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Bahraini stand-up comedian Waddah Swar is serving up authentic Lebanese cuisine with a side dish of laughter that will surely work up your appetite.
When the 34-year-old isn’t busy working in the family maintenance business or travelling abroad to perform in front of crowds on the comedy circuit, you can find him greeting hungry customers at his Badawi Lebanese Restaurant.
Swar returned to the kingdom four years ago after studying and living in the US and within two years opened up his eatery in Hoora which is usually filled with customers from across the kingdom, especially Lebanese expats.
He said: “Actually, this all came about without the intention of starting a restaurant. On Fridays I would cook for my family – my three brothers, uncles and cousins – at my grandfather’s house.
“My family loved my cooking so much that they kept saying that I should open up a place for people to meet and eat. So, one day I said OK and looked for a location. I found this spot and to this day everybody thinks I hid the restaurant on purpose but it wasn’t intentional. I wanted the restaurant to be cosy!
“I did my research in the market and I decided on catering Grade-A Lebanese food at a great price so everybody could afford it. So people can come every day and eat five-star dishes without making a huge dent in their wallets.
“At first people made fun of me when I said I was opening a restaurant. Nobody took it seriously. But now people think differently after tasting the food. Now a lot of people that want to launch restaurants are asking me to be a partner!”
Swar’s tasty dishes and stellar customer service is being supported by his Lebanese business partner and chef, Michel Kaggouni, as well as Lebanese chefs Charbel Attieh and Taher Ali.
Together, the talented trio has managed to put out a fantastic spread of fresh flavours which have created a huge following of dining out connoisseurs.
Swar said: “I cook many cuisines including Bahraini, Thai, Japanese and Italian but the reason I opened a Lebanese restaurant is because so many claimed that they served authentic Lebanese food. But Lebanese food is, in my opinion, one of the most complicated cuisine’s and it needs a special touch.
“When it comes to cooking Lebanese food, it has to be fresh. The only disadvantage of having a small location is we don’t have enough room to store food … but that also works to our advantage because everything comes fresh and is used the same day.
“Everything is brought in daily by dawn. Our meat and vegetables are brought in fresh and that is what makes all the difference when it comes to taste and quality of the food.
“Also, I have five delivery guys as I now get requests from Seef, the Diplomatic Area, Mahooz, Manama and Juffair. There is such a huge demand.”
Badawi Restaurant is a little piece of Lebanon tucked behind Exhibitions Avenue. It is open seven-days-a-week from 8.30am until midnight and at times 1am. Friday’s are special because they receive a fresh batch of fish which is either grilled on charcoal or deep fried to perfection.
They also serve a mezza-style breakfast which includes labna, hummus and pastries made in the oven. However, it’s the daily specials that have everybody talking.
While customers could turn to the menu, Badawi offers the option of choosing from three special main dishes that change on a daily basis. One day you may get lamb and chicken, the next fish or biryani.
Swar said: “Our peak times are during lunch and dinner. We make three dishes every day and a total of 90 different dishes a month. We have a menu but you can always ask about our daily dishes. We serve the daily dishes for lunch and it goes on until we run out. So, if you aren’t here early you could miss out.
“Every day we have new specials and we don’t have a schedule because it all depends on what is fresh in the market and what we get in that day.
“We faced a problem before where people would call just to find out the daily specials and it became too much to handle so now we ask regular customers to join our fan page on Facebook and twitter so we can post the details each morning.”
The special will get you a soup, salad, main dish and dessert for just BD3.
The GulfWeekly team was lucky enough to sample all three main dishes on the day. I started off with a light lentil soup which was satisfying and not starchy like the other lentil soups. I topped it off with fattoush (fried bread) and some lemon for a crunchy savory taste.
Then I had chicken on a bed of Lebanese rice, mahshi (which is a vegetable such as egg plant stuffed with rice and meat in either a tomato or yogurt sauce), and lasagne made the Lebanese way with a béchamel sauce.
The chicken was tender and the rice was delicious with the bits of cashew and other nuts. The mahshi was just like my mum’s and the lasagne was light with a great ratio of sauce to cheese. While I ate I noticed Swar making his rounds from table to table, sharing a laugh with everyone as they enjoyed their meals.
All-in-all it was such a good experience that I had to share it with my colleagues and managed to convince them to venture out on a field trip. We ended up ordering the special again but this time it was kibbeh bil-laban (meat kibbeh in yogurt sauce), malfoof (stuffed cabbage) and white beans and meat in a tomato sauce that comes with rice. We each finished off our meal with a custard cup.
For more details contact 17297799 or visit the Facebook page Badawi Lebanese Restaurant or tweet @badawi_.
