Sahara Tent Restaurant — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

The food at Sahara Tent is okay—the usual Middle Eastern cuisine. It’s a nice spot if you’re craving kebabs, hummus, or mandi rice, and the portions are satisfying.

One issue was the policy restricting indoor dining for regular customers during Ramadan. Despite several empty tables inside, we were told the indoor area was strictly for buffet diners only. This forced walk-in customers to sit outside in the scorching heat, right by the main road. It was extremely uncomfortable—exposed to dust, loud honking, and traffic noise. A little flexibility and consideration would have gone a long way, especially given the weather and location.

While it's understandable that the restaurant may prioritize foreigners, particularly tourists from the Middle East, local customers should be treated with the same respect. Just gives off a feeling of double standards. No one likes to feel discriminated against, especially in their own country.

In short, the food is worth coming for, but the rigid and poorly thought-out customer policies—left a negative impression. A bit more empathy and fairness would make the experience much better...

The restaurant is nice and clean, and well-lit. Friendly and attentive staff. I ordered Lamb Mandy for takeaway, and for the price of RM30+, at first I was disappointed to see that the portion seemed small (packed into a single regular clear plastic tupperware). But when I got home and took it out, the portion was easily enough to feed the appetite of two girls. The taste is quite good too. The rice is long and aromatic. The lamb is tender and pretty generously served too. The dhal gravy is thick and tastes very nice. None of these are spicy, which stays true to the Arabic flavor without much assimilation to the local tastes. The only downside to this restaurant is that it took a long time to get my order ready. For a single takeaway order made at a non-peak hours (I was among like 3 other customers?), they took about 20 minutes to get it done. Overall, nice place, nice food, terrible timing. 4/5 might come...

Sahara Tent has its origins in New Zealand. The first outlet began operations on April 1993 in Auckland. Three years later, Sahara Tent made its mark in Hamilton. Qantas Airline voted it one of the best restaurants in town. Waikatu University voted it as the outlet with the best service and interns from polytechnics and hotel management schools earmarked Sahara Tent for industrial training.

Sahara Tent came to Malaysia in 2001. In 2002, Tourism Malaysia voted Sahara Tent the best Middle Eastern restaurant. In 2004, the same opinion was voiced by KL Halal Food Guide.

Spurred by the encouragement, the drawing boards were soon out up for expansion plans. In 2009, Sahara Tent opened in Shah Alam and in 2011, patrons of Ampang got a feel of what it was like to dine under the colourful Bedouin tents that has become the...