Zawyet Maryam
Zawyet Maryam is a Middle Eastern restaurant in JLT. It literally translates to Maryam corner. It has an earthy feel to it and I was invited to try out their food.
There is a see through kitchen and a lovely seating area which looks spacious. Look carefully, and it isn't all that big but still bigger than most restaurants in JLT.
We started with a manakish. They have various kinds and they recommended the Maryam special manakish. It has cheese, olive, and parsley in it. I always think of manakish as being an open one (like a pizza), but this was closed (like a sandwich). It was nice and cheesy, and combined with the olives and the parsley it definitely tasted pretty good. It did feel a tad bit dry after a few bites.
We then moved on to one of their sandwiches - the chicken and garlic sandwich. The filling inside was really good, and it tasted nice too but the bread was a bit thick for our liking and it felt dry. Perhaps they can give garlic sauce and / or mayonnaise on the side so that people can add it as per their liking.
I was really looking forward to having one of their shawerma bowls which comes with rice and sounded interesting, but they had ran out of chicken shawerma for the day. We though of trying something in lamb, and they didn't have that many options. We chose the meat cubes. It didn't sound too fancy but the manager vouched for it. These are grilled meat cubes served in a roll. I took a bite and it was the most delicious thing that I had here. The meat cubes are grilled, and they put some hummus inside along with a few spices. It was hot when served, and I could barely stop after having a bite. I definitely recommend trying this out. Also, I liked the fact that it did not feel dry at all and neither was it soggy. Loved it.
We also had the fattoush here which was just as expected with a little more parsley than usual.
For our drinks, we had a Maryam special which I was told is a berry based drink. They forgot to mention that it is more like a smoothie and had banana in it too which was quite prominent. It tasted good enough, but I wanted something a bit more berry-like, and less banana-like.
The other juice though was lovely. It was the carrot orange. It was fresh; and the flavours of the carrot and orange were well balanced. It did not taste too sour. We really liked this one.
For the dessert, they suggested the kaek-bil-kunafa which, if you haven't already guessed, is kunafa inside kaek which is a type of traditional Arabic bread. I had my apprehensions about it. When it was served, it certainly looked like a sweet Arabic sandwich, which is kinda what it was. We drizzled it with some sugar syrup and took a bite. It tasted just about average; also a tad bit dry. I am a huge fan of kunafa and for me, having it with bread just didn't seem right. I also took a bit of just the kunafa and this too tasted just about okay. The good part though, is that their sugar syrup has a hint of rose to it.
We ended our meal with a hot cuppa black tea with mint.
Go here for their grilled meat sandwiches; like the "meat cubes". The rest might feel a bit dry and too bready. Also, quite a nice ambience.
Click here to salivate.
There is a see through kitchen and a lovely seating area which looks spacious. Look carefully, and it isn't all that big but still bigger than most restaurants in JLT.
We started with a manakish. They have various kinds and they recommended the Maryam special manakish. It has cheese, olive, and parsley in it. I always think of manakish as being an open one (like a pizza), but this was closed (like a sandwich). It was nice and cheesy, and combined with the olives and the parsley it definitely tasted pretty good. It did feel a tad bit dry after a few bites.
We then moved on to one of their sandwiches - the chicken and garlic sandwich. The filling inside was really good, and it tasted nice too but the bread was a bit thick for our liking and it felt dry. Perhaps they can give garlic sauce and / or mayonnaise on the side so that people can add it as per their liking.
I was really looking forward to having one of their shawerma bowls which comes with rice and sounded interesting, but they had ran out of chicken shawerma for the day. We though of trying something in lamb, and they didn't have that many options. We chose the meat cubes. It didn't sound too fancy but the manager vouched for it. These are grilled meat cubes served in a roll. I took a bite and it was the most delicious thing that I had here. The meat cubes are grilled, and they put some hummus inside along with a few spices. It was hot when served, and I could barely stop after having a bite. I definitely recommend trying this out. Also, I liked the fact that it did not feel dry at all and neither was it soggy. Loved it.
We also had the fattoush here which was just as expected with a little more parsley than usual.
For our drinks, we had a Maryam special which I was told is a berry based drink. They forgot to mention that it is more like a smoothie and had banana in it too which was quite prominent. It tasted good enough, but I wanted something a bit more berry-like, and less banana-like.
The other juice though was lovely. It was the carrot orange. It was fresh; and the flavours of the carrot and orange were well balanced. It did not taste too sour. We really liked this one.
For the dessert, they suggested the kaek-bil-kunafa which, if you haven't already guessed, is kunafa inside kaek which is a type of traditional Arabic bread. I had my apprehensions about it. When it was served, it certainly looked like a sweet Arabic sandwich, which is kinda what it was. We drizzled it with some sugar syrup and took a bite. It tasted just about average; also a tad bit dry. I am a huge fan of kunafa and for me, having it with bread just didn't seem right. I also took a bit of just the kunafa and this too tasted just about okay. The good part though, is that their sugar syrup has a hint of rose to it.
We ended our meal with a hot cuppa black tea with mint.
Go here for their grilled meat sandwiches; like the "meat cubes". The rest might feel a bit dry and too bready. Also, quite a nice ambience.
Click here to salivate.
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