Balqees Restaurant
Sometimes opportunity knocks and sometimes it pulls up to your door. The latter happened for Ayman Awadallah and his wife, Reema, when someone came to buy a car from their dealership, Elite Auto Group, in Fredericksburg. The customer mentioned that he had just closed his restaurant in Falls Church and the space was available.
Though they had never owned a restaurant, the Awadallahs had a hunch they could make a go of it. The couple signed a lease in May of 2020, hired chef Rokaya Altimeemy, and opened Balqees Yemeni and Lebanese restaurant in July in Seminary Road Plaza. (Balqees is a reference to the proper name of the Queen of Sheba.)
Their son Mac Awadallah oversees operations, while Mac’s wife, Durrana Wardak, makes the showstopping cakes on the dessert menu.
Though the restaurant has seating for 45 inside, the 100-seat patio, where many of the tables have built-in fire pits, is a more popular al fresco gathering place. No alcohol is served (the restaurant is 100% halal), but hookah is available.
Start a meal at Balqees with silken hummus or shafout, a refreshing yogurt-herb dip topped with cucumber-tomato salad and served in a large, bread-lined bowl. For the uninitiated, lamb haneeth—saffron-infused basmati rice baked with tender pieces of spiced, bone-in lamb and topped with fried onions—is a mainstay of Yemeni cooking.
Vegetarians will enjoy saltah, a stew of tomatoes, okra, potatoes, zucchini and peas that arrives in a boiling cauldron with a sly admonition to “Watch out! It’s hot.”
If you’re one who normally passes on dessert, don’t. Wardak’s bright yellow saffron cake, topped with whipped cream and rose petals, comes with a decadent little glass of saffron crème anglaise on the side. It’s meant to be poured over the cake, but I’d happily drink it as a beverage on my next visit to Balqees. //Balqees Restaurant, 5820 Seminary Road, Falls Church
David Hagedorn is a cookbook author and the dining critic for Arlington Magazine and Bethesda Magazine.