Bukhari Al Khaleej - "Rice Rice Baby"

This place is up on my list after Googling what Bukhari is, and as Asians who love eating rice, we definitely had to try one. Before the Al Majaz branch opened, we tried to visit their other branches but they are too far away from my location so waited until this opened and went with the family when it did.

We normally eat a dish called Chicken Mandi, it's our favorite Arabic dish so when we looked at the menu and browsed for something similar, the one that seems closest to it is the roasted bukhari chicken and that's what we ordered. 

Restaurants like this serve you with vegetables and soup and a condiment called chutney, which is tomato based, the soup was okay but nothing to write home about.

Before serving the dish, I was thinking that they just translated the roasted part from an Arabic word which means the chicken be cooked roasted but would have some distinguishing spices to the chicken but apparently it isn't, the roasted chicken was pretty generic, something you would be able to buy from cafeterias around UAE, it wasn't bad but it wasn't exquisite either.

So after tasting the viand, the only thing that would make this meal a better experience would be the so-called Bukhari rice and it did, the rice has its own distinct flavor different from the variety of spiced rice you'll taste here in UAE, i.e. Mandi, Kabsa, Biryani, and others. It was delicious and the added sauteed carrots and raisin in every bite make it even better.  Oh, and you can ask for refills and it's for free.

Rice is a staple for any dish we (Filipinos) eat and the variety of rice dishes here in UAE is a joy to be held because of the options we have. I'm sure Bukhari Rice would be great with most viands but hopefully, when we dine-in again here, there would be a better matching viand for it rather than the generic roasted chicken.