if Smashburger would become this city’s favorite place for burgers but it can be a contender in the long run.

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