Yatagan Kebab House

Im heartbroken that this place shut down. It was always our go to shawerma place. It was so good that im will to overlook all the health violation they had lol. It has now been replaced by new owner who runs a very clean establishment but you no longer get that greasy delicious shawerma that was once served here. Its now called Turkiss and its still a decent sandwich but it will never amount to what it once was.

I have been coming here for 35 years until they closed. I have estimated that I have had 1500+ Doner sandwich’s and 200+ Fafafel. I would rave this was the best Gyro in NYC bar none but when they were closed by the NYCHD I was very upset.
Management, ownership and employees were serving food that was unsafe. The list of serious violations listed by the NYCHD was long and serious.
HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO YOUR LOYAL CUSTOMERS WHO SUPPORTED YOU FOR YEARS…
SHAME ON ALL OF YOU…

Loved it, but sadly found it CLOSED this weekend.

The Best Gyro In the Five Boroughs or should I say Doner!!!
But my heart is broken since the DOH has closed it down and they are still not Open. The Falafel is damn good also Please get your shit together and Open Please. or if you Move please let us Know where to!!!

Yatagan boasts the best falafel sandwich I’ve had in the States. If this review were based on the sandwich alone it would definitely be five stars. My pita was packed with vegetables, had plenty of falafel inside, and just the right amount of sauce. Had we not had dinner plans later that evening I would have two. The falafel is absolutely worth a visit (and best of all, a sandwich is just $ 2! Where else can you get that in New York?)
That being said, reviews are never based on food alone, so I do have to take into account the restaurant itself, which is about 10 feet wide, dark, and yes, dirty. Not once did I see the staff wipe down a table after customers left, and there were spiderwebs dangling from the corners. To top it off, there was a circa 1985 stereo crackling with hip-​hop and pop music. The sound was awful.
Without a doubt you should go to Yatagan, but take my advice and get your food to go.

*please read my previous review now since this is an update*
STILL GOOD~!!!
This is definitely my go-​to spot for shawarma and falafel on MacDougal. They pack their sandwiches unlike Mamoun’s…
FYI: Mamoun’s on St. Mark’s is still ok as they pack their sandwiches much more than their MacDougal branch.

Came here based on the favorable Unilocal reviews, but was very disappointed.
First of all, the server recommended we sit down (so the three of us wouldn’t have to stand in line) and said he’d bring the food over to us. Little did we know that that meant they would be making food for all the people walking in after us before even starting on our orders.
So we had to wait at the one of the tables at this dingy place while bad Spanish club music blasted at us from a crappy stereo, watching more and more people order and get their food before us. Not to mention they kept their front door open so it was just as cold inside as it was outdoors in November.
Our food finally come. I had the Doner kebab, which was very mediocre. Only one of our three orders was warm since they decided to bring our food at the same time. The other two were just sitting on the counter while cold air blew in from outside.
The meat was cold, the onions were undercooked, and everything was not mixed particularly well. I’ve had a much gyro off the street, and I’ve had even better Doner kebab in Spain. However, I will say that our server (a big friendly black guy in a copper foil hat) was very gracious when we left him a tip.
I don’t know how drunk you have to be to give this place 4 stars, but I definitely had not reached that state of enlightenment.

As someone who’s been in this area regularly for several years now, I felt I needed to write a review on Yatagan.
I started out as a loyal regular at Mamoun’s, and they’re still good mind you, but if you compared their falafels & such from 3 – 4 years ago to today’s, you’d find it to have shrunk to about half of its previous size.
Yatagan’s falafels/​kebabs are just as tasty if not better at basically the same price. 2 thumbs way up!

Tiny, dainty, and no room to breath. That doesn’t even matter. This place PACKS a doner kebab, and it’s only 5.50!
I’ve been coming here for years. It’s a few blocks away from Grom, and it’s in a fun area.
Don’t expect anything less than an experience. It’s hectic, but the food speaks for itself. Try finding a better deal in NYC.
I usually eat two, but one fills up most people.

A little greasier than Mamoun’s, but almost everything on the menu is the same price for a more generous amount. If you’re tired of fighting off the crowd and eating in the cramped space up the block, Yatagan is the way to go!
The guys there are way chill, and even let me wash my greasy, falafelbabaed-​out hands in their sink after my binge. (try the baklava too!)

MMM… honestly I love this place! I crave falafel everytime I go here, and their lamb, is delicious, how lamb is supposed to taste. It’s stinky and fatty and oh so delicious unlike that crap you find on a cart on the street. It’s totally authentic! The workers are super nice, super cool, they won’t rudely rush you to get your order. They memorize your faces, and it’s cheap. Everytime I’m in the west vill I HAVE to stop in, usually to eat a falafel right on the spot and then to bring the lamb gyro home to eat the next morning.
There’s a few seats inside the place, but usually on a nice day just eat it outside like the rest of the world on someone’s apt steps. And they’re not rude about letting you use the bathroom.
I’m mad I had to write this review bc I’m craving it now and it’s too late for me to get it :(

When food doesn’t taste bloody delicious when you’re drunk — massive alarm bells should go off.
I desparately wanted to love the $ 2.50 falafels — but they’re not even in the same genre of food as Mamouns

Everyone here mentions the doner, which I didn’t have — maybe that was my first fatal mistake. Maybe the doner is the only good thing at Yatagan.
We sampled various dishes from Yatagan’s menu, and we were thoroughly disappointed by them all. We started with the «hummus platter»: four enormous scoops of hummus served on a chopped salad. The hummus had the consistency of glue, thick gobs of tasteless rubber cement, served with chilly, hard pita. This was the kind of hummus you get in the container at your local Ctown or Pathmark.
We also shared the chicken kebab platter which consisted of small pieces of chicken covered in yogurt sauce served on a chopped salad (chopped salad was, indeed, the theme of the night) — the chicken was extremely bland (as in unmarinated), and needed some heavy salting and peppering to pass a basic taste test.
Finally, we ordered the Yatagan salad which was, well, chopped salad — another huge mound of hummus a huge mound of tasteless babaganoush (arguably the babaganoush was worse than the hummus, and given how bad the hummus was, this means that the babaganoush was terrible), chopped veggies, and, the saving grace, three big cubes of decent tasting feta.
The upside: the entire thing came to $ 20. And one of the guys who worked there seemed really friendly.
It’s also clearly a place where men go to pick up falafels after work. (I was the only woman in there…)
The downside: the food was so unsatisfying that we ended up heading across the street to buy some Kati Rolls for our ride home.

Okay, full disclosure: I had faithfully done my Unilocal research and was headed towards Mahmoud’s falafel, since it was the highest rated thing in the universe. HOWEVER, walking down the street, I saw the number «2.50» on a sign. Looking to the left, I see the word «falafel». WERRRRT? Falafel sandwisssshh $ 2.50? I vote YES!!!
«Falafel sandwich, please»
[Fork over $ 2.50, receive falafel sandwissshhh]
Omg, delish. Omg, you guys. You guys, omg. Two fifty, you guys.
And werrrt? Totally friendly guys working there. Give me extra tinfoil and a bag to wrap up this sandwich that is too big for me to finish before I go get drunk at Le Poisson Rouge. A+, you guys.

I hadn’t been to Yatagan in years (over ten) so when my girlfriend and I were looking for a good quick snack to share tonight, Yatagan fit the bill as a place for us to be able to sit down, w arm up and have a nice hunk of delicious meat on pita (oh yeah, and vegetables too).
When you step into Yatagan, the counter to order is right there. Off to the side is the cash register and then some limited seating (I’d say maybe enough for about 15 people max). The interior is rather dark, with old tin patterned walls and ceilings that give an indication as to the age of the building. On one wall, bull horns hang on the wall not too far from a picture of Bill Cosby while a sign that tells you to pay when served is so old it’s darkened to the point where it’s almost unreadable. These aren’t criticisms but rather indications of this place’s old skool charm. It’s not ultra hip or modern looking, but they do focus on excellent food.
We ordered lamb with vegetables (lettuce, onion and tomato) on a pita, with no sauces. Believe me, we didn’t need it! The meat was succulent and seasoned so incredibly well it was amazing. They also give a LOT of it. Some places just fill the pita with lettuce shreds and then put a bit of meat in, these guys did the reverse! It was wonderful.
Service was friendly and they didn’t even ask for payment until we were done eating and on our way out.
Yatagan is simply awesome and I look forward to eating there again.

Two very good friends of mine took me here on a Saturday night for my first ever experience of falafel and authentic kebab. My sista and fellow Unilocaler is right on target as they do have the best falafel in the Big Apple. Perfect for everyday New Yorkers who are always on-​the-​go with a strict budget as Yatagan fits today’s ailing economy. Service is efficient.
The giant lamb is hand craved behind the counter which patrons view in plain sight, which reminds me of the ducks and whole chickens hanging in the windows of restaurants in Chinatown. Children will be intrigued with the giant lamb hanging and how the staff hand carve by shaving pieces to create gyros and falafel. The spicy red pepper sauce is mild, which I myself, cannot handle pawn spicy foods with index heat of three and greater but this Yatagan makes it just right.

GREAT PRICE, GREAT FALAFEL
You get a fast, home-​made falafel sandwich for only $ 2.50
It’s a great deal. It is definitely enough to fill you up for a light dinner.
They serve a free homemade spicy red pepper sauce you can top the falafel with.

Whatever the time of day, the people who work here are friendly and patient — especially considering some of the drunken messes that come stumbling through.
The sandwiches are big, with soft pita, and a generous amount of lettuce and tomato and onion and tahini… The doner kabab is pretty good, they give you a lot of meat, which is juicy and tender, but it’s lacking a little flavor… The falafel is, in my opinion, sub-​par, but only because they make their balls a little too big, this makes for a texture that’s a little too mushy for my taste, and they only put in three balls — I’d prefer if they were a little smaller, with five in a portion — it’d make for more crunch, making each bite a little more diverse, distributing the flavor a little more among the other ingredients.
I like this place more than Mamoun’s down the street, mainly because the crowd is a little more mellow and the employees never rush you in or out of the shop and there’s plenty of seating — but for the same price you can go to Ali Baba (also down the street) and have much better food in a slightly more charming environment.

Stopped by this little hole in the wall place as they were slicing the Lamb for the Doner Kebab… they take the lamb and roll it in their kitchen and have it hanging in the window… the Doner. The sliced lamb then is placed in a warm pita with lettuce, tomatoes and an accent dressing that jazzed it up.
So there we were walking down Mac Dougal in Greenwich Village eating this rather large, delicious kebab… the sun was shining and… our city’s good energy and…
well you get the picture!

Cheapoooooooooo!~
When I came to NY, they were selling falafel at 2 dollars. That yummy, veggie, fulfilling goodness at only 2 bucks!!! For a starving grad student that I was… geeesh!!! Healthier than McDonalds and cheaper!!! Oh and super fast!!!
I used to walk out of there with 3 (plus 1 dollar can of soda) –4 (Sometimes I tip the guy a buck) dollars less in my pocket with a full stomach. Ah. it was a cheap thrill in my GI track.
Now it’s 2.50, no big deal. Oh… I have seen other falafel place with 2.50 too… aw. The competition…
btw, I’m not impressed with their doner though. Just stick to the vegetarian thing.