5 unforgettable culinary experiences in Bahrain

There’s no better way to truly understand a place than to taste it. Whether you’re ducking into street stalls in spice-laden souks, tucking into family-style feasts or dining in the snazzy restaurants of Michelin-lauded chefs, Bahrain serves up a smorgasbord of options catering to every palate. Here’s how to dig in… 

Duck behind Bab Al Bahrain to find Manama Souk, where the lanes tighten into a maze of scent and colour. Burlap sacks brim with saffron threads, cardamom pods, cumin, coriander and za’atar, while merchants scoop baharat spice blends and loomi (dried limes) to order, grinding them on the spot. Date sellers stack glossy pyramids of Ajwa, Khudri and Barhi, with jars of date molasses (debes) lined up beside walnuts and pistachios for good measure. Follow the smoke and you’ll find tiny bakeries slapping dough onto tannour (clay oven) walls for hot khubz flatbreads, best torn and dunked into mahyawa (a tangy fish sauce) or smeared with cheese and honey for a quick street breakfast. 

Start with machboos – turmeric-tinted rice fragrant with dried lime and crowned with chicken, lamb or Gulf fish – or seek out muhammar, a gently sweetened rice cooked with dates and sugar, and often paired with crisp fried fish for that surprisingly savoury-sweet clash Bahrain does so well.  

Breakfast means balaleet: saffronand-cardamom vermicelli under a thin omelette. This is often chased with tiny finjan cups of gahwa (Arabic coffee), poured from long-spouted dallahs and served with dates. Pull up a chair at Haji’s Café, a Manama Souk institution run by the same family since the 1950s. It’s all clatter and charm, as trays of karak tea are ferried to regulars and bakers slide blistered khubz from the oven.  

Curated by the magazine editors of Time Out Bahrain, this 3,250 sqm food hall in the City Centre Bahrain mall pulls the island’s best bites into one address. It includes 12 chef-led kitchens plus a dessert counter, coffee bar, exhibition space, live stage and a breezy rooftop. Come hungry and graze on Bahraini staples as well as global cuisines, then linger for music or pop-ups as the evening warms up. It’s the fastest (and tastiest) way to sample Manama’s dining scene in one hit.  

Ultra-walkable and always buzzing after dark, Block 338 is Bahrain’s pedestrian quarter, where dinner bleeds into gallery-hopping and late-night people-watching. Its lanes are lined with indie cafés, small boutiques and contemporary art spaces. Be sure to make a beeline for Fusions at the nearby Gulf Hotel, which offers 18 diverse fine dining restaurants inspired by Thailand, China, Japan, Italy, Mexico, India, Persia and the Western world. Or, if you’re in the mood for star power on the skyline, head over to Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay for CUT by Wolfgang Puck, the city’s destination steakhouse, or ride the lift to the 50th-floor re/ASIAN Cuisine for modern Asian dishes and knock-out views of Manama.  

No meal in Bahrain ends without something sweet. Halwa Showaiter, a sticky, jewel-red confection flavoured with rosewater, saffron and cardamom, has been produced by the same family for more than 150 years. The place to try it is Jamal Showaiter Sweets in Muharraq, where trays of fresh halwa are still poured and cut in-house. For something cooler, head to Naseef Café, a Manama Souk institution since 1920, famed for its house-made mango ice cream, alongside rose and date flavours.