Your favourite restaurants in Damascus and Hama

Hi everyone! Looking for some advice on restaurants in Damascus and Hama that serve good and reasonably cheap arabic food. Doesn't have to be very nicelooking and atmopheric houses but prefereably with an extensive meny specialising in local dishes. Alcohol is a plus. Anyone has any favourite place(s) that match these demands? cheers!

Restaurants in old city of Damascus in the Christian quarter do serve alcohol with meals .In the Muslim quarters they dont serve alcohol with meals.
Prices depends on how much alcohol/drinks consumed.A meal and a couple of drinks will cost around syp 1000 each.In the Muslim quarter you can have a feast for around syp 500.There are many famous restaurants that serve the best Middle Eastern food in the world .I hope the SPDL on this forum(a regular visitor to Damascus) will come and tell you more about these famous restaurants in Damascus and may be in Hama.Many of these restaurants were old Ottoman houses renovated and converted to eating houses.
Syrians love food and variety.You can find along the airport road grand style restaurants like a mini Disney Land Arabian Style some are so large they can seat 10000 persons,and have earned the title of the largest restaurants in the world by the Guinness book of record like Damascus gate and One thousand and One NIghts.

In Damascus you will never find a shortage of places to eat, full of great food. Here in Hama, unfortunately, the pickings get slim. We have teh Araba Nouria (4 waterwheels) that is great, with atmoshpere and all, and great food. Then there is also Afrah Cafeteria down in the Saah Al Assi square that serves great sweets like pudding and other arabic goodies like Helawe Jibn. Just behind teh Afrah cafeteria is Roasted Fawaz for roasted chicken, fried chicken, shawerma, fish and fries. THis is a local favorite. Another good place here is also in the same blockage is the falafel stand with the Big yellow sign. Its the only one wiht hte large yellow sign, and you could practically fallin teh frying vat walking down teh sidewalk if your not careful. Down closer to medina there is the Family restaraunt and they serve alcohol but i havent heard anything good about the food. Also just before this restaurant is Abu Joda, and hes got teh best hummous and feta hummous in town. Salads, and chicken, and shawerma are also here, and hes just at the bottom of the castle (citadel) Outside of this there is expensive food in the old city walk called Aspazia but really not worth the money in my opinion. I have also heard good things about the new Oriental House Hotel and restaraunt in Bayad area of Hama, also pricey. If your in a pinch and want good food, that honestly is the best in town there is Papas Pizza and Shawerma right down from the train station in Andalus. His food is typical American burgers pizza and such, but also has your Shish sandwiches and Shawerma. And speaks fluent english as he lived in the states many many years. So he can also help you out if you need anything, his partner also runs the tour van for the Riyad and Cairo hotels here, so if you need that they are also there for that. Anyhow really that is all the restaraunts in Hama. :d Theres a lot of whole in walls and what not but they all have the same thing as the above and out of all of htem these are the best with the best service.

Take care

Aisha in Hama

Duly summoned by Marco ;-)

Eating in Syria is a delight - as Marco and Oomwesam have alluded to.

In Damascus, as a general rule, in restaurants which serve alcohol, the service tends to be a bit snooty, the prices higher and the food not as good quality (though there are, of course, many exeptions to this rule). When I'm eating in Damascus, I'll just tend to go wherever the best food is, and if I feel like a drink, I'll stop off at a bar in Bab Touma or grab a bottle of Ksara or some Almaza on the way home.

There are literally hundreds of restaurants, so I'll just skim over some of the more notable ones:

Beit Jabri is a good place to visit first of all. Although there is better food available elsewhere in the city, this is the original and most famous of all the courtyard restaurants. The building in which it's located is absolutely beautiful, and there's a really good vibe there - I could spend hours there just people-watching over a nargileh.

Al-Khawali is like a high-end version of Beit Jabri. The food there is amazing, and the service spot-on, though it's considered by Damascenes to be one of the best restaurants in the city, and I always feel a little under-dressed whenever I go there!

Abu al-Azz is absolutely fantastic. They put on a floor show each night (dancers, Dervishes, musicians and comedians) which is tremendous fun and not anywhere near as tacky as you might think. The audience there seems to be predominantly local (when we went there, on Christmas Eve, I only noticed another four westerners out of an audience/clientele of about 250), and very, very raucous. There is no menu; once you're in, you'll be plied with more yummy food (of surprisingly good quality) than you could possibly have a hope of eating.

The location of Leila's Restaurant, which has a terrace overlooking the Omayyad Mosque, can't be beaten.

If you're willing to walk about 20-30 minutes south of the Old City, there is an area of town called Midan, centred on a street of the same name. On the bottom end of Sh. al-Midan(before you hit the freeway), there are a zillion bakeries, shwarma/falafel joints, olive sellers, cheese sellers and hole-in-the-wall 'restaurants'. It's a great place to visit if you're particularly into food, and you're practically guaranteed not to see another tourist there. I've only ever been during the day, but it's particularly lively at night, so I'm told.

Apart from that, just explore the city, and ask around, I guess - there are loads of restaurants, and everyone has their favourites. None of the restaurants in Damascus are particularly expensive by western standards, and I'm yet to have a truly bad meal in Syria, so there's never any harm in just diving in and trying the waters...

When it comes to Hama, Oomwesam has totally covered it already! The Araba Nouria is great, particularly when the weather is nice and the waterwheels are going. The Family Restaurant serves alcohol, and although the food there is reasonably good, the service and atmosphere are absolutely dire, or at least they were when I went. I respectfully disagree with her about the Aspazia - I've been there a few times and quite liked it. It's Hama's answer to Beit Jabri, and the staff there were fantastically friendly, welcoming and chatty, and I remember their borek being particularly good. Having said that, I think it is the most expensive restaurant in Hama by quite some margin, though again, if you're coming from the west, you shouldn't find it too hard on the wallet.

OP The SPDL as usual has risen to the occasion and responded as a pro.food and restaurant writer.
Aisha haven't seen you on this forum for quite some time.We are coming to Hama and Aleppo this summer and hope to catch up with you and the brood at one of these eating houses in Hama.

I'd definitely second the recommendations given, and add a few more:

Zeus Restaurant in the Old City (near Bab Tooma, down an alley...) has an oud player and live music on certain nights, as well as alcohol. It's a little bit more expensive tho.
Haretna (also in the Old City) has a great atmosphere, good wine, etc.

Outside of the Old City, there's a good restaurant called Shamiat in the Abu Roumaneh district, sort of behind the 4 Seasons Hotel. It has great Syrian food and is very affordable. No alcohol though.

Also, Midan Street, off of Sahat Bab Mousallah (any cab driver will know where this is -- the area of town is called Midan, tho on some tourist maps Sahat Bab Mousallah is referred to as Yarmouk Square), has a really interesting selection of restaurants serving Syrian and Gulf foods (ie, chicken kebseh w rice -- very good! and other things like animal brain...) and various Arabic pastries like baclava. This area is known for its amazing selection of pastries. Everything is very, very affordable. There is sheesha (water-pipe-tobacco) available at many places on this street, but no alcohol, and be advised that, unlike the Old City, this is a fairly conservative neighborhood (ie, women shouldn't wear anything short/revealing, and be prepared to be the only foreigners in the area).

Also, you can save money (and still get a great meal and experience) by ordering and sharing several appetizers at these restaurants, rather than ordering a main meal. The appetizers usually cost less if the price is split between a few people, and generally ordering a few of these should fill you up. Very few restaurants in Damascus have minimum charges or mind if ppl do this.

Tons of thanks for your input. I'll definetly check some of these restaurants out, as well as the Midan Street area in Damascus.

Marco! An eatery just wont be suitable! You should plan on dinner or lunch here! You have catered to my random needs so often I couldnt think of anything less! Take care,

Aisha

If in Hama, avoid the 'Family Club Resturant' at all costs. This is a restaurant recommended in the lonely planet guidebook. Food was crap, service crap, our waiter didnt speak english, and i walked away with a healthy dose of Food Poisoning...
...not what the doctor prescribes.

Just returned from 17 day business trip to Damascus and tried several of restaurants recommended here. Great food in most, and prices are very reasonable even in the poshest places. We were staying at the Four Seasons (where food is extortionate) and ate regularly at Shamiat on (I think) Al Majles Anniyavi about 5 mins away on foot. Small restaurant with very cheap but good quality and fresh veg - plate of appetisers before starters arrived had bunches of mint, spring onions, olives, carrot and radish crudites. Cost for a starter, a shish kebab and a juice, no more than 5-6 US$.

In the old town we had good meals at Naranj, Al Khawali, Beit Jabri and Haretna: never paid more than 10$. Normally we drank carrot juice or lemon and mint, and finished with Arabic coffee or mint tea. All these resataurants were attractive, courtyard-style, served good food and had interesting mix of diners. Naranj and Al Khawali clearly attract the swankiest clientele (including the Syrian president), but prices are very reasonable. The only place we were disappointed was Baik Bash, a pretentious Italian-style resto next to a boutique hotel: prices double the norm for old town and disappointing food not matching Italian standards, eg soogy asparagus risotto

At the top end, Syrian hosts took us to La Perle D'Orient, a new place in a converted old house on Al Jisr Al Abyad. Very elegant place with superb cold and hot starters, and unusually for Damascene restaurants, wine was available. Unsure of the cost as we didn't pay.

Edited by: ldhf

My hotel manager in Damascus recommended Al Khawali and Naranj. It wass during Ramadan and because of all those reservations for iftar meals (I suppose) I nevefr once managed to get into Al Khawali. Every time I came they asked me if I could come back after 10 or 11pm (no way, if you've been waiting all day since breakfast for a decent meal!). I tried Naranj and thought, it was very overrated. Expensive, the second floor's tables looked untidy and I was unimpressed with the food too.
Then I discovered Bait al Shams (the old city, not so far from Bab Touma in, across the big street from Naranj, into one little alleyway), with two huge alladeen-like coffee pots sitting on each side of the entrance. They had a beautiful coutryard, lemon trees, a live band playing Arabic music and the food was divine, and cost half of Naranj! I went back here every night I was in Damascus.

sorry, not Bait al Shams, it is Bait al Sham.