How to read an Arabic menu

How an Arabic menu is laid out

If you want to know how to read an Arabic menu, start with the order of the meal, because it barely changes from Beirut to Cairo to Dubai: cold mezze, hot mezze, salads, grills, mains, sweets and drinks. Most restaurant menus in cities and tourist areas print English or French beside the Arabic. The words are worth learning anyway, because the English is often a loose translation.

The usual sections, in order:

• Cold mezze (مقبلات باردة): hummus, mutabbal, tabbouleh, fattoush, labneh, stuffed vine leaves.
• Hot mezze (مقبلات ساخنة): falafel, fried kibbeh, sambousek (filled pastries), batata harra (spicy potatoes), grilled halloumi.
• Grills (مشاوي): skewers of lamb, chicken (shish tawook) and kofta, often sold per skewer, by the plate, or by weight for a mixed grill.
• Main dishes (أطباق رئيسية): rice dishes such as kabsa, mandi or mansaf, stews, whole fish.
• Desserts (حلويات) and drinks (مشروبات): knafeh, baklava, fresh juices, mint lemonade, Arabic coffee and tea.

Flatbread comes with mezze and keeps coming. Fish is often chosen from a display and priced by weight, so ask the price before it goes to the kitchen. Levantine menus lean on mezze and grills; Gulf menus put more weight on big rice and meat platters; Egyptian menus add ful, ta'miya and koshari.

Check the footer for tax and service lines. In Egypt it's common to see "prices subject to 12% service and 14% VAT". Gulf hotel menus often list service charge, VAT and sometimes a municipality fee in small print.

Reading the script

Arabic is written right to left in a joined-up script of 28 letters, and each letter changes shape depending on whether it starts, sits inside or ends a word. Short vowels usually aren't written, which is why one dish gets many English spellings (hummus, hommos, houmous; shawarma, shawerma). Numbers still read left to right. Many menus in the Levant and the Gulf print prices in Eastern Arabic numerals: ٠ ١ ٢ ٣ ٤ ٥ ٦ ٧ ٨ ٩ are 0 to 9.

Three small things help a lot. ال (al-, often heard as el-) means "the" and is stuck to the front of a word. مع (ma') means "with" and بدون (bidun) means "without". Spoken Arabic varies by region: Egyptians say a hard "g" where others say "j", so جبنة (cheese) is gibna in Cairo and jibneh in Beirut.

Cooking methods

These words, usually printed after the dish name, tell you how it was cooked.

Meat, seafood and key ingredients

Lahm on its own means meat, and in the region that's usually lamb or beef. Prawns have three common names depending on where you are.

Allergy and diet watch-outs

Arabic food is generous with seeds, nuts, wheat grains and dairy, and most of it is invisible once a dish is blended or stuffed.

• Sesame. Tahini is in nearly all hummus, in mutabbal and in most baba ghanoush (in parts of the Levant baba ghanoush is a tahini-free salad, but you can't count on it). Tahini sauce (tarator) goes on falafel, fish and beef or lamb shawarma, and the za'atar spice mix on manakish and in bread is full of sesame seeds. See sesame.
• Pine nuts, pistachio, walnut and almond. Pine nuts top hummus with meat, fill kibbeh and stud rice dishes. Pistachios cover knafeh, baklava and ice cream; walnuts go into muhammara and ma'amoul; toasted almonds top Gulf rice platters and mansaf. See tree nuts.
• Wheat. Bulgur is the base of tabbouleh and kibbeh, freekeh is wheat, mughrabieh is wheat pearl couscous, fattoush and fatteh are made with toasted or fried bread, and muhammara often contains breadcrumbs. Falafel is chickpeas or fava beans but usually shares a fryer with kibbeh and pastries. See gluten.
• Milk. Yoghurt marinades (shish tawook), labneh, fatteh, cheese in knafeh, dried yoghurt (jameed) in mansaf, and samn (ghee) in rice and sweets. See milk.
• Eggs. Traditional toum (garlic sauce) is garlic, oil and lemon, but some kitchens make garlic sauces with egg white or mayonnaise. See eggs.
• Lupin. Pickled lupin beans (termos) are a common snack in Egypt and the Levant, sometimes put out with drinks. Lupin can cross-react with peanuts. See lupin.
• Fish. Coastal menus include sayadieh (fish with spiced rice) and whole grilled fish; fried fish may share oil with other dishes. See fish.

For diets: most mezze are vegetarian, but rice and soups are often cooked in meat or chicken stock, and fatteh can come with chicken. Halal meat is the norm across most of the region and pork is rare. In Egypt and Lebanon, صيامي (siyami, "fasting") on a menu marks dishes made for Christian fasts, usually with no meat, eggs or dairy, though some fasting dishes include fish.

Useful phrases

These are in a simple standard Arabic that's understood everywhere; locals will answer in their own dialect. Say min fadlak to a man and min fadlik to a woman, and nabati (male) or nabatiya (female) for vegetarian.

In the Levant, peanuts are also called فستق عبيد (fustuq 'abeed); if staff look unsure, try that or show the word.

Ordering and paying

Order mezze for the table first, in rounds, then decide on grills once you see how hungry everyone is. Food is shared from the middle. Use your right hand when taking from a shared plate, especially if you're eating with bread.

• Service and tax. Egyptian restaurants commonly add 12% service and 14% VAT, either on top of menu prices or built in; the menu footer says which. In the Gulf, VAT is 5% in the UAE and Oman, 10% in Bahrain and 15% in Saudi Arabia, and hotel restaurants often add a service charge as well.
• Tipping. If no service charge is on the bill, around 10% is usual in sit-down restaurants. Where one is added, many people still leave a little cash, since it may not reach the staff.
• Alcohol. Not served in restaurants in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait or the emirate of Sharjah. Elsewhere in the Gulf it's served in licensed venues, mostly hotels. In Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt many restaurants serve it (arak is the classic with mezze), but plenty don't, especially outside tourist areas.
• Ramadan. Many restaurants open only after sunset during the fasting month, and some countries restrict eating in public in daylight hours.
• Payment. Cards are widely taken in the Gulf. Carry cash for smaller places in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon.

Dishes to know

• Hummus: chickpeas blended with tahini, lemon and garlic.
• Falafel: fried chickpea patties; in Egypt, ta'miya (طعمية) made from fava beans.
• Shawarma: spit-roasted meat or chicken, wrapped in bread with garlic or tahini sauce.
• Tabbouleh: parsley salad with bulgur, tomato, mint and lemon.
• Baba ghanoush: smoky aubergine (eggplant) dip, usually with tahini.
• Kibbeh: bulgur and minced meat shells, fried or baked, or served raw as kibbeh nayyeh.
• Fattoush (فتوش): salad with toasted or fried bread and sumac.
• Mansaf (منسف): Jordanian lamb cooked in dried yoghurt sauce over rice and bread, topped with nuts.
• Koshari (كشري): Egyptian rice, lentils, pasta and chickpeas with tomato sauce and fried onions.
• Knafeh (كنافة): shredded pastry or semolina over melted cheese, soaked in syrup and topped with pistachio.

Questions

What is the difference between mezze and mashawi?

Mezze (مازة) are small shared dishes, served cold (hummus, tabbouleh, labneh) or hot (falafel, kibbeh, sambousek). Mashawi (مشاوي) are the grills that usually follow: skewers of lamb, chicken or kofta cooked over charcoal.

Is food in Arab countries always halal?

In the Gulf, meat is expected to be halal and pork is very rarely served. In Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan most meat is halal but not all, especially in Christian-owned or international restaurants, so ask if certification matters to you.

Can you drink alcohol in Arabic restaurants?

It depends on the country. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the emirate of Sharjah don’t allow alcohol in restaurants. Elsewhere in the Gulf it’s served mainly in licensed venues, often hotels, while in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt many restaurants serve it and many others don’t.

Does hummus contain sesame?

Usually, yes. Restaurant hummus is chickpeas blended with tahini (sesame paste), lemon and garlic. Mutabbal and most baba ghanoush contain tahini too, so anyone with a sesame allergy should ask before ordering any dip.

Sources

1. Wikipedia: Arabic alphabet
2. Wikipedia: Baba ghanoush
3. Wikipedia: Lupin bean

Last checked 1 November 2026. Spotted something wrong? Email support@inventum.com.au.