Washington DC: Al Jazeera Restaurant

Al Jazeera Restaurant is actually located outside of Washington DC in Falls Church, Virginia in a little shopping center with many Ethiopian shops and businesses. While there are some Yemeni dishes on the menu, it turns out that this restaurant is more Ethiopian than Yemeni. We started off with some maraq soup and salad. We then ordered two main dishes, lamb mandi and chicken mandi, and some fasoulia. I also got a fresh strawberry juice. It was all pretty good, but the sahawiq was really, really spicy!

Unfortunately they did not have any dishes in the black pots like salta, fahsa, or ogda.  Also, $52 for 2 people seemed a bit high but they rushed us at the end before I could think about it too much. We wont be back here...

Al Jazeera

3813D S George Mason Dr

Falls Church, VA 22216

Neighborhood: Skyline

(703) 379-2733

New York: Arth Aljanatain

Arth Aljanatain (مطعم أرض الجنتين) is an amazing Yemeni restaurant in the Bronx.  "Arth Aljanatain" means "the land of two gardens" and there are two murals of gardens inside the restaurant!

Arth Aljanatain was absolutely wonderful!  We got maraq soup and salad (had Ranch dressing...!) as the starters.  As we had a vegetarian in the group, this gave me a great opportunity to order some of the non-meat dishes that I usually don't order.  So I asked for fasolia beans and shakshouka (these are actually breakfast items).  The fasolia beans were wonderful and in the traditional black clay pot.  The shakshouka came out as some eggs on top of cubed tomato... not quite shakshouka but still good.

We also got fish ogda and lamb mandi.  The fish ogda was perfectly made and absolutely amazing!!  The lamb mandi was also full of flavor and soft with perfectly fluffy rice.  The bread was freshly made and hot.  I liked the sahawiq here since it wasn't that spicy.   As they did not have any dessert available, we ended the meal with some Yemeni spice tea and we were all very happy.  $67 for 7 people.

Arth Aljanatain

700 Rhinelander Ave

Bronx, NY 10462

Neighborhood: Van Nest

+1 (718) 918-9191

New York: Hadramout Restaurant

Yemeni friends all have the consensus that Yemen Cafe (Matam Al Yemen Al Saeed) on Atlantic Avenue is the best and most authentic in NYC.  Maybe if you are Yemeni?  After trying Yemen Cafe many times now, I just got fed up with the rude service and high prices.  Time for a change.

I was very pleasantly surprised with Hadramout Restaurant (Hadramout is a region in Yemen).  Honestly, the food tasted the same as Yemen Cafe but the atmosphere and Yemeni staff were so kind and it was a perfect lunch experience.  So far in the US I haven't found Yemeni food tasting like in the Middle East except for in Detroit which has the largest Yemeni community.  Thus Hadramout Restaurant was pretty good and I think a much better experience than Yemen Cafe.

The maraq soup was good and came at the beginning of the meal as it should.  I also particularly liked the salad at this restaurant and it had a really simple and delicious tomato sauce on top.  The sahawiq (Yemeni salsa) was sufficiently spicy.  The khobz bread was freshly baked and soft and fluffy.  Still haven't found my favorite Yemeni pastry bread, called malawah, outside of the Middle East.  I'll keep searching!

We had mandi lamb and chicken ogda.  Both were good, but the chicken ogda had bones in it and was a little less soupy than it should be.  The rice was particularly perfect and fluffy.

The Yemeni tea was good and seems to be popular in NYC.

However, really what made this such a nice experience was the really kind staff.  It was so nice to finally see the famous Yemeni hospitality.  We were having trouble cutting the lamb so our kind waiter helped us cut it.

This leads me to probably the best part of the meal which was the Yemeni dessert, masoob.  If you haven't tried masoob, you definitely should.  It's something to be split with the group since one or two spoon fulls is plenty and really heavy.  There are a few types but pretty much it is bread, dates, banana, cheese, cream, and Yemeni honey.  Wow, it's amazing.  So when we were ordering this, the Yemeni guy asked us if we really wanted it hesitantly, and we said "oh yeah!!" as we've had it so many times in Qatar and love it.  He said okay and then I saw him run out the door and come back a few minutes later with a container of honey!  He was so sweet and went and got the honey for us!  Yemeni honey is so good and the masoob was perfect.

Of course I'll be checking out all the other Yemeni restaurants in NYC but for now, Hadramout Restaurant is at the top of my list in NYC.  $60 for 5 people, including tip & tax.

Hadramout Restaurant

172 Atlantic Ave

New York, NY 11230

Neighborhood: Cobble Hill

(718) 852-3577

hadramoutbrooklyn.com

Chicago: Yemen Restaurant

The specialties of Chicago's Yemen Restaurant are chicken mandi and lamb mandi.  The lamb mandi was excellent.  The kind Yemeni chef will take requests though and kindly made chicken ogda.  They didn't have the black pots but it was still good.  The sahawiq was very spicy and the salad was simple as it should be.  The maraq soup tasted just as it should.  They do not have a bread oven so no fresh bread at this location.  The portions were huge and it was a great meal.  $25 for 3 people.

Source: Yelp

Yemen Restaurant

4748 N Kenneth Ave

(between Elston Ave & Leland Ave)

Chicago, IL 60630

Neighborhood: Irving Park

(773) 777-8755

London: Queen of Sheba Restaurant

It seems that Queen of Sheba is the only pure Yemeni food restaurant in London.  The maraq soup that always starts off the meal was excellent and included huge hunks of meat and and even some on the bone.  The lamb mandi was decent and the chicken ogda was good but needed to be in the black pots to keep it warm.  Queen of Sheba was unique and surprising with the fresh juice outside of the Middle East.  The lemon mint juice was perfect.  The bread was also good and they had a bread oven in the restaurant.  The meal concluded with some karak tea (black tea with milk and sugar).  The staff were friendly and kind.  Overall, it was a good experience but quite pricy.  £60 for 3 people.

Queen of Sheba Restaurant

3-4 Bouverie Place

London W2 1RE

Neighborhood: Paddington

020 7402 6667

queen-of-sheba.co.uk

Doha: Sana'a Restaurant

Sana'a Restaurant has great Yemeni food although I still love Bandar Aden more...

We got maraq soup, chicken ogda, lamb fahsa, and goat mandi.  Served with the usual sahawiq (Yemeni salsa), salad, and malawah bread.

Sana'a Restaurant

+974 44312682 / +974 66013083

Souq Waqif

Doha, Qatar