Iraq Baghdad Street Restaurant 🏙️🍽️

First Meal: After several days of eating meals at the hotel 🏪, I mustered up the courage to venture out (but not too far!) and used Petal Maps to find some highly-rated restaurants. 🗺️🔍 The first attempt? Closed. 🚫 The second? The place on the map didn’t even exist in real life! 😵‍💫 Finally, I gave up and stumbled into a random roadside eatery on the way back to the hotel. The menu was in Arabic, so I just pointed blindly 🫣—and ended up with a whole table of food! 🍛 Four of us ate, and the bill came to 38,000 Iraqi dinars—way cheaper than the hotel’s 55,000-dinar buffet! 💸👍 Second Meal: Gave up on the unreliable navigation 🧭❌ and decided to try the restaurants across from the hotel. The first place turned us away because they didn’t speak English 🚫🗣️, but the second one was friendlier. Even though we still couldn’t communicate, they found an English-speaking local to help us order! 🤝 We got lamb kebabs 🍢, salad 🥗, chicken rice 🍗🍚, local bread 🫓, and some pickled appetizers (various pickles!). Couldn’t finish it all! 😋 The total? 82,000 dinars (locals just say "82" for 82,000). 💵 Our group wasn’t totally used to the flavors, but hey—at least we tried local cuisine! 🌍✨ Third Meal: We really wanted to try Masgouf (Iraq’s must-eat grilled fish!), and our local client hooked us up! 🎣🔥 Highly recommended! Didn’t snap a pic of the fish, but here’s the grill spot. 📸🔥 #TravelEats #FoodAdventure