City Wall Chinese Restaurant - 库巴火锅拉面中餐厅 - سور المدينة — Restaurant in Eastern Province

Only hotpot restaurant in eastern province. Really enjoyed the whole experience. Since becoming a muslim I don't get to enjoy chinese food the way I used to, so this restaurant was a nice treat and brought back memories of how I used to spend time with my family. Now I have my own and it was nice for me to see them experience an authentic halal Chinese style of eating. We brought 2 hotpots and my 3 children who were under 12 got to eat the hotpot for free. A very generous policy mashallah. My husband opted to eat from their menu.

The server asks what kind of soup base you would like from a option of 3 or 4. The chicken soup was by far the best tasting. When the hotpot is brought to you, you heat it up on the stove in built into the table in front of you. Whilst your waiting to get it to a rolling boil, you can go to the buffet area and pick your foods you want, they have a good variety and selection. Of Chinese vegetables, noodles, seafoods and meats. As well as extra spices and sauces and toppings you can use to enhance the flavor of your dish.

They have a policy of preventing food wastage by charging 50 sar by the 100g of any unused food. I like this policy, I think this is a very clever way to prevent people from hoarding piles in their plate and allows fair distribution amongst other diners.

The drinks fridge is also free with the hotpot buffet except for certain Chinese branded drinks.

Kids couldn't eat alot as they were full from just eating the noodles and a couple of chicken pieces. We also couldn't share our food with non paying hotpot eaters I.e my husband as it was another policy they had. It they catch you, you will be charged.

The owners of the restaurant were very welcoming and kind, I think they're husband and wife. The wife is Chinese and the husband is an Arab but speaks chinese fluently.

The restaurant is also well...

The restaurant features a bilingual menu (English and Chinese), and you can peek into the kitchen while you dine. The staff are friendly and accommodating, which made the experience even better. They offer an all-you-can-eat HotPot menu with unlimited meats for just 68 Riyals—something I plan to try on my next visit.

For this visit, though, we stuck to the main menu and ordered a few dishes:

Beef Noodles Soup (牛肉拉面类) – SR 28 Beef Fried Rice (牛肉炒饭) – SR 30 Fried Spicy Chicken (干煸辣子鸡) – SR 35

The Noodles are handmade in-house and served quite bland along with beef and broth, but that's intentional I assume. Each table comes with vinegar, salt, white pepper, and chili oil, so you can season the food to your taste. After a generous helping of chili oil and salt, the beef noodles hit all the right spots. It's a good deal at SR. 28 but would have liked a few more slices of beef.

The Beef Fried Rice however, was underwhelming as it lacked seasoning. Pairing it with some chili oil and the spicy chicken helped, but I did let the staff know the dish could use more flavour.

As for the Fried Spicy Chicken, it didn’t look much like the menu photo. The dish had more red chilies than chicken, and the tiny bone-in chicken pieces might not be everyone’s taste but it is edible. The flavours were intense, with the Sichuan peppercorn bringing that signature mouth-numbing effect.

I’m no expert on Chinese food and those of you who might visit would be a better judge. I’ll definitely be back to try their HotPot and combo...

Long and detail review Went yesterday there for dinner and i was greeted warmly. Show buffet and explained the buffet.

Service At first the service was great. Did explained the buffet hot pot and i felt i was welcomed. But since the guy who went with me decided not to eat, things changed. So it was only me who had the hotpot. I went around 10:30pm and the restaurant was empty. I was the only customer in the hot pit section. Yet service was poor. May be it was closing time thats why the service staff was enjoying and talking loudly so i didn’t felt nice. Manager or supervisor came to me and talked hindi. No greetings or nothing and i felt awkward. He judged my looks and thought i was indian. There were included drinks and until at the very end of the dinner, they didn’t tell me which drink is included in the package. Apparently only kinza and water is included. I told them I don’t drink fizzy drinks and yet they didn’t offered me alternatives.

Food It was limited option for hotpot. They could have added one or two main dishes with a reasonable price, i believe it’s gonna be amazing. They had mutton and once cooked it was chewy and hard. There were no chicken option and sausages were frozen. I chose tomyum and it was very bland. I have had better and if anyone trying Chinese hotpot full experience, there are better places with reasonable price.

Ambience Ambience was amazing. The buffet and the tree were lovely. Over all not a bad experience but could have...