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.