Al Khayma Heritage Restaurant Review Near Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Before heading over to see the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi,
we stopped for dinner at a popular local restaurant.
It was
Al Khayma Heritage Restaurant.
It’s located inside the underground shopping mall at the Grand Mosque,
in Souq Al Jami’.
Then we hurried off to catch the Grand Mosque lit up at night.
The sculptures around the area were gorgeous too.
I didn’t get to visit during the day,
so this Abu Dhabi mosque visit ended up being an evening one only.
I still need to do a full post on the mosque itself,
but honestly, I was so surprised to find
such a huge mall underneath the mosque.
There are restaurants, cafés, souvenir shops,
plus a supermarket, pharmacy, salon, and more.
This was Al Khayma Heritage Restaurant,
a place my husband had already tried on his own and thought was pretty decent,
so he brought me back here for Middle Eastern local food.
It’s a Michelin-recognized restaurant,apparently—
not a star spot, but I’m guessing it’s Bib Gourmand.
I really liked the interior because it had that unmistakable Middle Eastern feel.
It was kind of charming and cute, too.
The staff were all dressed in traditional clothing,
kandura for the men and abaya for the women,
which made the whole experience feel even more local.
One of the staff asked where we were from,
and when we said South Korea, he immediately brought up Son Heung-min.
Total Sonny fan.
The menu came on a tablet,
and since this was my first time at a local restaurant, I found it a little hard to figure out.
There were so many dishes on the menu that I couldn’t photograph everything,
so I only grabbed a few partial screenshots.
Once you order, they bring out an appetizer—
maybe a chickpea soup? It was a lot hotter than it looked,
but the flavor was very mild, so I only had a few spoonfuls.
My husband picked almost everything for us,
and one of the dishes was a salad,
which was perfectly fine—hard to go wrong with fresh vegetables.
Since alcohol isn’t served in Abu Dhabi in places like this,
we ordered non-alcoholic mocktail mojitos.
He got a regular mojito, and I had the blue mojito.
Both had a strong flavor, but they were a little sweeter than I expected.
Another dish we ordered was the grilled lamb chops,I think.
It came with grilled lamb, something similar to Indian naan,
and white biryani rice on the side.
There were two sauces served with it,
and I liked the red one much better.
The meat plate also came with
a small scoop of hummus,
and since I’m not a huge hummus person,
I actually liked that it was just enough for a taste.
If you travel in the Middle East without trying hummus even once,
it somehow feels like you missed something—so I checked that off here.
One thing to know: the portions here are pretty big.
We ordered the salad and this one main,
and even for two people, it was enough that we couldn’t finish it.
The biryani itself didn’t have a very strong flavor,
so it felt more like filler carbs than anything else.
I’ve seen a lot of Korean reviews of Al Khayma Heritage Restaurant
saying it was delicious and that they’d love to come back,
but personally, I’m still not totally sold on Middle Eastern food,
so I couldn’t fully relate.
That said, it definitely wasn’t difficult for us to eat,
and I do think it’s a solid, approachable option.
The lamb didn’t have any unpleasant gamey smell,
everything felt very easygoing, and the staff were genuinely kind.
If you want to try local food in Abu Dhabi
but feel a little nervous about going too hardcore with the local style,
and you’re looking for a place that works well for international tastes too,
Al Khayma Heritage Restaurant is not a bad pick at all.