About the author: Marwan Mounir Raffa, author of “Your Restaurant: From Dream to Reality” and founder of Oprato
From the kitchen of Al Sayadiyah in Jeddah
Marwan Mounir Raffa's journey with restaurants began early. In 1985 his father, the late Mounir Abdulkhaliq Raffa, opened his first restaurant in Jeddah: Al Sayadiyah, specialising in authentic Saudi seafood and built on the recipes and cooking secrets of his own mother.
From the age of nine, Marwan took part in every side of the restaurant: cleaning fish and shrimp, preparing, frying and cooking, packing dishes, working the till, selling at the fish counter, taking phone orders and following up the team. He went with his father to Jeddah's central fish market ("Al Bangla") to buy the day's fish. That is where he learned that success in this industry is built on details.
Experience beyond the kitchen
His career then took him through very different industries, each adding to his view of operations:
- Geophysicist at the Saudi Geological Survey in Jeddah, collecting data, writing reports and paying close attention to detail.
- Banking at the National Commercial Bank, where he learned compliance and the real meaning of policies and procedures.
- Emaar, The Economic City (King Abdullah Economic City), in sales, marketing, data analysis, legal frameworks and teamwork.
He then returned to the family business as chief executive, and was formerly deputy chairman of Marco Group, building and expanding its brands, writing their operations manuals and creating new approaches to service quality.
The book “Your Restaurant: From Dream to Reality”
Marwan brought this experience together in the Arabic book «مطعمك من الحلم إلى الواقع» (“Your Restaurant: From Dream to Reality”, Kayan House for Publishing & Distribution, first edition 2025), a practical guide for anyone planning their first restaurant or improving an existing one. It moves through the stages in order: founding and running the restaurant, then planning for growth and sustainability, then expansion, with practical examples, checklists and templates.
Oprato: the book as a platform
Oprato grew from the same idea: every restaurant should have an operations manual written to its needs, and its application should be measured in every branch. The platform brings together an operations manual written with AI, quality control with inspection checklists for every branch and employee, and cleaning schedules, in one place.