Saffron Restaurant in Myeongdong Saffron Restaurant in Myeongdong, Seoul, Korea If you are looking for high quality Arabian food, I recommend you check out Saffron in Myeongdong (located on the first floor of the Myeongdong Ibis Hotel). The sumptuous atmosphere is matched by their high quality food. On a recent visit there I had their mixed dip that had hummus, yogurt, baba ghanoush and cucumber salad. It was very fresh and smooth. The hummus and the baba ghanoush had a rich sheen of dark green olive oil on it and the yogurt and the salad were just start enough- perfect for picking up with their fresh baked bread. Their palak paneer was great as well (I think you are probably aware by now that I love palak paneer). It had lots of spinach and good chunks of the fresh curd cheese. It was a little spicier than normal, but it didn't stop me from eating it all. The service here is top notch and the atmosphere is very luxurious. They have a wine and alcohol menu as w...

Sultan Chicken at Petra Restaurant I had a daytime off the other day and I was thinking about where I should go eat and I remembered one of my haunts of old: Petras. It's an Arabian/ Mediterranean place that I used to go with my vegetarian friends (yes, I have vegetarian friends). I think at that time I might have been faux-vegetarian as well. Anyway, it's as good as always and they recently renovated. My go-to dish here is the Sultan Chicken: a slow roasted chicken dish with chick peas and sultana raisins in a tomatoey sauce. Really good stuff. They were even nice enough to let me substitute couscous instead of rice- not that their rice is bad. It's the buttery, olive sauce kind; but I was in the mood for couscous. The yogurt sauce and the chili sauce they serve with the couscous is favoriffic (sorry, I don't know why I am writing like a middle schooler today LOL ROFL). I highly recommend you check them out. And for those who have, it's a good place to revis...

I love browsing menus before I go into the restaurant and this is something that I would really like people to do in Seoul. Soooo....Restaurant owners and restaurant goers, if you have a menu send it to me and I'll post it on my website. You can e-mail me at seouleats (at) gmail (dot) com. Here is the menu for Dubai Restaurant in Itaewon.

It's nice to know that one person can make a difference. Dubai restaurant got quite a buzz on this website when I started to write about it and I'm glad it is doing well. Thank you all for going to Dubai Restaurant. By keeping establishments like this in business, we make Seoul a better and more diverse place to live. Hello Mr. Daniel Gray, This is Dubai Restaurant owner Khamas Nehad. I know that I should e-mail you before but it's just that we were very busy this days with the restaurant. I want to thank you first for choosing us and coming to our restaurant and for the nice articles that I really appreciate. Thanks to you and to your articles, lots of people found out about the restaurant and we had new customers coming to try the food and to see if it is as it was written in your nice articles. For that, I really want to thank you for your great job and we will work hard to improve our services and to make our customers happy of the traditional food we serve. I want to ...

Dubai Restaurant is in the heart of Itaewon above the Dunkin Donuts. Here is a waitress serving the Dubai Kebap. Dubai Restaurant has a spacious interior with large selection of shisa hookas. Dubai Restaurant's Hummus is the best I've had in Seoul. Here is Dubai Restaurant's Mazza with Humma, Baba Ghanoush, and their homemade yogurt. Dubai Restaurant Review by Dan Gray I have a rule about ethnic restaurants: the staff should eat the food that the restaurant serves. If you see empty bowls of Ja Ja Myeon outside of your authentic "Italian" or "Thai" restaurant then it often means that the cooks don't have a taste for the food they serve. This is not the case with Dubai Restaurant in Itaewon. It was built by Arab people for Arab people. Dubai Restaurant sits in the heart of Itaewon across from Helios on the main drag and they make food that they-and their clientele- like to eat. You will not see kimchi on the menu, they use spices like cardamon or baha...

Dubai Restaurant in Itaewon is made by and for Arabian people. It's a large lavish space in the heart of Itaewon and it is on prime real estate: above the Dunkin Donuts and across the Helios. So what does this mean? It means that there is a significant Arab population in Seoul and they built a place to call their own. Dubai doesn't make food for the masses. They will not tame the flavors for its Korean clientele. There was no kimchi to be seen in the restaurant, the rice was the long grain- not the sticky and hearty short grain rice that is ubiquitous in Korea, and the service was relaxed- not bali, bali (빠리빠리). I went with my friends Rami and Mimi. Rami is from Yemen and he recommended the food and the Shisa at this restaurant. He's a big fan of Shisa, which is surprising because he is constantly smoking cigarettes- I would think he would want to give his lungs a break. He started off with the hummus and it was out of this world. It was a very fine light paste with an effe...

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/437986 If you ever wondered what in the heck the difference between these things like I have, then you should check out the discussion at chowhound. There are so many posts about the topic, but now I think I get it. Here is one of the many posts. Donner, Shwarma, and Gyro all refer to the way the meat is cooked - upright on a spit. This method of cooking orignated in southern Turkey and was refered to as 'chevirme', meaning "rotation," or, "turning". 'Chevirme' was pronounced 'shwarma' by Arabic speakers. Similarly, 'doner' comes from the Turkish verb 'donmek', meaning "to turn". This cooking method is referred to as 'gyro' in Greek, meaning "to turn," also (think 'gyroscope'). Doner/shwarma/gyro probably originated in southern Turkey and was quickly adopted into the cuisine of northern Syria. By and large, upright roasted meat is an Anatolian, Levantine, and...