Overall 4 stars!

Bab Al-Yemen was such a lovely place for our dinner date last night.

We arrived on time for our reservation and had to wait a few minutes for the host to address each group but once he saw that we had a reservation he seated us promptly. Even if it’s a weekday evening, I highly suggest a reservation. I wasn’t sure if we needed one, but the place was packed the whole time we were there, so definitely get one! I expect you can specify if you want to be seated on the authentic floor seating or at a table, but we were seated at a table (I didn’t make any special requests).

Menus are available on QR codes on the table where they provide pictures and descriptions of each dish. (I bet they have physical menus too, but not sure).

We ordered the hummus which came with a soft doughy pita bread. The hummus was fresh, creamy, and delicious and became more addicting as I continued to eat it. We ordered a Chicken Mandi, a slow roasted chicken with Yemeni spices on a bed of rice, and Fahsah, a shredded lamb stew served in a hot stone bowl. (It was supposed to come with freshly baked bread but we didn’t receive it). The lamb stew was so flavorful , it was my favorite of our savory dishes. My boyfriend loved the chicken. It was incredibly tender; the meat was falling right off the bones.

Additionally, “all dishes come with Marak (Broth) OR Salad, Sahaweq (Chili Sauce) and Rice”(quoted from their menu) but these were never to be seen. We ended up requesting an order of the tanoor bread, but I think if we received bread with the lamb stew, we wouldn’t have needed the tanoor. The tanoor is amazing, lots of crispy bubbles in the bread but also with some fluffy edges. Despite the missing items, we absolutely loved everything we ate and we still enjoyed our experience.

We also ordered the Yemeni cocktail which reminded me of a mango lassi but had additional yummy ingredients in it. I had seen it around the restaurant and wanted to taste it as well. I had to take it away from my partner so he didn’t make it disappear all at once!

For dessert, we ordered the arykah fattah. We were told it’s better to order dessert with the rest of the food, rather than ordering last like we are used to, because the dessert can take a while to make. When this arrived, my boyfriend literally did make this dish disappear in seconds, carving out his half and inhaling it down 😂 I insisted he have some of my half.

Overall the food is out of this world, but the service was slow with some potentially missing food items. They had two men working the front and they seemed like they had their hands full, but they were doing their best.