Getting There - Aneel's Travelogue

Where is everyone? Am I just eating at the wrong time? I went out to some of the restaurants listed in the LP, and there was nobody else there. The first one was cavernous, magnificent, and empty. They told me that they needed an hour's advance notice to prepare their specialty, so I told them maybe tomorrow.

The second place was a little smaller, but highly decorated. And again, I was the only diner there. The family that runs the place was sitting in the back room. Their young (2 year old?) son came over and sat next to me and drew on the blue-and-white tiled table with a pink colored pencil and told me fascinating things (I assume. They were in Arabic). They ended up inviting me to eat in the back room where they were watching television and had a heater going, instead of out in the front room, which was a bit drafty.