To Love or not to love!!

I am not sure if I liked the place or hated the place.

The place in question here is the Bab Al Yemen restaurant at the Al Zahra area. 3 of us from work decided to beat the afternoon heat by going out for lunch. It took some courage for us to venture out in this heat, but since our friend, Mr H had no issues driving there, we decided to venture go out after a really long time.

20 minutes later we were parked outside the restaurant. Once inside, I was pleasantly surprised at the decor. Now, I have not been to Yemen ever, but the place looked like a very neatly done Yemeni house with some very old artifacts thrown in to give it a complete feel. It was very traditional with a modern and neat look which held us in awe. We were told we would have to wait for 10 mins, which was testimony to the fact that this was indeed a popular joint.

We were then given seats on the first floor of the singles section, which was spacious but fairly empty, unlike the seating on the ground floor which was packed to capacity. We were seated comfortably and were taking in the surrounding.

After this things started going downhill.

Now, here is the thing about working day lunches. You want it to be quick, simple and not overtly filling so that you could get back to work and actually work!!
The service here was really really bad. Although the servers were pleasant, it was clear that they were totally disorganised and disoriented. We were served some complimentary lamb meat soup, which I had to pass and some dips as shown in the pic below. Surprisingly, the green dip was not a mint dip as I expected but was of fenugreek instead. It was quite bitter and I did not like it much although the texture had a yoghurty consistency to it.

The complimentary lamb soup

After 15 mins, we finally managed to place our orders.
I ordered a mixed vegetable whereas my colleagues opted for the Salta ( Meat cooked in a spicy tomato gravy served in the traditional yemeni wok) and chicken mugalgal ( chicken pieces cooked in spicy gravy again). We ordered one traditional yemeni bread, the Mulawa, which was so big that even three of us struggled to finish it. The picture below would show you how big it actually was. The bowl of lemon next to it can give you a reference as to how big the bread actually was. We ordered a portion of rice along with the food.

Salta

Chicken mugalgal.

Mixed vegetables: missed the point completely.

The great Yemeni bread: Mulawa

The food arrived shortly and to be honest it was nothing great to write about. It did not surpass the yemeni food I have been having at the various food stalls across the different malls in the city.
We though maybe a portion of the traditional yemeni desert of Bint Saham may soothe our cringing souls, but alas that failed to do impress as well.

Bint Saham

So now I am torn between the decor Vs the service and food. While the decor was marvellous, i dont think the service and the food would make me go to this place again.