Break your fast at this Jeddah-based outpost of Bukhari cuisine

Jeddah’s Ugur restaurant is ideal for iftar. (Huda Bashatah)

• Colorful dips were laid among the main courses
• The family-run vibe is evident across all aspects of the restaurant

Jeddah’s Ugur restaurant conveys a sense of the ancient Uzbek city of Bukhara to hungry diners in Saudi Arabia.
At the helm is Aziza Sayema, an Uzbek in her 50’s who trained the chefs and dreamt up the recipes. Hers is a restaurant that is steeped in culture and history, one that stands out on Abdulrahman Al-Dakhil street due to its wonderfully house-like external façade.  
Bukhari carpets and traditional caps and coats hang on the walls, while a mural of an elderly woman pouring tea dominates one corner — it is the eclectic mix of vibrant wall paintings and ethnic nick-nacks that make this restaurant so instantly recognizable. That and the divine food.
It is an ideal spot to break your fast this Ramadan, as the restaurant offers everything from nibbles to hefty main courses at fairly reasonable prices.
To begin, we devoured a dish of manto, the Arabic version of Chinese dumplings, filled with tender minced meat. Next up was a plate of hot samsoo, pastry balls stuffed with either cheese or minced meat and sprinkled over with black seeds.
With our appetites sufficiently whetted, we moved onto two main dishes that ensured we lost any desire for conversation — so delicious was the food.
The restaurant’s famous Bukhari rice, topped with caramelized carrots, raisins and toasted peanuts, as well as jwawa, bite-sized manto dumplings cooked in a smooth, aromatic tomato sauce and topped with a dollop of creamy yogurt. The second dish was tummy-filling soul food and stole the show with its cohort of mysterious flavors.
Colorful dips were laid among the main courses, like gems in a crown, including a classic chutney for the Bukhari rice and a red chili paste sauce that was not for the faint of heart, but was extremely tasty nonetheless.
To end our experience, we enjoyed a simply presented “basboosa bil gishta,” or basboosa with a cream center. Soft and perfectly sweet, we were told that Aziza had made the dish herself. The family-run vibe is evident across all aspects of the restaurant, from the décor, to the attentive staff and, most importantly, the satisfying spread.