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Traditional food of Bahrain: 13 dishes to know

Bahraini food is a seaport cuisine: rice, fish and meat cooked with dried black limes and baharat, with Arab, Iranian and Indian influences. Rice is at the centre of most meals, and fish from the Gulf comes fried, grilled or in stews. The most emblematic dishes are machboos, muhammar, harees and Bahraini halwa.

Updated 2026-10-124 min read

What Bahraini food is built on

Bahrain is a small island state near the western shore of the Gulf, and it has been a seaport and trading junction since ancient times. Its cooking mixes Arabic, Iranian (including Balochi and Achomi), Indian, African and other influences brought by the communities that settled there. With little farmland, Bahrain imports much of its food.

Rice is the backbone of the table, cooked in many ways: in meat broth, with lentils, with dates, or over vegetables. Fish and shrimp go into many rice dishes and stews, and dried black limes, black pepper and spice blends give the island's dishes their taste. Arabic coffee (qahwah) is the national beverage.

Rice dishes

Other rice dishes include al-mudalal, green rice cooked with herbs, mixed with small pieces of chicken and finished with a butter made for the dish; mabalah, shredded fish served with rice; and shilani, plain white rice with salt, cloves and cinnamon. Biryani, adapted with Bahraini spices, is also very common. Rice is usually served with saloona, a thick stew of vegetables with chicken, meat, fish or shrimp, or with thareed, bread torn into the saloona.

Machboos — Mutton, chicken or fish served over rice cooked in a well-spiced broth, marked by dried black limes and black pepper. It is the dish most often named as Bahrain's national dish.
Muhammar — Rice sweetened with date molasses or sugar, parboiled and then steamed, and one of the most distinctive rice dishes of Bahrain. It is always served with fried or grilled fish, especially the local net fish.
Masli — Rice cooked with chicken, meat, fish or shrimp, with all the ingredients going directly into the pot.
Mumawwash — Rice cooked with green lentils, sometimes topped with dried shrimp.
Fi ga'atah — White rice cooked over tomatoes, potatoes and eggplant placed at the bottom of the pan; it is also called taht al aysh.
Quzi — Roast lamb stuffed with rice, meat, eggs and other ingredients.

Wheat, grills and street food

Bakeries sell tannour bread, large and thin with many air pockets, a smaller brown bread, very thin raqaq that breaks as you eat it, and khameer. They also serve cooked fava beans (baghella) and chickpeas (nakhi) in the morning. Bahraini kabab, despite the name, contains no meat: it is a dough of flour and vegetables fried into small patties. Falafel, ful and malgoum, shawarma rolled in chapati or paratha with cheese and fries, are popular too.

Harees — Wheat cooked with meat, then mashed and usually topped with cinnamon sugar. It is the dish of Ramadan; our recipe soaks whole wheat for at least 12 hours, cooks it with bone-in lamb for at least three hours, then beats it with a wooden pestle until no grain or fibre is left and finishes it with ghee.
Taka — Small pieces of meat marinated with spices and dried lime, threaded on skewers and grilled over charcoal. It is the dinner dish of Bahrain, served with bread, herbs, onion, lemon and green chilli.
Samosa — A triangle of thin pastry, fried until crisp. Fillings range from spiced meat, as in our iftar recipe, to vegetables, cheese or potato.
Khubz mahyawa — Soft, thin bread spread with mahyawa, a tangy fish sauce also sold by bakeries, and eaten at breakfast.

Breakfast and sweets

Other sweets include sago, qirs al-taabi, a paste of flour, eggs and cardamom cooked on a hot surface, khabeesa of flour and dates, and asida served with a fried egg. There are also luqaimat, fried yeast dumplings soaked in saffron syrup, honey or date molasses; zalabia, orange swirls of fried dough in syrup; and ghuraiba, cardamom butter cookies served with coffee.

Balaleet — Thin vermicelli cooked with sugar and saffron and served with fried egg or an omelette on top, a breakfast classic. A Bahraini breakfast is not complete without karak, tea with milk.
Bahraini halwa — A jelly-like sweet of starch, sugar, nuts, saffron, rose water and cardamom.
Khanfaroosh — A fried sweet of flour, egg, sugar and yeast, sometimes made with molasses or milk, usually served at breakfast with tea or coffee.

An island kitchen

The sea shows in Bahrain's older dishes, some of which are now rarely made: maleh, salted dried fish; hwait, boiled sea snails eaten alone or with rice; and tareeh, a fish sauce similar to mahyawa. Crab (gubgub) is cooked with spices and served with white rice, and squid is stewed as saloona.

Bahraini coffee is light and thin, brewed in a dallah and sometimes flavoured with saffron and cloves. Tea, especially karak, is drunk for hospitality, and rose sharbat, lime juice and laban are traditional cold drinks. Other old drinks include water flavoured with date palm pollen, sour hibiscus, coconut water and tea brewed with dried black lime.

Cook Bahraini food at home

Machboos is the dish named as the national dish of Bahrain. Copper has full recipes for machboos, harees and samosa, with ingredients and step-by-step methods, on our page about the food of Bahrain, alongside other Middle Eastern recipes.

Machboos, harees and balaleet are shared with the rest of the Gulf. Compare with the traditional food of Qatar and the traditional food of Saudi Arabia.

The recipes

Questions people ask

What is the most popular food in Bahrain?

Machboos, rice cooked in spiced broth with meat or fish, is the best-known dish. Muhammar, sweet date rice with fried fish, is the most distinctively Bahraini.

What do Bahrainis eat for breakfast?

Balaleet with fried egg, khubz mahyawa, khanfaroosh and samosas, always with karak, tea with milk.

Is Bahraini food spicy?

It is spiced rather than hot. Black pepper, dried black limes and spice blends such as baharat give most of the flavour.

What is the national drink of Bahrain?

Arabic coffee, qahwah, is the national beverage. Karak tea is drunk for hospitality.

What is muhammar?

A Bahraini rice dish sweetened with date molasses or sugar, parboiled then steamed, and always served with fried or grilled fish.

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