We tried Singapore’s best-rated Middle Eastern cuisine

Middle Eastern cuisine has always been my ultimate comfort food and guilty pleasure. It has portions of rice big enough to make a heart doctor faint, ultra-tender meat, and a continent’s worth of spices. In fact, the Middle Eastern style of cooking vegetables is what got me to eat healthy in the first place!

I ventured far and wide around Singapore to find what the best-rated Middle Eastern hawker stall was, and landed at Taibah Arabic in Kampung Admiralty Hawker Centre.

The stall is run by a welcoming lady boss, who told me that she used to run a restaurant down at Arab Street before they settled in a hawker stall here.

Despite the fantastic 4.8/5 stars in 131 reviews (at the time of writing), I’d never heard of Taibah Arabic before. It turns out that they do have a Facebook and an Instagram, but their follower counts are surprisingly small. Of course, this only heightened my curiosity. Why does Taibah Arabic have such good reviews on Google, but no social media presence whatsoever?

What I tried at Taibah Arabic

Thanks to chains like Stuff’d and Kebabs Faktory, I’m sure most people are familiar with wraps like kebabs and shawarmas. But Middle Eastern cuisine has so much more to offer! There are rice dishes like Maqluba, breakfast delights like Shakshuka, and homely sweet desserts like Knafehs.

Taibah Arabic offers a selection of well-known Middle Eastern staples, as well as more hidden gems.

What hidden gems do I speak of? Well, I refer to their Maqluba Rice that comes with either Chicken (S$10), Beef (S$11), or Lamb Shank (S$17).

I’m sure you’re asking, “What is Maqluba Rice?” I’ll save you the Google search. Maqluba Rice is like a Middle Eastern lasagna. Basmati rice is layered onto vegetables, nuts, and various meats and then inverted in a giant pot.

Just look at how big the chicken thigh is, it’s almost the size of my hand!

It took some effort to tear the chicken thigh into shreds of meat, which is usually a bad omen, as it gives the impression that the meat is dry. However, I was soon pleasantly corrected after taking a bite of the chicken thigh and revelling in the world of spices bursting in my mouth.

This is one of the most well-seasoned chicken thighs I’ve ever tasted, and I couldn’t stop repeating “wow” and “oh my god” as I chewed. I do apologise to my friends (who I was eating with) if bits of chicken were flying at them.

The long-grain basmati rice that the chicken thigh rested on was quite dry, which did put a damper on the symphony of spice in my mouth. I did arrive just as the stall was opening, so perhaps they weren’t fully prepared yet?

They did provide a small saucer of tangy chilli reminiscent of chicken rice chilli, but there was too little to coat the whole plate of rice.

An aspect of the dish that I didn’t expect to stand out was the slices of fried eggplants on the side. As a child who was once repulsed by eggplants, this made me hum and raise my eyebrows in delight. The slices were soft and mushy, tasting quite like sweet potatoes.

It’s unfortunate that the plate only comes with 4 pieces. I want more!

Their Quesadillas (S$8 for Chicken, S$9 for Beef, S$10 for Mixed) were up next, and this wasn’t as impressive. Not that anything was bad about the dish, it just feels a bit generic.

Though I did like how the wrap maintained its warmth and crispness long after it was prepared. This is the safest option on Taibah Arabic‘s menu if you’re not feeling adventurous, but I implore you to please try something else.

Their Kebab Rolls (S$5 for Chicken, S$7 for Beef, S$8 for Mixed) serve a long pasar malam-style kebab in 2 neatly cut rolls, perfect for sharing between friends. The meat was quite juicy, with a healthy mix of vegetables like lettuce to balance out the oiliness.

For what you’re paying, I’d say this is a good deal!

Final thoughts

The best part about Taibah Arabic‘s food came long after I left the hawker centre. The guilty pleasure aspect of Middle Eastern cuisine is how it makes you feel heavy and bloated, but I didn’t feel anything like that at all.

Most criticisms I have can mostly be chalked up to arriving a bit too early or the hawker stall offering options for a less adventurous crowd, which is mostly a business decision.

The 4.8/5 star rating is a bit too high, I’d probably give it a 4/5 star rating, maybe a 4.5/5 if the rice were softer.