Almost every restaurant in the Sanaiya with a picture of a kabab outside will tell you it does charcoal BBQ. A good number of them are cooking on gas, and the difference is not snobbery. It changes what arrives on the plate.
Charcoal cooks by radiant heat and drips fat onto hot coals, which flares and smokes and puts flavour back onto the meat. Gas cooks by hot air and does none of that. Everything below is how to tell, in about ten seconds, without being rude about it.
The four tells
Smell the air before you see anything. Burning hardwood charcoal has a distinct sweet smoke. A gas grill smells of nothing, or of the extractor.
Look at the char pattern. Charcoal is uneven by nature: hot spots, cool spots, coals that have burned down more on one side. The meat comes off with dark blistered edges and paler patches. Gas produces even bar marks and uniform colour, which looks tidier and tastes flatter.
Time the wait. Fifteen to twenty minutes is right. Five minutes means it was already cooked. Forty means the coals were not ready when you ordered, which is its own problem.
Just ask. A kitchen that has gone to the trouble of running charcoal will tell you, at length, because it costs more and it is harder work.
What it should cost
| Off the coals | Price |
|---|---|
| Chicken tikka, leg or chest | AED 10 |
| Chicken kabab, seekh | AED 22 |
| Reshmi kabab | AED 22 |
| Tandoori boti | AED 22 |
| Malai boti | AED 25 |
| Chargha, half | AED 18 |
| Chargha, full | AED 35 |
A full chargha at AED 35 feeds three people. Two seekh and four roti feeds two for about AED 48. The whole card is here if you want to work out an order before you arrive.
What to order, and in what order
First time: tandoori boti. Red masala marinade, charred at the edges. It is the most honest thing on a BBQ list because there is nothing to hide behind. If the boti is good, the kitchen is good.
If you do not want heat: malai boti. Chicken cubes marinated in cream and green chilli. The chilli is aromatic rather than hot, and the cream protects the meat from the coals, so it is the most forgiving thing on the grill and the hardest to dry out.
If you are feeding children: reshmi kabab. Cream and cheese in the mince, soft the whole way through, no bones, no heat.
If you are feeding a table: chargha. Steamed in spice for an hour and then fried to order. A full bird for AED 35 with four naan at AED 2 is the cheapest way to put a real meal in front of three or four people.
The mistake most people make
Ordering BBQ and bread and nothing else. Charcoal meat is rich and dry by design, and it needs something wet next to it. A half chicken karahi at AED 15 alongside two seekh turns a plate of meat into an actual meal, and it costs less than a third kabab would.
The other mistake is ordering everything at once. Kababs are best in the ninety seconds after they come off the skewer. Order in two rounds and the second round will be better than the first.
Order ahead and skip the wait
BBQ is the one part of the menu where a message ahead genuinely changes the experience. Send what you want to 050 720 8707 on WhatsApp with a rough arrival time, and it goes on the coals to meet you rather than after you sit down.
The grill runs until midnight, every day. We are on Amman Street, Ajman Industrial Area 2, near Nesto Hypermarket, Shop 8/1 on the ground floor.
Common questions
- How much is BBQ in Ajman Industrial Area 2?
- At Zafran Kitchen chicken tikka is AED 10 for a leg or chest piece, seekh kabab, reshmi kabab and tandoori boti are AED 22 each, malai boti is AED 25, and chargha is AED 18 for a half or AED 35 for a full bird.
- How can I tell if a restaurant uses real charcoal?
- Look for smoke that smells of burning wood rather than nothing at all, uneven charring on the meat, and a wait of fifteen to twenty minutes. A gas grill cooks evenly, fast and without aroma. Ask directly, a kitchen that uses charcoal will say so.
- Why does BBQ take twenty minutes?
- Because it goes on the coals after you order it. Charcoal cooks by radiant heat, which needs time to reach the middle of a boti or a seekh without burning the outside. Anything served in five minutes was cooked earlier and reheated.
- What is the difference between seekh kabab and reshmi kabab?
- Seekh kabab is spiced minced meat pressed onto a skewer. Reshmi kabab uses the same technique with cream and cheese worked into the mince, which makes it noticeably softer and milder. Both are AED 22.
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The kitchen is open every day from half past seven in the morning until midnight.