Café Boulud Riyadh Unveils a Non-Alcoholic Summer Menu

Café Boulud at Four Seasons Hotel Riyadh at Kingdom Centre has introduced a new summer beverage menu, launched on 24 June 2026, that is entirely non-alcoholic and built around homemade cordials, syrups, infusions and molecular techniques developed in-house. For affluent visitors to the Saudi capital, it offers a way to experience serious gastronomic mixology in a format that suits the local context without surrendering any depth or craft.

The premise is simple to state and difficult to execute: take the rigour and ambition usually reserved for a fine spirits programme and apply it to drinks that contain no alcohol at all. Rather than treating the non-alcoholic category as a concession, the team has approached it as a discipline in its own right, reimagining internationally renowned classic cocktails as sophisticated alcohol-free versions and constructing the entire list from components made on site.

The inspiration draws from diverse French regions while incorporating local Saudi tastes and the country’s deeply rooted coffee culture. That dual heritage is the thread running through the menu, and it is most clearly expressed in the two signature pours. Both are designed to read as complete compositions rather than simply as substitutes for something stronger.

The first, the Boulevardier Tartar, is fat-washed with Wagyu beef and finished with caper brine and a Dijon Mustard Air Foam. It deliberately mirrors the restaurant’s signature Beef Tartare dish, translating a plate into a glass and bringing a savoury, umami register to a part of the menu where sweetness usually dominates. Fat-washing is a technique that infuses a liquid with the character of a fat before chilling and removing it, leaving behind flavour and texture; here it is the mechanism by which Wagyu finds its way into a drink.

The second, the Crème Brûlée Espresso Martini, leans into pastry and coffee. It is built around a caramelised brown-sugar brûlée crust and finished with a Tonka Bean perfume spray, merging Saudi coffee culture with the French dessert tradition. The result is a drink that arrives with aroma as much as flavour, the perfume spray adding a final aromatic note before the first sip.

Across the list, six flavour profiles are represented: sweet, sour, aromatic, floral, herbaceous and umami. That breadth is the point. It allows the menu to function the way a considered wine or cocktail programme would, giving a guest somewhere to go whether they want something bright and acidic, something herbal, or the savoury depth of the Boulevardier Tartar. The molecular methods and in-house cordials, syrups and infusions are the toolkit that makes such range possible without reaching for alcohol to carry the structure.

The timing is notable. On the same day the menu was announced, Four Seasons Hotel Riyadh received Gault&Millau culinary recognition, a marker of the kitchen’s wider standing and a useful piece of context for a traveller weighing where to dine in the city. It positions the beverage programme not as a novelty but as part of a property operating at a recognised level.

For the discerning traveller, the appeal is specific. Riyadh’s dining scene has matured quickly, and an alcohol-free format is the practical reality here rather than a limitation to be worked around. A programme of this ambition makes that reality something to seek out: the same care, technique and narrative one would expect from a leading bar, expressed entirely through non-alcoholic drinks. The summer menu is available now at Café Boulud within the Four Seasons Hotel Riyadh at Kingdom Centre.

Source: Four Seasons