Ali Baba

Ali Baba has been a fixture of the Aqaba old town since the 1970s — the corner of Raghadan Street and Hammamat Al Tunisyya Street, two minutes from the souk. For several generations this was essentially the fine-dining address in the city, long before the five-star hotels arrived on King Hussein Street. The room remains almost unchanged: a spacious outdoor terrace under a reed-mat canopy, indoor dining with a traditional Levantine interior, and a pace of service that is unhurried in the best Mediterranean sense.

The menu is seafood-led and local: red snapper, sultan ibrahim (red mullet), hamour (grouper), calamari, Red Sea shrimp, and whatever else the morning boats landed. Fish is sold by weight — select from the display, specify grilled or fried, and the kitchen prepares it with a standard tahini sauce and lemon. Starters are the Levantine canon (hummus, mutabbal, tabbouleh, fattoush, falafel) done competently. The bread is baked in a tabun oven on-site.

Ali Baba is one of the few long-established Aqaba restaurants with a full alcohol licence — beer, Lebanese wine, and the local Amstel are available. Prices are well under half of the Movenpick or InterContinental equivalents. Service is gracious in the old Jordanian fashion; the staff are long-tenured and remember returning guests.

Allocate 90 minutes. The terrace is the move from October through May; in high summer the air-conditioned indoor room is the right call. Open for lunch and dinner. A 5-minute walk inland from the Movenpick and Intercontinental.

Ali Baba is the Aqaba team-dinner default when the brief is honest, local, and generous rather than flashy. Long terrace tables, a shared fish platter for the middle, Lebanese wine by the bottle, and a bill that lands at a fraction of the hotel equivalents. For solo diners, the corner bar seats give a direct view of the kitchen pass — an underrated option. The first-date angle works when the goal is a relaxed Mediterranean terrace rather than a cinematic hotel setting.