Manama: Sandwiched between two large shops selling perfumes and clothes in the Manama Souq, the tiny restaurant looks inconspicuous at first glance despite the white marble covering its facade.
Aloo Bashir, which serves only four types of food, has been in business for over 60 years in the heart of the Bahraini capital.
The hole-in-the-wall joint is only six-square metres with a small window to place orders, but its reputation precedes itself.
“I am visiting from Tunisia. I tasted a samosa from Aloo Bashir at a lunch hosted by a friend of my daughter’s. It was so delicious, that I asked for directions to the restaurant, which was easy since everyone knew where it was,” said Monia, a Tunisian mother who was visiting her daughter in Bahrain for a couple of weeks,
“When I got there I was shocked that such a tiny place had such a great reputation.” she told Gulf News.
Located a few metres away from Bab Al Bahrain, the landmark gateway to the Manama Souq, Aloo Bashir is deeply-rooted in the history of the capital.
The restaurant offers spicy samosas, fried potatoes, kebabs and chickpeas, prepared the Pakistani and Indian way.
It received a special mention in the historical book “Manama, the Champs Elysees of the Gulf”, by Bahraini author and chronicler Ebrahim Bashmi who covered, through his personal experiences, the main restaurants in the capital in the 1950s and 1960s.
“I have been working here for more than 26 years,” a focused Tanweer Ahmad said as he filled out bags with samosa for a young woman standing behind the counter.
Tanweer, 45, said that he started his work with the owner of the shop Bashir, a Pakistani national who came to Bahrain in the 1950s.
“He had a restaurant in Pakistan, and when he moved to Bahrain he started a similar one here. His vision was to sell simple Pakistani food at a low cost. It worked beautifully and the restaurant is now a favourite destination among Indians, Pakistanis, Bahrainis and tourists,” Tanweer said.
The father died around eight years ago, and the restaurant is now managed by one of the three sons.
They have seen their patrons as children grow up and now bring their own children to the restaurant.
“It has become a family tradition to many,” he added.
Jalil, a Bahraini journalist, recalled with great fondness such moments.
“When we were young, we used to come here and we used to see Bashir, the original owner, inside the restaurant. We had a lot of fun eating samosas. It is all part of our collective memory of the older Manama and the Souq the way it was before modern buildings and well-manicured pavements showed up,” he said.
While people queue up in front of the outlet, mainly women wearing the traditional black abaya coverall, inside, customers have only one metre of space to place their orders or to gulp down their food on a small shelf affixed to the wall.
A sign read: “We have only one restaurant in the Manama Souq, and we have no branches at all anywhere.”
