moon shell

In recent years an increasing number of Riyadh restaurants have hopped on the plant-based bandwagon, with menus across the city brimming with vegan and vegetarian options. Yet moon shell Riyadh – a long-standing favourite of the meat-free community with outposts in Jeddah and the capital – takes things one step further by completely shunning animal products in favour of fully natural alternatives.

Lattes here are topped up with almond or soy milk, while dairy-heavy dishes are cleverly recreated using ingredients such as cashew ‘cheese’ and ground nuts rather than buttery biscuit bases.

While this works in practice for dishes like the banoffee pie, where the crunchiness is balanced out by the density of the vegan toffee and banana, in others – like the blueberry ‘cheesecake’ – the heavy layer of nuts overpowers what would otherwise be a surprisingly light and delicious filling.

The main attraction is the ‘nice cream’ moon shell itself – a hollowed-out coconut shell filled with a hearty dose of frozen fruit, topped up with an Instagrammable mix of bananas and berries and finished with a generous sprinkling of heart-healthy flax seeds.

It’s a classic take on the tried-and-tested frozen smoothie bowl, and it’s hard not to love – particularly as a refreshing summer cooler or a lighter antidote to the heavier dishes on the menu.

A steady stream of shells emerge from the kitchen during our visit, while the pancake stacks doused in peanut sauce are another popular option. Fortunately this time, the nuts are balanced out through a tangy berry coulis, which makes for a much more satisfying dish.

The crowd inside moon shell Riyadh – a cavernous stone-walled space harking back to old Arabia and dotted with mix-and-match furnishings – is a true cross-section of the city, with local family groups sitting alongside sandal-wearing (naturally) expat vegans and solo book-readers.

It’s a clear favourite among the city’s vegan crowd – but with a little more inventiveness and a touch fewer nuts, moon shell could take its plant-based power to the next level.