As the world’s best restaurant brands plot their arrival on Riyadh’s dining scene, local entrepreneurs are increasingly flexing their own might. In a boom time for new restaurants, many of the most exciting openings are Saudi-born.
Standing out in a swelling crowd is Japanese-inspired eatery BazAru.
At first glance, it’s a curious location, but one that immediately adds a sense of art gallery-esque grandeur.
Step inside The Boulevard’s Sum + Things at your peril – a concept store so well edited you’ll want to immediately hand over your net worth.
Upstairs, in a chic, cosy, balcony dining space, BazAru’s menu has the same effect.
Thankfully, it’s small enough to make a significant dent in without winding up with an especially sizeable bill for your enthusiasm.
Speaking of zeal, staff present with bags of it. If it wasn’t for the indoor voices the restaurant’s cosy lighting, low ceilings and blush carpet encourage, we suspect they’d be loudly composing sonnets to the signatures.
As with most Japanese restaurants in Riyadh, raw dishes dominate at BazAru, but venture beyond them for some of its most interesting plates. While the duck ham and cheese yakionigiri (fried rice balls) is probably not one we’d be compelled to order again, a soba noodle “cabinara” with smoked garlic butter under a haystack of crispy nori, is worth coming back for.
Elsewhere on the menu, elegantly plated yellowtail carpaccio with mandarin lives up to clean, zesty promise, while a courgette and asparagus salad is a stand-out order against a strong set of snazzier dishes.
On the maki front, BazAru’s decision to serve each as four rolls, rather than six, leaves plenty of room for picking your way through the options. (And, crucially, prices do actually reflect the portion size.) Spicy tuna delivers a kick, but it’s the torched salmon aburi rolls, with buttery avocado and tangy umeboshi, that really hit the spot.
Ultimately, whatever you order in this frankly beautiful space, you’ll have a hard time finding a dish you don’t love, and a mocktail that doesn’t go perfectly with it.
In elegant surroundings, BazAru serves a refined but accessible menu, delivered by staff who know the dishes – and preferences of Riyadh diners – inside out. When the world arrives in Riyadh, we hope it’s ready for such stiff competition.
