Bab Al-Yemen — Restaurant in Fatih

I really wanted to love this place. I walked in. No one seated me. I walked around and found a table. Then I waited for a menu. There were staff around but all ignored me. I thought that maybe they don't want westerners in here. Finally a man put a menu on the table and left. I don't speak Arabic, but I do speak Turkish. The waiter went to talk to his friend at another table. I waited 5 minutes and no one came to take my order. I finally got the attention of another customer who alerted the waiter who disengaged from his friends. He was nonverbally apologetic. The food had potential, but did not live up to expectation. The soup was not made from scratch but was good. No Arab spices.😞. The chicken had potential as I could taste the subtlety of an interesting marinade, but it was so dry that I had to keep drinking water to swallow. The chicken was covered completely by a mountain of "saffron" rice which was also very dry. Two people could have eaten this. The star was the bread. Excellent, but with dry chicken and dry rice, it was probably not my best choice. The Yemen tea at the end was also great. Maybe I was there on an off day, or maybe I was there too late at night, (9pm). Two really good points:1. The food was inexpensive. Under $10U.S. 2. Though the service was terrible and I again had to find some help to pay my bill, I did not have the feeling like I was going to be cheated on my bill. ...

I ordered one soup one main dish. DON’T DO THIS IF YOU ARE ALONE!! The quantity is really beyond my capability. The main course is called “mandi” or something. The lamb is “golden” color and cook very well, quite soft. If you order it I recommend you ask for some onions. The soup is highly recommended. It comes with a pot, only lamb meat and soup, nothing else. The quantity of lamb from soup is surprising me. The soup is so delicious. In the end, the staff see me quite full offer me a free tea. Frankly speaking this is the first time I feel real kindness from...

We tried 3 dishes: Kabsa, Mandi and Madfoon and they were good but Kabsa was really tasty. The chicken was really well-made. Two types of sauce were delivered with Tomatoes. The place was clean and the service was good. The amount of chicken and rice served in each dish was really big and probably enough for 1 adult and 1 child. Regarding the price, it was a bit higher than expected...maybe because the meal was really big. I recommend this restaurant. P.S: this is the first time I've tried the...