New York: Yemen Cafe (Bay Ridge)

This is the other location of Yemen Cafe that is located in Bay Ridge. This location was much nicer, probably because it's not in a completely gentrified area. The food was delicious and the atmosphere was very cosy. It was crowded and full with families.

We tried the usual favorites: maraq soup, salad, chicken ogda, and lamb haneeth.  All was good and I like this location much better than on Atlantic Avenue.

Yemen Cafe

7130 5th Ave

Brooklyn, NY 11209

b/t 72nd St & Ovington Ave in Bay Ridge

(718) 745-3000

yemencafe.com

New York: Saba Restaurant & Grill

Saba Restaurant and Grill is not really a Yemeni restaurant. The staff are from Northern Africa, such as Tunisia and Algeria. They serve some Yemeni dishes but they were just adequate. The tea was fine but nothing special. The maraq soup could have been better. The salad was adequate. The fresh bread was decent. We tried the chicken ogda and it was just okay. The lamb kabsah (zerbian) was decent but the rice could have been better. We tried to order dessert but they did not have sabayah that day. The kind Algerian guy did make us some fatta dessert on the house which was quite delicious but I'm hesitant to recommend this place as this should be on the menu or always available and not just a one off.  $37 for two people. The price is too high for 2 main dishes for lunch that were just adequate.

Saba Restaurant and Grill

25-75 Steinway St

Long Island City, NY 11103

Neighborhood: Astoria

(718) 777-5656

New York: Aden Restaurant

Aden Restaurant is one of two Yemeni restaurants in Astoria on Steinway, which is an area with a lot of Middle Eastern restaurants, shops, and food carts.

We got the usual maraq soup to start out and some salad and tea.  For the main dishes, we had chicken ogda and lamb zerbian.  Both were good but the ogda was a potato version without tomatoes.  The bread was freshly made and good.  They do not serve Yemeni dessert here.

Overall it was a good meal but not as good as other Yemeni restaurants in New York City.

 

Aden Restaurant

24-42 Steinway St

Astoria, NY 11103

(718) 777-3131

New York: Yemen Cuisine (Matam Al-Wahda)

Yemen Cuisine (Matam Al-Wahda مطعم الوحدة) 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.

Yemen Cuisine

145 Court St

(between Atlantic Ave & Pacific St)

Brooklyn, NY 11201

Neighborhood: Cobble Hill

+1 (718) 624-9325

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