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Best Food & Drink Destinations in Middle East

28 city guides · 3-day food & drink itineraries

3-day city guides built around local cuisine, street food, markets and dining culture.

Middle East
🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates

Abu Dhabi

Fish-market grills at Mina Zayed, Emirati machboos and balaleet, Khalidiya's Lebanese canteens and k…

Middle East
🇸🇾 Syria

Aleppo

Cherry kebab, mahshi, muhammara and pistachio pastry across the souks, the Christian quarter and the…

Middle East
🇯🇴 Jordan

Amman

Downtown falafel counters, Jabal Amman's produce souks, Circassian kitchens and the arak-and-mezze r…

Middle East
🇮🇶 Iraq

Baghdad

Spice alleys of Shorja, tamarisk-grilled Tigris carp on Abu Nuwas, and buffalo-cream breakfasts in t…

Middle East
🇱🇧 Lebanon

Bcharre

Highland Maronite cooking at 1,500m: kishk drying on rooftops, apple orchards, saj bread, cedar hone…

Middle East
🇱🇧 Lebanon

Beirut

Saturday farmers' markets, Armenian Bourj Hammoud, hand-churned sorbet, 4am shawarma and small-batch…

Middle East
🇸🇾 Syria

Damascus

Mallet-pounded mastic ice cream, spice souqs heavy with rosebuds, Midan sweet workshops and arak in …

Middle East
🇶🇦 Qatar

Doha

Alley tea shops, the Al Wakrah fish auction, spice-lane loomi and Doha's best machboos, mapped hour …

Middle East
🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates

Dubai

Balaleet breakfasts in Al Fahidi, fried hammour at a beach shack, Satwa shawarma at midnight and the…

Middle East
🇮🇱 Israel

Eilat

Yemenite bakeries, Moroccan fish stews, Negev date wine and hummus stops from the shuk to the harbou…

Middle East
🇮🇱 Israel

Haifa

Wadi Nisnas chickpea kitchens, the covered Talpiot Market, Druze bakeries on the Carmel ridge and do…

Middle East
🇮🇷 Iran

Isfahan

Mutton beryani in the bazaar, gaz nougat from 200-year-old workshops and khoresh-e mast in Safavid c…

Middle East
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia

Jeddah

Foul and tamees breakfasts in Al-Balad, charcoal-grilled Red Sea sayadiyah, mutabbaq stalls and Saud…

Middle East
🇮🇱 Israel

Jerusalem

Mahane Yehuda at dawn, Iraqi-Kurdish stews, Old City sesame bread and arak bars behind shuttered sta…

Middle East
🇰🇼 Kuwait

Kuwait City

Bedouin rice pots, dawn fish auctions on the Gulf, tea-house alleys in the old souk and a diaspora d…

Middle East
🇧🇭 Bahrain

Manama

Dawn fish auctions, family machboos kitchens, Muharraq halwa cauldrons and Adliya's late-night dinin…

Middle East
🇮🇷 Iran

Mashhad

Khorasan cooking at its source: sheep-head broth at dawn, charcoal shishlik in Shandiz, saffron ice …

Middle East
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia

Mecca

Hijazi mandi and saleeg, Afghan-run kabuli rice halls, Ajyad juice stalls and the date souks that fe…

Middle East
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia

Medina

Tandoor tamees breakfasts, kabsa and saleeg platters, roadside camel milk and Quba's palm-grove date…

Middle East
🇴🇲 Oman

Muscat

Dawn auctions at Mutrah's fish quay, clay-oven shuwa lamb, karak stops in Ruwi and majlis dinners un…

Middle East
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia

Riyadh

Wholesale date markets, mud-oven mandi, Yemeni haneeth halls and third-wave Saudi coffee across the …

Middle East
🇴🇲 Oman

Salalah

Slow-roasted lamb pits, banana-and-coconut plantation stalls, Yemeni-Omani bakeries and frankincense…

Middle East
🇾🇪 Yemen

Sana'a

Bubbling saltah in stone pots, tandoor-blistered malooj bread, spice mounds in Suq al-Milh and the m…

Middle East
🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates

Sharjah

Emirati harees and luqaimat in the Heart of Sharjah, Kerala fish curry in Rolla and 24-hour karak st…

Middle East
🇮🇷 Iran

Shiraz

Fars Province cooking at its source: herb-heavy stews, rosewater sorbets, saffron-stained rice and t…

Middle East
🇮🇷 Iran

Tabriz

Eat your way through the world's largest covered bazaar, Tabriz's legendary kufteh meatballs, and th…

Middle East
🇮🇷 Iran

Tehran

Bazaar spice stalls, dizi at century-old workers' cafés, ash-e reshteh from street cauldrons and Alb…

Middle East
🇮🇱 Israel

Tel Aviv

Yemenite soup kitchens, Levinsky spice alleys, Jaffa fish grills and the sabich-and-arak street cult…