A soulful Ramadan evening in Riyadh: from iftar tents to a walk in the park

The holy month in the Saudi capital has its own pulsating rhythm

Boulevard Riyadh has become a family hub during Ramadan. Saeed Saeed / The National

The Riyadh Season festival may be over, but celebrations still abound in the Saudi Arabian capital.

With the pandemic forcing families and colleagues to experience Ramadan largely indoors for the past two years, the recent easing of health and movement restrictions across the kingdom has restored the pulsating social atmosphere associated with the holy month.

Spending a weekend in the city, I realise Riyadh has bounced back to its pre-Covid-19 rhythm without missing a beat. Mosques and iftar tents are open again to the masses, the malls and parks are full, while the evening traffic on King Abdullah Road is as heavy as ever.

One of the many bottlenecks in the city’s main arterial road flares up around sunset each night of Ramadan, as cars from both directions approach the business and leisure hub, the Kingdom Centre.

At more than 302 metres, not only is it one of the tallest skyscrapers in the world, but the building is home to what has become a lavish Ramadan institution.

Located within Kingdom Ballroom, the Ramadan tent at Four Seasons Hotel Riyadh is one of the hottest tickets in the city when it comes to family and corporate bookings. It is another sold-out affair when I arrive on Friday, with all 1,700 tickets snapped up days in advance, according to the hotel concierge.

It is not hard to understand why. To say the tent is luxurious is an understatement.

A seemingly endless number of gilded chandeliers shine down on an opulent setting where diners sit on ornately decorated chairs and couches, many of which come with their own flat screen television sets screening the latest Ramadan dramas.

In the middle of the hall are countless food stations serving everything from Saudi staples such as kabsa (aromatic rice with roast chicken) and saleeg (a rice cooked in a cream and milky broth and topped with chunks of tender beef), to a wide array of Italian pastas, Indian curries and Moroccan stews.

Each table comes with a number of Arabic dips and starter dishes, as well as a pot full of piping hot Saudi gahwa.

Overseeing the 170 staff working the room and cooking stations is the director of banquets Mouhsine Elkoutari.

While the tent is the place to be seen, the Moroccan says the air of exclusivity is undercut by a sense of genuine joy.

“It very much feels like a reunion and from what I have been seeing here every day is that people just want to connect with each other again,” he says. "Our tent is the most famous in Riyadh and people look forward to coming here. But this time I feel that what we are doing is not being the star of the show. We are providing that atmosphere for people to sit down together, break bread, talk and look at each other’s faces.

"It sounds simple to say this but considering what happened over the last few years, this is really important.”

Walking it off

With no suhoor service to follow, we are ushered out of the tent before 9pm and I join the sea of traffic on King Abdullah Road for a 16 kilometre-ride that takes nearly 50 minutes.

It is instructive, however, as driver Akhtar Hussain, a 20-year Riyadh resident from Bangladesh, explains the ebb and flow of the traffic.

“Basically in Ramadan, there are two difficult times on the road. The hour before breaking the fast and from 9pm until 3am. This is when people are on the move,” he says. “So right now people are going out to see friends or do some shopping.”

With Eid approaching at the end of the week, Hussain says a lot of the older shopping centres such as Taibah Markets and Al Oweis Mall, both located off the main road, are getting heavy traffic due to their ample supply of the latest kanduras and abayas.

After all that lavish eating, I am looking for a place to burn off those calories.

I disembark outside one of the many gates of Boulevard Riyadh, a 900,000-square-metre leisure district forming the centrepiece of Riyadh Season, a five-month city-wide entertainment and cultural festival that ended in March.

Where Boulevard Riyadh hosted everything from pop concerts and award shows to E-gaming competitions, during Ramadan, it functions as an open-air park with thousands walking across its nine distinctly designed zones — from shopping and music to sports — and sampling its countless restaurants and cafes.

I spot Pakistani businessman Wasif Khan and his Indonesian wife Dianne at the Takenda Zone, a futuristic space drenched in blue neon lights, featuring arcades and street art. At its centre is a large rotating globe beaming various graphics.

With free entry to Riyadh Boulevard throughout Ramadan — largely owing to the lack of concerts and events taking place within the site during the time — the site takes on a family-friendly vibe.

“This is the first time we came here because I am not so interested in the concerts,” Dianne says. “We were recommended to come here as it is a good place to exercise. With Ramadan falling before the real summer begins, you are seeing a lot of people taking the opportunity to be outside and walking.”

A meaningful exchange

After notching up 7km and working up a decent sweat, I needed an icy gulp of cold brew coffee. I hail a taxi and make the 30-minute trip to what I was told is the most happening coffee spot in the city.

The popularity of Arabica Riyadh Roastery, in the upscale Hittin District, was evident from the dozens and dozens of people queuing up outside its doors.

While the Japanese coffee brand has 11 locations across the UAE and is available across the GCC, the Riyadh outlet is easily the region's flagship. Spread across two levels and featuring a sleek minimal white design, it resembles a futuristic coffee shop made by tech company Apple.

With a 40-minute waiting time, I spend the early hours of the night chatting with some young Saudis about their Ramadan experience.

“Riyadh really is becoming the centre for Saudi youth culture,” says Majed Abdullah, a university student from Dammam, a coastal city in the kingdom’s Eastern Province. “And during Ramadan it is all about catching up and trying new places, like the latest coffee shops, and just talking and laughing.”

Fellow student Mishal Riad, who lives in Riyadh, says there is another reason why cafes are popular during Ramadan.

“Checking out the latest restaurants is not something we do in Ramadan as it's mostly about inviting people to each other’s homes rather than going out. It’s about making that extra effort because going out to eat is easy,” he says.

“But once we do that and share a meal together, we then go out to the coffee shop and just talk all night. It feels for me like it is sincere doing that way. Ramadan is great in that it teaches us a lot about what really matters.”

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