Our Jordan Eats

Jordanian food here we come!

Marḥaba! Lisa here and I will be writing on what we ate in Jordan, from Jordanian food to authentic Bedouin food! Let's get to it!

Amman eats:

Hashems for Hummus and Falafels

We arrived at Amman downtown at 4:30pm and were keen to try out the local food. Our hostel clerk reccomended we try Hashem. So without googling the place we just went straight there and ordered any source of nutrition we could find.

So this place does not have a menu (or in English anyway) so when the waiter came to us he ordered 1 plate of hummus, 1 plate of falafel and 1 plate of baba ganoush for us.

The highlight for me was the hummus! It was smooth, tangy and the olive oil and the bit of chilli they added to it makes it from good to really good!

We actually came back here on another night just to eat the original hummus again and also try the hummus with meat and it was still really good to eat as well!

The meals only costed us 11JD! Cheap as chips!

Gerards Ice cream at Rainbow Street

So with our bellies full of falafel and hummus from Hashems, we walked to Rainbow Street where I read there's lots of ice cream vendors 😏.

We chose Gerards ice cream out of all the ones available to us on rainbow Street. From the many flavours, i chose the lotus flavoured ice cream! It was good and you can really taste the biscuits in it. The ice cream cost was 1.5JD.

Kunafeh and other deliciousness at Habibah Sweets

We had to try the sweet cheese delicacy in Jordan and one place in particular happened to be near our hotel we were staying at, the famous Habibah Sweets. We ordered one normal Kunafeh, a crispy Kunafeh and some other ones that had cream in it.

The Kunafeh was alot different to the one I had in Sydney called Knafeh brothers! It was more sweet salty based with the cheese being more saltier but the sweetness of the sugar syrup really complemented the cheese. It was surprisingly good! The other sweets were different and it was good to enjoy them as well. The Kunafeh cost was 0.7JD.

Burgers at Black Stacks in The Boulevard.

Okay I know what you're thinking! "Um...why are you eating burgers in Jordan?" It was because Sang wanted to see a Jordanian Christmas market that was held at The Boulevard. 

So the boulevard is some fancy place! It felt like we stepped into Pitt Street Mall in TownHall, Sydney! With hunger coming in we went looking for a good place on the interwebs and this came into Google as the top rated place here. So with burgers on our mind off, we go to Black Stacks! We ordered the Black burger, Gold burger, a limited edition fries with bacon and 2 house made teas.

So we spoke to a waiter who said this burger joint is Jordanian and not a foreign chain so maybe it was good that we are trying it. The burger buns reminded me of Mary's burger in Sydney and it was actually really good.

Sang really liked his Gold burger as well! I would definitely reccomend it if you're heading out to this boujee place! I would say it's not very Amman but it was still good.

Our meal costed 19.72JD.

Christmas special: hot chocolate with the works!

A roam around Amman with a Jordanian!

In our uber ride to our escape room we met a very passionate foodie named Asem. After we discussed and spoke about all the places we ate at in Amman he said he will take us to the real Jordanian good spots.

He wanted to take us out to try the best Hummus and Falafel (he rated Hashems 35/100?!) and also the best kebab (which we haven't tried yet!). We were abit suspicious on why he was being so helpful and nice to us (we have been hassled by Egyptians alot to go places we did not want to go to and seemed like they were after our money...) but after some googling it actually turns out that Jordanians are very hospitable people and are very enthusiastic about Jordan and it's food. They are very proud people and want to show the best in Jordan. We both did not have a bad vibe about Asem as well.

So after a long time thinking we took Asems offer for him to take us out for the best falafel, hummus and kebab! We were low key excited but didn't know what to expect in our dinner hopping together.

Asem picked us up at 9pm and took us to Abu Jbali. Abu Jbali is a well known place to the locals but how come I did not hear about it? Well most of the places we went to I did read up alot from other blogs and reccomendations from Google...so hearing it from a local makes me feel more secure! 

He ordered the famous falafel, hummus and also additional olives and Foul. You also get a side of their freshly made bread! Foul is a bean dish that you can dip with bread. This place...oh my goodness! The falafel was crunchy on the outside and soft and flavourful on the inside! The hummus?! It was so good!! A much better tasting hummus than Hashems! The fresh bread keeps coming as well! It will definitely keep you full!

I would definitely recommend coming here to try the Falafel and the hummus! It was really good and I wished I knew about this earlier! The meal cost was 15JD.

He took us to our next destination, Great Amman restaurant, which was famous for their lamb meats so we were definitely keen for that!

We were already having a partial food coma from the previous food and we were afraid we wouldn't fit this in! Asem reassured us and told us he will order a small amount. This meat is sooooooo good. The smokey flavour and the fats in the meat make it so memorable!! The meat melts in your mouth and it is not dry as well. It was so good Sang got a bit teary from it! The meat cost was 8JD.

Our last stop was Shisha/Argeela/Hookah. Sang never tried this before so Asem wanted to show us a good place and for us to relax before we had to catch our flight to the airport. We definitely had a great time with Asem and we thank you for taking the time to take us out! Our Argeela cost was 20JD.

Petra eats:

Jordan Heart restaurant

After our long hike at Petra (Click here if you want to know about our Petra hike) we wanted to eat a place that was close by from the visitor centre so we found another place on google and off we go to Jordan Heart restaurant.

Jordan Heart was a 11min walk from the centre but what they dont tell you that it's up hill! 

We came in and did not know what to order so the waiter kindly made a suggestion of Mansaf and Maqluba.

All we knew was Mansef was lamb and Maqluba was chicken so it sounded good! We also ordered a side of hummus just to see if it was good too.

For the Mansaf there are three main components to mansaf: rice, lamb, and jameed. The jameed, which is a hard dried out and fermented goats milk yoghurt, is re-hydrated into a gravy, and used to pour over the rice and lamb but for me the Maqluba was the star of the show! The rice was beautifully spiced and the chicken meat falls off the bone! The arabic salad that came with it was also really good and you can also mix it in the rice to give it more flavour! The hummus was good but compared to Hashem, Hashem wins hands down.

The price came to 20.5JD.

Another restaurant we ate at Petra was Sajiah.

We had the hummus (yes again!), Kofta with sesame and Galaya. We had the Galaya as a reccomendation and kofta because we had really good kofta in Egypt so we thought we try Jordanian kofta.

Our Galaya had lamb and includes tomatoes which are stewed until soft and pureed, with a few seasonings like garlic, olive oil, and salt. It was actually really good! The kofta we had was not what we imagined but it was good as well with the chunky potato and the creamy sesame sauce. With the hummus no hummus so far can beat Hashems and Abu Jbali but it was still good to try.

Our dishes costed 24.25JD.

Wadi Rum Eats:

Airbnb Bedouin camp experience

We had an Airbnb experience for this night where it is Bedouin style. Click here to read what we did in Wadi Rum. It was a great time as we unwinded and forgot about our phones for a night!

And there you have it! What we ate in Jordan. 

Thank you for reading and keep eating!

- Lisa