JEDDAH: A Saudi company on Tuesday launched the first comprehensive online directory of restaurants around the Kingdom.
The website, www.sufrati.com, contains information, phone numbers and addresses of more than 2,000 restaurants in the country, according to Abdulaziz Al-Abdullah, vice president of Nowayrah Group and a partner in Sufrati.com.
“This site helps save time usually spent looking for a proper restaurant, given the ever increasing number of restaurants in Kingdom prompted by the expansion of the Saudi cities,” he said. He added that he and his partners had established Sufrati.com to make it easy for everyone to locate a restaurant to suit their tastes.
Walid Sanchez, managing director of Sufrati.com, said the website was not just about dining convenience and saving time, but in due course, it aimed to raise the standards of outdoor dining in general.
He explained: “We aim to be the official site for restaurants in Saudi Arabia, providing the best and latest information. We also want the ability to expand our services outside Saudi Arabia.”
He pointed out that the idea of the site came when he and two others were sitting together eagerly trying to decide where to eat and what was available. He added that they were having difficulties trying to choose the appropriate restaurant in view of the variety of options in Jeddah. One of them said, “Eish nakul?” (What shall we eat?), which then became the logotype of the website.
Commenting on the site services, Kareem Domloge, vice president of Olfat Al Ajou Est. and a partner in Sufrati.com, said: “Only Sufrati.com provides the biggest and most comprehensive dining directory in the Kingdom. Long gone are the days when people wondered which restaurants deliver, the location of the branch of a specific restaurant that is closest to them, and more specific questions, such as: Is there any Chinese restaurant in Tahlia?”
Sufrati.com offers three types of memberships for restaurants — bronze fork, silver fork and the gold fork. Each category gives certain privilege and information about the food outlet.
“Establishments can place their logos, Internet links, menu samples and photos of dining halls as well as any other information that will help the customer decide which restaurant they will order from,” Domloge said.
