Ghouzi is not your typical restaurant chain in Jeddah. It serves up traditional local and regional food in a clean and surprisingly formal environment. I recently had the opportunity to drop by the Hera Steet branch with my knowledgeable cousin Osama. The restaurant is pretty hard to miss due to its enormous size and huge flaming logo suspended from its front.
For those of you who aren’t familiar, Ghouzi’s speciality is local Saudi/Yemeni cooking, (most of the cooks here are Yemeni and Hadarami) and the food is an all-together different experience that just has to be tried.
Walking in to the large venue the area reminded me of the queue like structure at theme parks, with a long walk up to the counter, the restaurant lower floor is primarily made up of the kitchen and order counter, with an area of similar size remaining for customers to wait and queue.
To the left of the entrance is another kitchen, which looks out on the street. This is where the Madghoot (pressure cooking) is done, for an all-together different meal. However on this occasion our focus was on the chicken muthbi (where the chicken is cooked on a stone), and the mathlootha rice that accompanies this.
Although the restaurant was relatively empty on our arrival, I have been told the second floor that contains the family section is pretty much heaving at nights and weekends.
We didn’t waste any time and got right to the point, ordering a mixed starter dish, and one portion of chicken muthbi and mathlootha rice.
The mixed starter was as described: A selection of humus, vine leaves, salad and spicy chili sauce; all great additions to the main dish we ordered.
The main course is where the food got interesting; the mathlootha (which means of three) rice is made up of three layers that contain bread (gursan), jareesh (creamy buckwheat/burghul mix) and the rice itself.
The jareesh was smooth and creamy and mixed with the soggy bread and rice made an altogether indulgent treat, the chicken’s flavor had an almost nutty or spicy zing to it, and it wasn’t long before we were helping ourselves to second portions.
Despite the double servings we ate, it is worth noting three of us didn’t even manage to finish the single portion we ordered. Go easy when ordering, as one dish is more than enough for at least two people.
The whole total came in at SR43 — SR28 for a whole chicken muthbi and SR15 for the mixed starters. This was definitely a bargain to be had considering three of us ate all this — with leftovers for another meal.
The restaurant is located on Hera Street next to Fairouz restaurant, just past Hera Plaza before the “Fruit in the Boat” sculpture.
Ghouzi has branches across Saudi Arabia. Here are details on the Jeddah branch:
Tel: 690-0004 and 236-8333
Address: Hera Street besides Fairouz Restaurant
(Rashed Islam is a food critic who hosts Jeddahfood.com)