Layaly Zaman is located in the heart of Bletchley Milton Keynes, serving traditional Arabic cuisine alongside a relaxing shisha house.
Layaly Zaman is a hidden gem located right in the heart of Bletchley Milton Keynes, there menu has such a great range of dishes and beverages that sound too good not to try. Layaly Zaman serves traditional Arabic dishes such as White Beans and Okra, they also have their 'Today's Special Dish' you can call up and ask what this will be as it changes every day!
You can also order wraps, burgers, pizza, milkshakes and smoothies, hot and cold drinks, maybe you would like to try an Arabic coffee? or a Moroccan tea? there is an abundance of options to choose from at Layaly Zaman restaurant.
It doesn't just end at a restaurant with Layaly, they also have a shisha house for you to sit back and relax in, you could maybe play a game of cards or have a laugh with some friends whilst trying the different flavours of shisha. They have all the classic flavours you could want such as; Grape, Mint, Strawberry and, more, as well as special flavours like Pink Lemonade, Lychee, Frozen Blueberry and more, you can also mix it up with different flavour combinations.
We spoke with Housam, co-founder of Layaly Zaman restaurant and he told us some history of how Layaly was invented and introduced to Milton Keynes.
He said "My Business idea started 18 months ago when I first met Mohammed, my Business partner. It was in Milton Keynes Intu and he was running a takeaway Lebanese food stall. I asked him if he was planning to expand his business or do something different and he replied saying that he wanted to open a restaurant that was unique and exquisite that had an Arabic atmosphere, Arabic cuisine and culture.
A place that felt more like the old days where people used to sit, play cards at the table, play chess whilst drinking Arabic, Turkish coffee or tea, having snacks or eating a proper meal, doing it all the Arabic way, hence the name “LAYALY ZAMAN” which means THE OLD DAYS.
There wasn’t a single place like this in Buckinghamshire or Bedfordshire, let alone Milton Keynes so it didn’t take me long before I agreed. We started looking for a place with a good location and size and then found the perfect spot, it was the old co-op building and it was a good space for what we wanted to do.
There was nothing in the place, absolutely nothing, just walls. We had many obstacles from labour to cleaning to skips to electricity to drainage to water, just to mention a few. We got many people interested who wanted to get involved and share the cake with us. We had to travel for days to purchase things that we saw on the internet and from our friends' recommendations.
We were very careful about what we chose, Mohammed travelled abroad to buy a few things that he had handpicked from Jordan, an Arab country in the Levant region of Western Asia. Then the COVID lockdown hit us badly, we had a good gap with no progress, then gradually started to go back to repairing and things started to take shape, it was moving in the right direction from bare walls and I could see some colour.
We went into a financial crisis some days, it has been very challenging but having had good support from friends and family from both of us really helped us and we made it. Finally, and after a lot of patience, struggle and hassle we successfully managed to open. We were so fortunate to have the mayor do the grand opening for us.
We couldn't be any prouder to open Layaly Zaman in Bletchley."
Find their menus and opening times here.
