Syrian restaurants offer favored dishes to Saudis and expats

Syrian cuisine enjoys unique and varied dishes in the Middle East. Delicious appetizers, in particular, are the secret behind attracting many non-Syrian Arabs to Syrian restaurants.
Syrian appetizers include hummus (chickpeas), babba ghanouch (eggplant with vegetables), moutabal (eggplant with tahini sauce), stuffed vine leaves and olives. Various Syrian dishes complement a range of meals. Syrians normally eat hummus (chickpeas) and "foul" (beans) in the morning. Eggplant-based dishes are usually served with grilled meats at lunch and vine leaves with "shawarma" (meat and chicken shavings) at dinner.
Syrian restaurants are also known for offering marinated grilled foods at lunch such as "shish tawooq" (marinated chicken cubes), kebab (minced meat skewers), kabab kalabi (minced meat with bulgar wheat), stuffed zucchini and grilled "kibbah" (rolled minced meat with bulgar wheat stuffed with pine nuts and minced lamb). Syrian cuisine focuses on offering various dishes of salads, olives, hummus, fattoush (salad with toasted bread), labnah (strained yogurt) and shanklish (aged cheese with onions, tomatoes and a drizzle of olive oil).
Most popular Syrian restaurants in the Kingdom offer various meals to customers at low prices, targeting Saudi and Arab expatriates. However, there are Syrian restaurants that work to offer high-priced meals depending on the restaurant's decor and chefs. All Syrian restaurants in the Kingdom are known to provide meals with health requirements. In addition, when visiting any Syrian restaurant in Saudi Arabia, almost all the workers would come from Syria, Jordan or Palestine.
"I cannot give up eating my dinner at Syrian restaurants. These restaurants are widely available all over streets and districts in Jeddah. They have delicious meals at reasonable prices," Ali Ba-Hakeem, a resident of Jeddah, said. "Shawarma" is made by stacking strips of fat and pieces of seasoned meat (beef, lamb or marinated chicken) on a stick. An onion, a tomato, or a halved lemon is sometimes placed at the top of the stack for additional flavoring. The meat is slowly roasted on all sides as it rotates in front of a flame for hours. This is a quick profit-maker for many restaurants, Syrian or otherwise.