Well I thought I would get to the restaurant guide to Dammam and Khobar. This will be a bit boring, but at the end of the day you never know. And as I have a very limited number of little pictures to give a star rating I shall use a smiley. Also I shall do this in no particular order.

RATING SYSTEM

You can live on it, but don't make a habit of it

Perhaps something is going for it, but it's not the food

Enter with care but not bad nosh

Will recommend to friends, perhaps even enemies. Reminds me there is life beyond the wall

Remains to be seen (watch this space)

Hospital Cafeteria Basically a vegetarian hell hole. The choice of salads has not changed since the first time I visited. All hot food contains lamb or dried fish. Except the rice which contains no meat every third day. The staff are nice and the atmosphere is more McDonalds meets cheap diner. But it is very cheap and will sustain life between pays.

Rashid Mall 4th Floor Above the monstrosity that is Rashid Shopping Mall, there is an amusement park. Here you can buy Hamsters, ride a roller coaster and there is a new food hall. I have tried the Thai take away and Trudy and Kellie tried the steak house and chicken place. All the meals were really great. The place is really new so there is no atmosphere, and at best it is a food hall so Belconnen Mall look out, but food was brilliant.

Orient This place needs to be seen. The decor is plush on plush or very ornate. Africa meets Shanghai. Huge chairs and tables, lounges, rugs & dark timber. It is ultimately trying to be a sushi place, but the decor does not suggest anything Japanese. But the sushi is first class. Big serves but have a few extra riyals; it is not the cheapest place. They have good service, but the evening I went with Adele and Corin, they had run out of eggs, which left the vegetarian choices limited.

Chinese Village, Rashid Mall Typically over sized, over done generalise Chinese place. Intimate dining is not in there vocabulary. Also serving what is on the menu is not in their vocabulary. The very polite waiters made a great effort to frequently apologise as each of my choices was unavailable. I was beginning to wonder if ordering steamed rice was going to cause a problem. Also the fish tanks are cool (see photo album) but it is the thought that people pick the fish out they intend to eat. Mr Creosote would not be out of place here

Science Centre Cafe One star is being generous. Cold under cooked pizza and wonky chairs does not do it for me even in a cafe. And we were there on a big celebration night with Arabic Drumming and health promotions.

Bona Banana A really good choice on the Khobar Kornaish. Big decadent chairs like the orient with a 180 degree glass wall with views over the gulf. The food was really nice, even though the language barrier did somewhat confuse the order a bit. The meals almost arrived together. It lost a big 'Smiley' because the ladies room was so dirty it was unusable according to Trudy. And that is a big call in a country that invented Bathroom Punting.