Aldka- To simply define it, it means “Hospitality”. Appetizing rice and vegetables, succulent tender beef and fresh chicken marinated with the finest spices – these are what make Saudi cuisine a treat for every taste.
In earlier day, Saudi people used to invite everyone to come sit with them on a low sofa like seating knows as majlis and serve them meat and rice dish with qahwa. Aldka follows the traditions of their ancestors and serves some really simple and delicious chicken and mutton rice (just like mandi style) only seating style is more contemporary.
They have a special Aldka salad which is not to be missed, it is extremely flavorful and mouth-watering. One cannot stop themselves from having more and so is there dessert – Hnini Aldka which is a date pastry. The pastry is well balanced with right amount of biscuit base and topped with a good layer of dates pudding. Their dessert and salad are a must have as you will not find them anywhere else.
Ordered the Badia Mutton which was made with khebsa rice and a mixture of 3 elements in one. It was a meat well cooked, tender and quite succulent. For chicken we opted for the Chicken Bhukari, which had an aromatic and flavorsome rice, garnished with nuts and topped with well marinated and cooked Chicken. The food tastes just like home cooked. You can find 2 kinds of rice there, “Khebsa” and “Bukhari”. They were very generous to have given us sample of both the kinds of rice and allowed us to choose whichever we like better. Khebsa rice were more like simple brown colored rice which was flavored with spices and bukhari rice were colorful plain rice topped with a lot of raisins and almonds. So if you are a person who doesn’t like nuts in their meals then you should definitely opt for the khebsa rice and they really go well with the meat dish.
The place reminds you of an old heritage, giving you a very homely feeling. The food was quite affordable and served in good quantity.
For drinks, unfortunately they do not have much options, except lemon mint, orange fresh juice and soft drinks. And since i am a mint lover I was quite happy to have got the lemon mint option. Although the lemon mint wasn’t made very well, as it was missing sugar or salt.
Engineer With Flair 