Yemen Cuisine

If you like lamb, try the haneez and fattah.

There is another Yemeni restaurant around the corner that is brighter, busier, and crazier. The line there was out the door. I tried to get into that one but gave up. When I realized there was another Yemeni restaurant, I decided to give it a try.
A decidedly low-​key place, I felt comfortable that the food here was going to be good and authentic — a home-​cooked traditional meal. And it was! The prices are very reasonable. However, the place is a bit dated looking. There is a pay counter in the back, and the service was so-​so. But you came for the food right?
1. Tea: Get this! It’s a hot sweet-​tea like drink. I got a Diet Coke too out of habit, but the tea was definitely a great idea.
2. Chicken curry with rice: This is a large place with a deliciously spiced curry and cuts of chicken. The peppers in this gave it a very nice aroma. Comes with a choice of soup or salad.
3. Lamb baltamat with bread: The bread comes as a huge round piece the size of a large pizza. Freshly made and warm, it went so well with the lamb dish, which was heavily spiced and delicious!
4. Soup: It was basically good broth with a few items in it, but don’t recall what. It was overall great for a cold day.
I liked that the main dishes came with soup or salad as well as rice/​bread. I was very curious to try Yemeni cuisine, and now that I’m reading that people can order off the menu, I really want to try those hidden items!

I came back here to have Aseed again. Things were a little different this time. There was a different waiter. Everyone had to get up and get their own tea. It wasn’t brought to them. The waiter basically didn’t pay much attention to me and it took forever to get my bill when I finally decided that I wanted to leave. He could see I was done with my food. He didn’t take the dishes away. I asked him about dessert which he informed me they only had desserts with portions for a group of 3 so you couldn’t order it for 1. So basically there was nothing left for me to do. He never brought my bill. I kind of sat and waited to see how long it would take him but after 20 minutes I finally asked another waiter for it. Then they told me the price and didn’t even hand me a bill (unlike the first time where I got a bill for my meal). The first visit here was definitely better. The quality of the food and the price were the same as before. excellent.

OMG!!! This restaurant has delicious food! The restaurant itself needs a makeover, but the food is on point! And the staff are great. Kind people who know their menu items!
I ordered the Haneez from there on recommendation by the waiter, and boy was I glad he recommended that. The meat was so juicy and tender, but it has those burned ends that everyone loves. Lamb was sooo good.
The appetizers were great too. They soup they gave out tasted like the juices from the lamb mixed with something else, but I loved it. I’m going to try and make that soup at home with probably some pieces of meat mixed in. Overall, it was a great experience. Loved it. 5 stars!

This was my first true Halal/​Yemen experience. Yup cherries were popped with this one, mmmmmmmmhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhmm.
This stop is nothing fancy, just authentic Yemen food.
Me and the young lady shared the chicken curry, lamb shish kabob, soup, salad, and the bread.
The curry, bread, and soup were all on point, the kabob was a bit dry.
The experience was worth it.

Don’t let its appearance scare you away. The interior is in shambles and in need of a major face lift. But, forget that. The food is great and portions are huge! Tried the foul as an appetizer which is very heavy (a meal in itself) flavored with beans, tomatoes, spices and a very strong olive oil. Ordered a chicken stewed in tomatoes, spices and veggies when paired with the brown basmati rice was fantastic. Only disappointment is when I went back, they ran out of the brown rice so may want to call ahead to make sure they have it. The huge bread they give is crispy and served warm and I love the goat broth soup with a lime wedge they serve as well. Service is very friendly and welcoming and prices are dirt cheap. I strongly recommend this place.

Authentic and delicious, I can’t say enough good things. Try as much off the menu as you can. Never had meat fall off the bone like this before.
The ambiance is a bit cafeteria-​like, but you go to Yemen Café for the food, not the ambiance!

Delicious, authentic. Great bread. Sweet tea. Tender lamb kebab. Food is much better than the décor.

still the best roasted lamb in new york

This is an awesome little family-​owned spot with awesome food. I’ve never been to Yemen but I’m sure the food is comparable. I would know since I was there with a Yemenese friend.
Lets talk about the food. I had the lamb chop t-​bone steak. It was absolutely awesome! Will definitely be back for that same dish. As for ambience, I noticed that majority of the crowd was Middle Eastern. Very cool thing if you’re into different cultures. I like this place.

Solidly in the middle of the three Yemeni restaurants in Boerum Hill, Yemen Cuisine doesn’t commit the sins of Yemen Café but doesn’t hit the heights of the (still temporarily located across the street) Hadramout.
Yemeni meals are centered around the crackly round pieces of oven baked bread. Make sure you’re served one very hot and fresh, when it nearly rivals what’s being served down the street. The crunch and satisfaction disappear rapidly as this cools.
Lahm baltamat is nominally on the breakfast menu, but pretty much everything is available all day (unless they run out of an item, in which case it could be gone for several days at a time). I added hummus to my order, which with an off-​menu price raise meant I was eating a $ 13 lunch without salad or soup. It’s a little steep for a place with greased over windows and sporadic, ugly white fluorescent lighting.
Anyway, the portions are predictably large, which pieces of lamb, tomatoes and onion served in a bowl to be removed with pieces of bread. There’s a kick to it along with a savory aroma, both of which are nice absorbed by the bread. Paying an extra dollar for the hummus was a mistake, as it is as smooth and tasteless as porridge. I know this style is popular in the Arabian Peninsula, but it’s so clearly inferior to the creamy, crunchy varieties that come from the Levant that I fail to understand why.
The clientele here during jury duty lunch time (the Brooklyn courthouse is about six blocks away) seemed to be mostly regulars, leisurely ripping pieces of bread and reading Arabic newspapers. The food is just tasty enough that I can see why they stick around, but not good enough that I’d actively encourage anyone to join them.

There is little ambiance (read: none) but the food is great and amazingly affordable.

This place is tasty and affordable! The people are very friendly. I enjoyed it very much, and it was my first time to have Yemen food.

Authentic, good Yemen food: D
Do keep in mind that ‘Authentic’ may mean different things depending on your level of familiarity with foreign cultures. It could mean ‘scary’, for those who has never seen a whole skinned lamb. It could also mean ‘delicious!’ for those who are in the know :)

Yemen Cuisine (Matam Al-​Wahda) really looks like a hole-​in-​the-​wall more than the other Yemeni restaurants in New York. I had to convince my not-​so-​adventurous friends to enter. The restaurant was pretty empty when we entered but by the end of our meal it was lively and full of people.
We got maraq soup and salad at the beginning as usual. The maraq soup was the usual. The salad had a new dressing I haven’t seen before and it was light and good.
For the main dishes, we got chicken ogda and lamb zerbian (called lamb kebsa here). The chicken ogda was quite different from every other ogda I’ve ever had. It wasn’t shavings of chicken meat, instead it was more like cubes of chicken. The sauce was thick with some spices I couldn’t recognize and not so tomato based. It was good but different. The lamb kebsa came with a lot of meat and not so much rice! It was good but the rice wasn’t as fluffy as I like it.
The fresh bread was great and soft as I like it. The sahawiq was particularly spicy here.
At the end we had some tea which was the same as all the other New York restaurants. They do not make any Yemeni dessert here. The staff were kind but a bit indifferent. $ 36 for 3 people.
After sampling all the Yemeni restaurants in the Atlantic Avenue area of Brooklyn, I like Hadramout Restaurant (
) the best in the Atlantic Avenue area. If you are up for an adventure, Yemen Restaurant in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn (
) is the most delicious and authentic.
For more information about Yemeni food, you can visit here:

This is a downright gen-​u-​ine mother of all holes in the walls. It is the complete anthesis of the fruffy burger place next door. We almost missed it because there was so much din and spectacle from the burger place. When you walk into this place it is very quiet, except for the constant arabic buzz being spoken around you. Flickering old fluorescent lighting and faded green paint on the wall. Don’t let any of this put you off. Sit your ass down, and order something!
For $ 16, 2 people were fed, and it was GREAT! We ordered the roasted lamb combo. Started with a thin lamb flavored soup which was very good… then came the roast lamb. It was a dry roast, yet the meat just fell off the bone. It came with a thick stew which consisted of okra, potato and squash… and a gigantic flat bread. It was all spectacular. I’m definitely putting this on the regular list.

OMG Yemen, this place is amazing. We stumbled in here, neither of us having had Yemen, and left in a state of Yemenese bliss. Yemen Cuisine is totally delicious, and the people prompt, pleasant, and timely. The prices are reasonable, and the lamb and flat bread are delish.

When a guy tells me he’s an adventurous eater, it calls to test him on that. Being nearby this restaurant, I suggested Yemini cuisine as we both have never had it before. I had no clue what to expect but was excited for something new.
The restaurant, located right across Trader Joes, is small and simple. It’s a hub for the Yemini people in the area it seems, as we only heard them speak their native tongue all night there. As per recommendation by the guy who seemed to speak the best English out of everyone, we went with two dishes — the Chicken Gelaph (boneless chicken in a tomato sauce) with bread and Lamb Chops with rice. We initially wanted the roasted lamb but they had run out. The chicken dish was the winner — I loved the spices in it. The lamb chops were good but nothing to rave about. What surprised us both (happily) was how big the bread was — it was a size of a pizza! I’m a big fan of naan and Turkish flatbread so to have something similar but much bigger was awesome. I happily tore chunks off it and grabbed up pieces of the chicken and sauce with it all night long.
As this is the first time I’ve had Yemini food, I cannot compare but I’m interested in trying more of their food. I will definitely want to return with more people so we can more of the menu! Who’s in?

For a while I was a bit hesitant to try this joint.
First off, it’s just not the most attractive establishment. Oh, I’m sorry; that was an understatement. What I meant to say is that it’s dingy as fuck. Bare tables, bare walls, lighting that doesn’t hide any of the many flaws… it’s not a place I would normally want to spend a lot of time, let alone buy food that is prepared there.
But I’ve actually eaten at many a grimy place in my day, and it’s never really stopped me before. What really kept me away is that the prices seem abnormally high for such a grimy place. With the recent hike, a lamb platter (with a «cultural» side dish) will run you $ 19.
Now that I’ve gotten over my issues (the ones pertaining to Yemen Cuisine, at least), I can happily report there’s a reason this place is packed full of Middle Eastern men* every evening. The food is GOOD. And it turns out that the platters are pricey because they provide a ridiculous amount of meaty deliciousness. Each is easily dinner for two, if only because of the huge, pizza-​sized flatbread that accompanies every dish. I almost wish they would halve the price and the portion so I could try more items each visit, but such is life.
The lamb ribs are action-​packed with flavor, and when dipped in the accompanying broth, they are on another level. The chicken kabobs are similarly awesome and less lamby for those who can’t always handle the lambiness (my girlfriend). The white kidney beans thing is the deliciousness designed to be scooped up with the pita-​like bread. If you’re really hurting for cash, you could easily make a meal out of the latter at $ 6.
I don’t recommend dining in unless you have a strange appreciation for the aforementioned décor, as well as a constant, occasionally deafening din of men speaking Arabic… but I definitely recommend giving it a shot. I had never had Yemeni food prior to the aptly named Yemen Cuisine, but if this place is representative of all Yemeni establishments, I can safely say that the Yemeni are big on flavor, and big on portions.
Do it.
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*It can be unclear who works here and who just runs back into the kitchen periodically to yell things unintelligibly. To be on the safe side, I would assume the guys in aprons are the only ones who have any interest at all in helping you out.

Yemeni restaurants in Manhattan: 0
In BK: 2
Winner: Brooklyn
This month I learned that food from Yemen: Underrated. My heart’s won over by the mind numbing feast of lamb, okra/​potato stew, fresh baked flat-​bread the length of a medium pizza…
With that said, «Yemen Cuisine,» in the vein of other creatively named restaurants like «American Chinese Restaurant,» or «Lee’s Buffet,» is not a looker by any means. A peep through the exterior windows may cause your stomach to involuntarily constrict and your appetite to vanish. The «A» grade certificate taped at the entrance suddenly seems suspect. The green neon lighting does not help, unless the aspiration is to replicate an OTB hall or the DMV. To give you a sense of how they operate, try asking the following:
1) Do you take credit cards?
2) May we have utensils?
3) Check, please?
Answers:
1) The equivalent of using your Amex at a food truck
2) They will oblige, but note the bread is multi-​functional
3) Waiter’s response: Silence and two blinks. «Your total is $xx,» he says and leaves. This is clearly an eco operation.
But no matter. This is about the food, the glorious food.
— A starter of soothing, gently seasoned lamb broth served with a wedge of lemon
— Stacks of warm, freshly baked flat bread replenished without request. I’m not exaggerating about the size. You can ride it like a sled, though, why would you want to? It’s delicious!
— A full stack of tender roast lamb. Meat lovers, rejoice.
— The name escapes me but it’s like a pureed salsa. Terrifically fresh and flavorful, this provided a great contrast to the heavy protein
— A viscous, gravy like stew with okra, chunks of potato, eggplant. So addictive, I wept like baby.
— A self-​serve station for the post meal tea. It was stewed in clove and cardamom and can be found near the broom closet restroom… which I’d avoid at all costs.
Our meal here felt like dining in a time warp. There aren’t many places like these anymore, and you wonder how much longer they’ll be here when you note the neighboring bank and drug store chains, and the shiny Trader Joe’s down the block. Do yourself a favor and pay them a visit… tip nicely if you’re able.