Sahara is another popular Indian restaurant on Khalid Bin Waleed Street. This dimly lit restaurant isn’t the most flashy in town; the pink tiles and glass topped tables are an interesting décor choice though. The staff are friendly, the food is good and prices are cheap. We stopped by in the early evening to put their curries to the test.
If you’re a vegetarian, there’s plenty to eat here with 13 different dishes available, three of which caught our eye. The “Vegetable Korma”, “Malai Kofta” and our third choice “Baghara Baigan” (eggplant dish) which was unfortunately not available during our visit.
Meat lovers need not feel left out, the menu includes over a dozen mutton dishes, and twice as many chicken dishes, along with numerous prawn, beef and dal options.
For meat dishes we chose the “Sahara” Butter Chicken, Chicken Chilli Fry (SR15), and Dal Gosht (mutton and lentil curry). The Ghee Roast sounded interesting (a large dosa made with ghee), and also fattening, so we decided to skip this one to save our waistlines.
Descriptions of “boneless items” on the menus of Sharifiya’s curry houses need to be taken with a pinch of salt. It was a letdown to find numerous bones in the mutton Dal Gosht, which made it a challenge to eat.
Mutton that was off the bone was tender and soft, but it was few and far between and wasn’t the leanest we have come across. The dish is also full of large chunks of chili so be warned if you can’t handle your spices.
On the other hand we loved the chicken dry chili fry which was full of lean chunks of chicken breast stir fried with onions, green and red peppers. This is an aromatic dish that had been recommended by a friend, and not surprisingly was the best of the bunch. The Sahara butter chicken was also good, consisting of tender strips of chicken served in a creamy bright yellow sauce.
The Vegetable Korma was more of a disappointment; a nonspicy curry full of floating vegetables in a sad puddle of coconut milk. Much more watery than we would have liked, looking more like a Thai green curry than a korma.
The “Malai Kofta” managed to win us over. These were large dumpling sized balls made up of mixed vegetables (similar to onion bhajia). Soaked in a dark brown and oily sauce, the “Malai Kofta” dish is not the most appetizing of sights, but they do taste good and despite the oil are probably still a healthier option compared to the butter chicken dishes.
We were surprised to see “Champagne” on the menu, although we assume this was meant to read “Saudi Champagne.” We decided not to put it to the test and instead went for the lassi, which is a mix of sweetened laban flavored with spices and cardamom.
This comes served in a large glass tankard and really is a must try, but is however incredibly sweet. Ask the waiter to split the serving into two cups as half is still more than enough, and of course you only pay for the price of one.
Unfortunately, when we looked at the dessert menu, our favorite Gulab Jamun was nowhere to be seen. Dessert choices here are limited to vanilla ice cream. It would be nice to see a larger selection of desserts here.
Naturally we weren’t able to sample all items on the menu, and with so many dishes on offer it's understandable that not everything is perfect. That being said Sahara is somewhere we do see ourselves coming back. Next time however, we’ll know what to order.
Sahara is located on Khalid Bin Waleed Street opposite Al Abeer Medical Center, Sharafiya District, Jeddah. Tel: 6527838
(Rashed Islam is a food critic who hosts Jeddahfood.com)
