Saudi Gazette report JEDDAH — If you're having a hard time deciding where to head out for a perfect weekend family dinner and want some authentic restaurant reviews, then Jeddahfood.com is sure to solve your problem. It started as a blog by a food lover and eventually grew into the most popular food review website in Jeddah. It won the Saudi Excellence in Tourism Award (SETA) for the “Best Website Promoting Tourism” earlier this month. “Being recognized was an honor and continues to drive us further to raise the standards of both Jeddahfood.com and that of the industry as a whole,” said Rashed Islam, founder of Jeddahfood.com. Having grown up in Jeddah, Islam has fond memories of dining out with family at various restaurants which the city, which he describes are a melting pot of cuisines from all over the world, from Indonesian, Indian, and Turkish delicacies to varieties from across Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Palestine. “It all started as a hobby. The idea behind Jeddahfood.com came to me over seven years ago. I had just started working having returned to Jeddah after completing my MBA abroad. But in my spare time I was thinking of a way to collate all of mine and my friends' favorite restaurants in one place. The Internet seemed like the ideal place to share these venues, and at the same time provide some constructive feedback to restaurants, which in time would hopefully help raise standards,” he said. Islam decided to start a food blog where he initially wrote his own reviews after visiting the latest restaurants and cafes that opened across the town. Eventually, as the website gained more popularity, some regular visitors asked if they could also contribute reviews. That's how Jeddahfood.com evolved from a solo effort to collaboration and community venture. As the site's popularity grew, restaurateurs started contacting the team about their new ventures, and exclusive features such as special offers, best dining deals were added to the website. “Suddenly we were debating and discussing the best falafel in town, or where one could find the perfect ‘Shawarma.' We didn't just focus on the elite restaurants, but our fans also started visiting and reviewing some great ‘off beat' places, street food, and old fashioned eateries in even the oldest parts of Jeddah,” said Islam. The website has its own team of writers who are occasionally asked to write special features on new openings in town. However the vast majority of the website content is user reviews. Islam believes everyone is a food critic and anyone can register on the website and start writing because multiple user reviews, as opposed to one food critic or columnist, creates a more balanced picture of a venue. “Everyone has different tastes and varying standards; you might have a great time at a certain restaurant, and I could equally have a terrible experience at the same place. Neither of us is necessarily wrong, but detailing the events can be useful for both readers and restaurant management alike,” he added. Islam explained that it was exciting as multiple reviewers began sharing their favorite restaurants, and the website gained traction. Today, the website has hit over 80,000 “likes” on their official Facebook page. The management of food and beverage venues is valuing the reviews and at the same time visitors are benefiting from the feedback. The website has become a successful channel for them to reply to the customer, be it a happy or disgruntled one. Discussing his expansion plans, Islam said his team has already launched Riyadheats.com, a website for food lovers in Riyadh. “We have some exciting plans on the horizon with our ‘Partners at Future Waves' which includes expansion regionally in the Middle East,” he said.
