Ayat Bay Ridge — Restaurant in New York

The food is okay but the service is not. Lots of the food including the 'bread' is handmade and feels authentic (but so are other places in the neighborhood) which I enjoy(ed). I used to appreciate this place when it just opened up and when the owners were there- it felt welcoming and never had issues with ordering and getting the food in a timely manner. Now that they have an obviously unexperienced wait staff, ordering there is exhausting. The first strike was during summer when I order a shawarma sandwich (nothing else) over the phone for my break 30 minutes ahead of time; when I showed up to pick-up, the order was not ready and the lady at the register actually printed out the order to give it to the cook. My guess is she never printed the receipt from the time she took my order over the phone. Mind you this was a weekday and the restaurant is empty... I walked away without the food. The last strike was on a Saturday night, another sandwich order waiting time is 7min over the phone then I was told 20minutes this would be ready. I show up and the food is not ready.... I wait outside, the lady at the register is actually apologetic and actually tells me that they are backed-up with food orders for people in the dining room; which I understand but is still not a good excuse: had I been an UberEats delivery guy, Im pretty sure that my one order would have been completed and handed off a fast as in the dining room.. but anyhow I decide to wait outside. 45minutes since I place my order, I decide to ask for a refund and cancel the order, when I got to the register my order is apparently sitting on the table with the lady at the register on the phone and the other 2 waitresses snacking behind the counter. YES. None of the waitresses snacking could have put out the effort to actually bring my delayed order to me; they were eating while the sandwich I had waited for 45minutes was sitting on the table. I believe service is the biggest dealbreaker when you live in a neighborhood like BayRidge with so many great middle-eastern food options. They have enough staff on-hand to service the clientele they have but what they lack is: care and structure. The wait staff does not seem to care more than doing the basics, on top of a lack of coordination with the kitchen. When you care, you accommodate your guests the best you can. Like I said there are many options in the neighborhood for good food AND great service. I have no particular reason to go back...

11/2020 Ordered chicken shawarmas, chicken kebab platters, and a falafel platter to go. The shawarmas were HUGE, each big enough for 2 ppl. Platters came with fluffy rice, small salad, hummus, and babaghanoush. Chicken kebabs smelled so good my cat came running over wanting a piece, which is a great sign. Everything was fresh, delicious, full of flavor, and filling for the whole family. 😋 Great prices and portions too!

EDIT 7/6/2021 Quality of food and service has went down in the past three months, thus changing my review from 5 stars to 2 stars. For the last three pick up orders, the food was never prepared or packed after arriving at the restaurant at the scheduled/given time my order was supposed to be ready. I, or a family member, had to wait a long time in the restaurant for each of those instances until the food was actually ready, and witnessed that our actual orders were not even made before pickup time, they were only made (like cooked, not even packaged for pickup yet) after we were present in the store each of those three instances (even when the restaurant had very few customers on one occasion).

On my last order, there was no flavor in the mixed shawarma platter (the seasonings were off) and the zaatar manaqish was so salty that no one could eat it and I had to throw it out. Portion sizes have changed as well and that's understandable, but that doesn't mean the quality of the food should go down. I, and other family members, have ordered several times from Ayat when it first opened and the food was really good and the service was amazing, even when it was extremely busy. Now, the food/service isn't as great as it was before, even when the restaurant has only a few customers. I hope that something is done to improve their food/service. One difference I noticed is that there is new staff and lack of communication, and from my observations and recent experiences from the past 3 months, the new staff needs a little more training/guidance/supervision to get Ayat back to where...

Was excited to try this place from the good reviews. The exterior is really pretty. The format of this restaurant is that you walk inside and order at the corner in the back right corner whether you are dining in or taking out. Then they will bring you your food. It is an open kitchen so you can see the chefs cook. Portions were huge. My friend’s beef kebab was over cooked but my mix shawarma was cooked well. The highlights would be the zahir app (fried cauliflower), pita bread and their dessert, kanafe.

However, although the food is good and their staff friendly, their service is lacking. We dined for lunch (a party of 2) and was the first of 3 tables occupied for lunch service and there was 2 ppl for front of the house. They forgot our limonana until we asked for it. When the app came, they failed to provide small plates until we were almost half way done. The utensils were plastic which was weird but who knows maybe covid? But they also failed to give us pita bread until our entrees came while the other tables received it before their entrees. Their dessert was served to us in a takeout foil container which I don’t understand why but it was good so I didn’t mind. We had lots of leftovers so they did provide (3) takeout containers but failed to give us a bag to take it out with us. I also don’t usually look at my receipt but when I did, I noticed they added a service fee which was whatever but then there was 15% added to our entrees which doesn’t even make sense since the beef kebab was $15 and my mix platter $12 and charged us the same for both…

So basically, just come for takeout and skip the dining in and please check...