Restaurants in Jeddah are just as cosmopolitan as the city itself. With delicacies from across the globe available in the Bride of the Red Sea, one Jeddah resident embarked on the unique task of setting up JeddahFood.com — a website dedicated to provide food fanatics with information about everything relating to cuisine in Jeddah.
The website is the brainchild of Rashed Islam, a 25-year-old management and business developer from Jeddah. “I started JeddahFood.com to develop a restaurant guide for Jeddah specifically and Saudi Arabia in general. It focuses on Jeddah, but we also feature a few other Saudi cities,” said Islam, who launched the website in 2006.
In May this year, Islam redesigned the website and then relaunched it. Within a month, traffic at the site doubled and it continues to grow. The site gets over 10,000 visitors each month, so much so that Islam now needs the help of his friends to maintain the site.
The idea of setting up the website came when Islam returned to Jeddah after completing an MBA in the UK. He said he was unable to find online information about eateries in Jeddah and that most of the information found on the Internet consisted of simple descriptions of restaurants, not actual reviews.
“I wanted to visit a site that would allow people to review and comment on their favorite or least favorite restaurants in Jeddah. As there was no such site available, I decided to create one,” Islam told Arab News.
JeddahFood.com is not only a major source of restaurant reviews in Jeddah; it also includes information about cooking, recipes and details of new restaurants and takeaways.
“We also have several interactive features on the site, like polls for favorite food, contests, and a login section for those who wish to submit reviews or comment on a specific restaurant,” Islam said.
Members of the public provide reviews of restaurants and food. “Once they submit it, it enters the ‘pending for review’ stage and I am alerted via e-mail that a new review is awaiting approval. I will then check and approve it and post it on the site. Reviews are updated on a weekly basis,” said Islam.
Registering at the site is quick and free. “We are holding a contest for the best written restaurant review in the month of August. We will be giving away an 8GB Apple iPod to the winner,” he added.
Restaurants are rated by visitors to the website. “You can simply select how many stars you think a restaurant deserves. In this way the ratings are based on everyone’s opinion; not just one person. The site is also able to detect users who have already voted, something that prevents visitors from voting more than once,” he said.
Islam said restaurants listed at JeddahFood.com are chosen randomly. “It really depends on users which restaurants they wish to review. I sometimes might review a restaurant I have visited, just like everybody else,” Islam added.
JeddahFood.com not only confines itself to reviews of Western or Asian restaurants, it also includes articles on local fish restaurants and dishes such as the popular Sayadiya (brown rice with fish). “We want to encourage users to submit their favorite restaurants and reviews about any type of food they like,” Islam said.
“We are currently in the process of reviewing more Hejazi and Saudi restaurants. Next week we are reviewing Abu Zaid, a popular traditional Saudi restaurant, which serves food such as Mutabbag and Maasoub. We will be adding more traditional restaurants like those that serve Mandi, Kabsa, Mento and Saleeg over the next month,” he added.
“I think visitors will be very happy with some of the new and exciting additions we have planned in the run up to Ramadan, one of which will be a special section on the best Ramadan desserts,” he said. “We want to increase the number of restaurants listings. We also intend to cover more cities in the Kingdom,” he said.
Until now, the website does not mention the exact locations or contact details of reviewed restaurants. Islam said that this is because users add these restaurants. “We are in the process of revamping the system so that more detailed contact information is added for all new listings in addition to all previously submitted listings,” he said.
According to Islam, restaurants have been impressed by the site and praise it. “JeddahFood.com not only helps to promote restaurants that are less known, it also provides valuable feedback from customers... this feedback can help restaurants improve the services they offer,” he added.