Azzahra Hotel & Restaurant — Restaurant in Jerusalem

I am a Frequent Business and Leisure Traveller who is high maintenance. It’s important for you to first understand my perspective before skipping over this review. You can skip to the details but if you are considering this hotel bear with me. As a German born American I have been staying in hotels in various countries my whole life, which has continued into adulthood. As a child I didn’t get to pick the hotels but as an adult I am very selective about where I stay, understanding that different countries and different areas offer a different experience.||||Now to the details. The photos are not a true representation of the hotel. As a marketing guy its frustrating when the brand presentation online isn’t consistent with what you find when walking in the door of an establishment. That said, from the moment we walked in, after a very long day of touring and a rainy bus ride the hotel staff confirmed our choice. We were booked in two rooms by our travel agent and immediately the front desk team presented us with the option of a family suite at no extra charge so that the family would be together. This sounds basic but it was the perfect start to our stay at the Azzahra. ||||After being shown to our room, we dumped the bags and headed into the restaurant for a long awaited dinner where we were greeted with wonderful hospitality from each and every one of the restaurant staff. We were sat immediately and were eating what tasted like home cooked meals in no time at all. Each dish was delicious and our entire family left satisfied and headed back to our newly renovated suite. ||||The suite was renovated to look like it was new hotel. There was plenty of space for our family of four (two adults, two children) and both rooms had a TV set-up and plenty of plugs. In todays tech driven culture plugs for charging all the devices is very important. There was water and fresh fruit delivered each day with the cleaning which provided great snacks for our day trips. The room was clean, as was the bathroom and shower. There was plenty of closet space and even a small safe for valuables.||||So, what are my complaints with the hotel? (1) Staff, No complaints. Everyone was wonderful and made us feel like family. Truly not typical in even some 5 star or exclusive resorts we have stayed in. The staff made us feel like we were at a 5 star hotel. (2) Restaurant. No complaints. Food was cooked to order and the portions were plentiful and staff was attentive. When it was busy, it was busy so it takes an extra amount of time to get help but this was minimal and isn’t a complaint because any busy restaurant will have this constraint. If someone complains about this then they should stay home and cook for themselves. (3) Room. No complaints but instead a small recommendation. The room and everything was clean, spacious and exceeded expectations. The only suggestion I have for the hotel is an investment in more standard sized hotel bathroom products like shampoo, conditioner and shower gel. The bathroom was equipped with a small amount in single-use aluminum pouches but maybe an upgrade to hotel standard could be a nice addition for guests.||||An overall fantastic experience and we will stay again if we are in Jerusalem. I’m glad we supported a local hotel versus a large pretentious cookie-cutter chain hotel. Location to the Old City is perfect, there is an ATM across the street, a late night shop equipped with essentials is basically next door and great local food options for a lunch alternative are within a two minute walk. Thank you team Azzahra for a lovely 5 day stay and for treating my family as...

When it comes to eating out, there are two things I typically do not do. First is eating at hotel restaurants, which tend to be overpriced or touristy; and second is repeating restaurants, as I’m always looking to try something new. But I broke both of these rules for Azzahra, an old, classic hotel in East Jerusalem, where I ate at years ago during my first visit to the city. The Palestinian specialties are the items to order (ignore the international menu sections), and we started with the Balilah, a traditional countryside salad made of chopped parsley, mint, onions, tomatoes, bulgur, and chickpeas in a very lemony cumin dressing. I also had the kibbeh (fritters stuffed with ground meat) and filo cigars stuffed with meat as two fried appetizers, but the best starter was definitely the hummus, a super creamy chickpea-tahini purée topped with chickpeas, olive oil, cumin, and chopped herbs, and served with a plate of pickles, chilies, and olives, along with puffy rounds of pita bread, freshly-baked in their pizza oven! The hummus was served slightly chilled but still creamy and flavorful; the pickles weren’t too salty, and the chilies added a nice spicy kick, but nothing beat the hot, fresh, steamy pita bread.

Moving to the main dish, the star entree was the Mousakhan, the Palestinian national dish, made of a grilled chicken leg served over a taboun flatbread, all topped with a ton of caramelized onions, sumac, and slivered almonds. The chicken was super tender, the sumac onions were incredibly flavorful, and the almonds added an earthy crunch. The thick, whole wheat taboun bread was soaked through with the oil from the sumac onions, but somehow retained its chewy texture and a distinct nutty flavor from the whole wheat flour. Though the food took quite a while to come out, the flavors were all on point, the Middle Eastern atmosphere was charming (and even featured separate smoking and non-smoking sections), and the value menu prices looked as if they hadn’t been...

This hotel is conveniently located close to the old city and numerous other historical sights. The hotel was constructed in early last century of local stone. The external walls are at least 60 centimetres thick and the inner walls are at least 40 centimetres thick. This makes the hotel relatively quiet and thermally efficient. It really is a nice old building and if your into architecture, you will love it. The rooms are reasonably large but modestly and comfortably furnished. Each room is air conditioned, has a television and access to wifi.

The hotel is really quaint and has a great restaurant along with a well stocked bar. We have stayed in the hotel for the past 3 nights and have eaten in the restaurant each night. The menu comprises of both eastern food along with European food and great pizzas cooked in a wood fired oven. Breakfast, which is included in the room rate, is very good. Again a very good mix of eastern and European style foods.

The staff that we have encountered have been really friendly, courteous, helpful and efficient - close to 5 star quality. 24 hour reception - which is great if you arrive in the early hours of the morning like we did. The will also change some currencies (Euro, US dollars Jordanian) but not necessarilly at the best rates.

I would...