Ayat Bushwick — Restaurant in New York

Had a terrible experience at Ayat on Knickerbocker last night. We were excited to support a Palestinian restaurant, but when we arrived at our reservation time, it took an extra 25 minutes to get us seated. Once we were seated and received our appetizers (just one cold apps platter and one plate of falafel - took 30 minutes for those 2 to arrive!), we placed our main orders immediately after (just a lamb platter and mixed platter)… the mains took an entire hour to arrive. During this time, the waiter never returned to our table even though we tried to get his attention (and eventually tried to get the attention of other waiters out of desperation by looking at them and waving from our table (didn’t want to be rude and get up to walk over to them - that would normally be unnecessary, but at that point we should’ve)… it’s as if they intentionally tried not to look at the seating area because they seemed equally overwhelmed with online orders.

I understand restaurants get busy, but the fact that we didn’t order any drinks and had to wait over 2 and a half hours for our food forced us to leave without even considering dessert and the restaurant didn’t offer any apology for the lateness. We spent almost 3 hours at this restaurant, mostly just waiting around for food we regretted ordering due to the time it took, and we ended up leaving cash payment because we didn’t want to risk the waiter taking another 30 minutes to return with my card.

Moving onto the food - I’ve been to multiple Palestinian restaurants outside of NY, I’ve had incredible Palestinian food. The spices and warmth you’d typically find was lacking here in every plate. The falafel was so dry, bland, and hard - I do not recommend it. The cold mezze appetizer platter was fine (4/10) nothing to write home about. The mixed platter was just okay, unfortunately probably the best dish we got (6/10), and the lamb over rice masaf was missing the warm spices you’d find in this traditionally, and the lamb, though fall off the bone (which isn’t hard if you just cook it low and slow), didn’t taste like anything. The meat did not taste fresh. The only saving grace was the warm bread they kept bringing which was the only thing that held us over between the ridiculous wait times.

We were also seated right next to the restrooms, which gave us a direct view to the toilet.

Unfortunately I will not be returning, I can’t help but think there was a strong social media campaign for this restaurant, but it fell short on everything. I will be supporting other Palestinian restaurants in the area, I just cannot tolerate...

I went here for my birthday on 7/20 and had a terrible experience all around. I’ll start with what I did enjoy:

Atmosphere: The architecture of the restaurant was really pretty. We went on a Saturday evening and they had a live band playing downstairs. 8/10

Wait time: We made reservations for my birthday, so we were seated almost immediately. However, the wait time for the food was TERRIBLE and I cannot stress that enough. Server said the kitchen was “backed up” but they kept seating people!? We waited 2 hours for our entrees. At which point we weren’t even hungry anymore because we also ordered apps and drinks. Our server also lied, but we’ll get to that. Completely unacceptable. 1/10

Food: It all tasted rushed. We felt this way before the server even told us about how backed up the kitchen was. Palestinian food is usually flavorful, dynamic, pungent. Our food was bland and overly dry. 2/10

Service: Our server was truly terrible. I don’t even remember her name, but she had red curly hair. Forgetful, misinformed and disorganized. The food runner brought a hummus to our table that wasn’t even ours. 10 mins later, our server removes it and gives it to the correct table.

She was also deceitful. We asked her if the family platter (entree) would be enough for 4 people (all women, one being a teenage girl), and she rejected “Oh nooo, you’re definitely going to need to order for 5”. So we listened. We ordered an appetizer platter and drinks in the mean time. 2 hours later, she brings out a tray that feeds 10 people!!!! The table next to us even gave us strange looks because there was NO WAY 3 adults could eat all of that!!! We believe she intentionally lied to get us to spend more money. The food was wasted! We couldn’t even eat it! Considering that Palestinian children are being starved, this is completely unacceptable!!!!

We expressed to her that we were upset and she said “I’ll see what I can do for you.” She ended up comping $30 worth of drinks off the bill but even still, the damn bill was $430 for 4 adults!!!!! This is absolutely ridiculous.

I came here on my birthday to have a nice night and support a Palestinian business. I ended up leaving feeling taken advantage of. I will be contacting you all and I DO NOT want to speak to a manager. I want to be directed on how to get in touch with the owner, because there is just NO WAY that anyone could be proud of...

Do not eat here if you have an allergy. I’m so sad to write this review because I was so excited to rave and share about this resturant and what it represents. I came here for a surprise birthday for my boyfriend, I wrote on my reservation I had an allergy to walnuts and pecans specifically, I even called as well and when we got seated, I told the server before he rang in the food, as well as when the food was dropped. He reassured me it was just almonds (which I’m not allergic to). I was excited and started eating, and halfway through noticed my throat was very itchy and getting a lot tighter. As time went on I started to panic, so I went upstairs to ask him if it had walnuts, he told me “no just almonds”, he reassured me maybe 3 times but I told him there has to be something in there because I can tell I’m having an allergic reaction. Then he proceeded to tell me there was walnuts, and almost make it seem like he told me in the first place. I freaked out and asked the host if she had Benadryl which she didn’t and she offered to get some. I said it was fine and I ran across the street to buy some. If your someone who has an allergy, especially one with a throat reaction, you know it’s best not to eat or drink after because it can irritate it more. So I wasn’t able to eat the rest of the night, the server never once even said an “I’m sorry” or “are you ok” never checked up on me at all, never did anything about the situation. The host was sweet and asked me how I was doing maybe an hour later but that was it. They didn’t even bring out any sort of dessert when I specified it was a birthday, no manager ever came over to talk about the situation, and there was no care at all. As a server myself this upset me so much because of the negligence of the situation in so many different aspects. Overall such a poor experience and I’m so sad about it because I was so excited. I wish this place continued success but would not recommend to someone who is allergic...