Vegan dining options in Saudi Arabia are in demand, with many restaurants and cafes catering for this diet and offering plant-based alternatives to animal products.
Vegans in Jeddah have been celebrating this month’s opening of The Vegan Street, which is located next to Jarir Bookstore on Sari Street.
It offers scrummy sweet and savory items such as cauliflower buffalo wings, mushroom pizza, a plant-based burger, raspberry biscuits and cinnamon rolls.
The Vegan Street story started in the middle of this year with three young Saudis who were interested in taking up a healthy and balanced lifestyle in terms of physical movement, such as yoga, as well as meditation and nutrition.
Theirs is the first Saudi restaurant to be approved by BeVeg, the world’s leading vegan certification company, which has a single measure to standardize vegan claims worldwide.
The team behind the restaurant believe that humans are an integrated system of body, mind and soul.
“The restaurant provides options that address all senses, soulful food that fills the belly and heart too,” the owners told Arab News.
The vegan market is somewhat new in the Arab world, and the challenge facing the entrepreneur in this field is making high-quality products at a reasonable cost and at a price point that caters to most customer segments.
“The goal is to help people find options that meet their needs outside the home and in the midst of their busy lives,” the restaurant’s owners said.
The team started off with nine items on the menu and are now in the soft opening phase. They are looking to get closer to their customers in terms of awaiting their suggestions and taking every note, idea and evaluation received into account.
The inspiration for the restaurant is the people who seek to bring more well-being into their lives. “It is not only a place that serves delicious food, it’s more than that. It is built from street life and to it. A community seeking well-being.”
The demand for vegan options has been increasing recently in terms of balancing one’s health.
There is also the added benefit of achieving sustainability and preserving the planet and environment in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 reform plan and G20 projects for a more sustainable future, a healthy life and a planet full of kindness and compassion, they said.
“We always remember that people never forget how you made them feel,” the restaurant team said. “The street food concept is based on simplicity, ease of finding and reasonable pricing, with an unforgettable taste. The menu will be expanded based on requests and suggestions, so that this place is for everyone and this community exists for everyone who wants to belong to it.”
Startup of the Week: The Vegan Street: Helping people maintain a healthy lifestyle
https://arab.news/m8adv
Startup of the Week: The Vegan Street: Helping people maintain a healthy lifestyle
- Theirs is the first Saudi restaurant to be approved by BeVeg, the world’s leading vegan certification company, which has a single measure to standardize vegan claims worldwide
Is sourdough Saudi Arabia’s latest craft food?
- Saudi home bakers point to a practice that was once routine, not artisanal
- Naturally fermented bread reflects a broader shift toward process-driven, premium food culture
ALKHOBAR: Sourdough has started to shift from a niche interest into a mainstream feature of home kitchens, cafes and specialty bakeries across the Kingdom.
The rise of sourdough is part of a wider shift in Saudi Arabia’s food landscape, where artisanal production and slower preparation methods are gaining traction.
Specialty coffee seems to have set the early template for this transition, normalizing premium pricing, craftsmanship and an interest in process.
Bread is now undergoing a similar shift, with fermentation replacing extraction and roasting as the central point of differentiation.
In both cases, the appeal is rooted in the product’s perceived authenticity, reduced additives, and a clearer link between raw ingredients and final consumption.
Home bakers in Riyadh, Jeddah and the Eastern Province have adapted natural yeast cultures to the Saudi environment, adjusting feeding schedules, hydration ratios, and fermentation times to accommodate higher temperatures and lower humidity in the summer months.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Home bakers in Riyadh, Jeddah and the Eastern Province have adapted natural yeast cultures to the Saudi environment.
• They adjust feeding schedules, hydration ratios, and fermentation times to accommodate higher temperatures and lower humidity in the summer months.
Cafes and specialty bakeries have responded by adding sourdough loaves, baguettes and focaccia to their menus, often positioned as premium alternatives to conventional commercial bread.
For younger home bakers, the appeal lies in the craft and the learning curve rather than nostalgia. “It feels more real and more intentional,” home baker Sarah Al-Almaei told Arab News. She began experimenting with natural yeast at home after watching starter tutorials online.
The technical aspect — hydration percentages, fermentation control and starter maintenance — has become content in its own right, with TikTok and Instagram compressing trial-and-error learning into short videos and recipe cards.
But the practice of maintaining a natural yeast culture is not new in Saudi Arabia. Long before sourdough became a global trend, Saudi households kept what was commonly referred to as the “mother dough,” a natural yeast starter fed and used daily.
“We used to maintain it every day and bake with it,” said Hessa Al-Otaibi, 56, a Saudi home baker with more than four decades’ experience. “People today call it sourdough. For us, it was simply bread.”
Her comment highlights a cultural continuity that has remained largely unrecognized, partly because the practice was not framed as artisanal or health-oriented, but as a routine household function.
The modern sourdough trend differs in its market positioning. While the older model was practical and domestic, the current model is commercial, aesthetic and often health-coded. Bakeries justify higher pricing through longer fermentation times, higher ingredient costs and smaller batch production.
Consumers justify their purchases through digestibility, perceived health benefits, flavor and product integrity.
“Once you get used to it, it’s hard to go back,” said Amina Al-Zahrani, a regular buyer of sourdough from specialty bakeries in Alkhobar.
Digestibility and texture are often cited as reasons for substitution, especially among buyers who report discomfort from standard commercial bread.
Another consumer, Majda Al-Ansari, says sourdough has become part of her weekly routine, noting that availability and quality have improved significantly in the past year.
The social media component has played an outsized role in accelerating adoption. Home bakers document starter feeding cycles, cold proofing and first bakes, turning a once-private domestic process into visible public content.
This has also created micro-markets of home-based sellers, where individual bakers offer loaves to local buyers, often fulfilling orders through direct messaging.
What remains to be seen is how far the trend will scale. If specialty bakeries continue to expand and consumers maintain willingness to pay premium prices, sourdough could establish a long-term place in Saudi food culture.
If not, it may revert to a smaller niche of committed home bakers and specialty cafes. For now, however, sourdough occupies an unusual position: both a newly fashionable trend and a quiet continuation of an older Saudi baking practice.
