Saha resides within the Hotel Carlton in San Francisco’s Tenderloin. The restaurant’s colorful entrance lies just beyond the lobby. Chef Mohamed Aboghanem serves vibrant Arabic food with fusion flourishes and Yemeni influences.

Saha features many colorful design flourishes, none more interesting than stained glass ceiling panels.

To drink, since it was a cool evening, we drank Yemeni black tea with mint, clove and sugar.

A basket of warm local bread came with a dish of delicious zatar, a spice blend that includes olive oil, sesame, oregano, thyme and sumac.

The eggplant special was cooked until spoon-soft, then topped with a spicy tomato sauce.

Lahem Sougar consisted of chunks of local grass-fed lamb, sauteed with sumac, pine nuts and olive oil then served over hummus with triangles of pita.

Chocolate-Chermoulah Scallops featured sea scallops with an unusual chocolate-chermoulah and chipotle sauce, plus a cake of feta cheese knaffe. Knaffe is shredded phyllo, in this case baked with feta, and in this case, fabulous.

Saha’s salmon baklava utilized fresh wild Scottish salmon marinated with mustard seed, honey, and lime topped with almonds, walnuts and honey. The fish was then wrapped in phyllo and baked.

For dessert, we ordered a special roasted fig knaffe, topped with banana mango sorbet. Excellent.