With its prime position beside the Red Sea and coastal air to cool the pavements for al fresco dining, Jeddah is a city that is perfect for brunch – long mornings that drift way into the day at the table with friends and family.
Brunch food in Jeddah can be just about anything, as the city’s shining culinary talents have long since turned their attention to the morning menu, finding new ways to showcase their cuisines and specialities. Here are seven of the very best brunch places that the city has to offer.
Where are the best brunch places in Jeddah?
Month by month, almost week by week, it feels like new fun brunch spots are opening in Jeddah, out by the Corniche or the Jeddah Yacht Club, or further inland in As Salamah, as the city continues to grow and welcome more international visitors.
The embrace of these breakfast places in Jeddah is tangible as you stroll around the city's neighbourhoods, with cafes, restaurants and other types of brunch places now packed out from 10am onwards with couples, groups, and all manner of dishes.
Whether you’re craving Canadian country cooking or longing for Lebanese pastries, if you want pancakes & syrup or foul, figs & fatteh, the brunch food in Jeddah is unlike anywhere else in the Kingdom. Rest assured that wherever you go and whoever you bring with you, you’ll be starting your day in the best possible way.
1. Burnt by Buns
Creativity is the order of the day at Burnt by Buns, the sleek, popular As Salamah restaurant that is renowned with local diners for very good reasons. Here, regular breakfast dishes are subverted with flavours from both the Middle East and the Far East – breakfast foul is smoked and served in pastry with pepper tahina; batata harra becomes potatoes and kohlrabi fried with Korean chilli and miso, then topped with an egg. Without a doubt, it’s one of Jeddah’s most unique and fun brunch spots.
2. L’Avenue
L’Avenue proudly announces its heritage to you as you arrive at its door – ‘Canadian Brunch & Dinner’. And so it is – a corner of Calgary carved out and dropped here in Jeddah, L’Avenue trades in the kind of hearty all-day brunch menu that has powered honest Canadians for decades, as well as a few gourmet surprises. Try their famous potatoes or their spicy take on chicken & waffles, livened up with a caramel Habanero sauce.
3. Angels
Angels is a beautiful brunch spot in Jeddah, of that there is no doubt, with its tall glass windows and charmingly appointed modern fixtures. But for as much as its diners enjoy the design, they’re coming to Angels for one reason – their French toast, which has already developed something of a mythic reputation for its extravagance. The family-friendly brunch menu is one of Jeddah’s broadest, but the French toast is the star, and easily worth the price of admission.
4. Khayal
There are restaurant institutions in Jeddah, and then there is Khayal – the cavernous, legendary temple to Turkish food in the heart of the city centre. The breakfast offering is peerless – all the hits of the Turkish breakfast menu, from eggs with pastirma (cured beef) to za’atar pide, baked simit bread, and rich kaymak cream with honey. To drink, you can of course enjoy a rich and foamy Turkish coffee, and a small sugary sweet to accompany it – there’s a reason Jeddah has loved Khayal this long, and it starts in the morning.
5. Blue Ocean
It’s a classic for a reason, and it very well may be the most popular brunch place in Jeddah. Blue Ocean offers a spectacular late breakfast, one which Jeddawis and tourists have come to adore in equal measure. The food is easy-breezy American fare, with Tex-Mex touches like tacos and breakfast burritos. But its style, which is based on Miami Beach and recreates that effectively, is what truly sets it apart.
6. Labeeb
Labeeb has the feel of a luxury haute couture boutique, all black and gold with twinkling mirrors. Instead, it is one of Jeddah’s smartest Lebanese restaurants, and offers the national breakfast with a generous hand, making for a brunch that’s fit to be a feast. Think of freshly-baked cheese man’oushe, oil still glistening as parsley wilts on the surface, or verdant heaps of herby fattoush salad, topped with juicy tomatoes saturating the leaves below. Discover why there’s nothing quite like a Lebanese breakfast at Labeeb.
7. IHOP
An American icon, now perhaps the most family-friendly brunch in Jeddah, IHOP (short for International House of Pancakes) has one speciality that diners have savoured for decades – their pancakes. Fluffy, tan and capable of absorbing enormous amounts of syrup – a warning to parents, as much to future diners – the pancakes at IHOP really do excel, as does the rest of their time-tested all-day brunch menu.
