Yemen Café & Restaurant — Restaurant in New York

The front of Yemen Café has floor-to-ceiling windows through which you can watching passing pedestrians. Part of the right wall features a sculpture of buildings that look like gingerbread houses from Sana’a, the capital of Yemen. Televisions, encased in shutters on every wall, play videos of a Yemeni market. They are windows into the crowded streets of Yemen. Once you are seated, the server brings out appetizers, which come standard for each order. The appetizers include a bowl of lamb broth, clay oven baked bread, spicy salsa called sahawiq, and salad. The steaming hot lamb broth is flavored with cumin, turmeric, and garlic. A little squeeze from the lemon slices provided completes the soup’s flavor. The flatbread with browned air pockets is soft and chewy with crispy edges. Sahawiq is a spicy Arab version of the familiar pico de gallo. As someone who barely tolerates spice, I was surprised by my urge to keep eating it. The jalapeños, tomatoes, garlic, and cilantro create a flavorful sauce to eat with the bread. My mouth was on fire, but I continued to dip the warm bread into the tongue-burning sahawiq. The last appetizer is a simple salad of lettuce greens and red cabbage, topped with more sahawiq. Be sure to try the self-serve tea that is also included in every meal. The hot tea is in a large carafe, located toward the back of the restaurant by the payment counter. Beside it are small disposable cups to fill with the fragrant Yemeni tea, flavored with sugar, cloves, and cardamom. There also is a can of evaporated milk to add a creamier effect if desired. Additional appetizers can be purchased along with the entrees. There are a few different bean appetizers, including my favorite: fassolia, white kidney beans served with sautéed onions and tomatoes. The menu has over 26 traditional Yemeni dishes. The first entrée on the menu is saltah, which is the national dish of Yemen. Saltah, served boiling in a clay bowl, includes chunks of lamb in a stew of root vegetables with a tasty fenugreek froth called hilbeh. My favorite entrée is fahsah, a variant of the traditional saltah, also served boiling in a clay pot. Without vegetables, it is made with shredded lamb. Fahsah, creamy and thick, is extremely filling. One order of fahsah can easily feed two people. Yemenis eat fahsah, as they do most of their dishes, by dipping bread into it. Utensils...

⭐️☆☆☆☆ – One of the Worst Dining Experiences I’ve Had

I’ve heard so many great things about Yemen Cafe, but my visit was shockingly bad from start to finish. The moment I walked in, I was completely ignored by the staff—no greeting, no acknowledgment, even though the restaurant wasn’t even half full. It took over 15 minutes just to get someone to take our drink order.

When we finally got the menu, half the items we wanted to try were "unavailable," even though it was peak dinner hours. We settled for the lamb haneeth and chicken mandi, but both dishes arrived cold and tasted like they had been sitting out for hours. The lamb was dry and chewy, and the rice was undercooked and flavorless.

The service was unbelievably slow—our waiter disappeared for long stretches, and we had to flag down other staff just to get basic things like utensils and water refills. At one point, I saw our food sitting at the kitchen counter for nearly 10 minutes before anyone bothered to bring it to our table.

To make matters worse, the restaurant was filthy. The floors were sticky, the tables weren’t properly wiped down, and there were even flies buzzing around the food station. For a place that charges premium prices, I expected basic cleanliness, but it felt like no one cared.

The bread, which is usually a highlight at Middle Eastern restaurants, was stale and rubbery, as if it had been reheated multiple times. Even the sahawiq (spicy dip) lacked any real heat or freshness—it tasted like it came straight from a jar.

When we complained about the cold food, the server just shrugged and said, "That’s how it’s supposed to be." No offer to remake it, no apology, nothing. At that point, we just wanted to leave.

The final insult? The bill took another 20 minutes to arrive, and when it did, we were charged for items we never even received. When we pointed it out, the cashier acted annoyed and made us wait even longer for a corrected check.

I’ve eaten at many Yemeni restaurants, and this was by far the worst. The food was low quality, the service was nonexistent, and the overall experience was embarrassingly bad. Save your money and go somewhere that actually cares about customers.

Zero stars if I could....

I dont know where to start. Halal but it's done so beautifully.

We came earlyish in the afternoon, around 12 and sat down, asked the dude if they had coffee nope but they did have Yemen Tea and it was fresh hot BUT by far some of the best tea I've had. It's sweet and has a taste of clove. We gave our order and with an entree they bring out a soup and salad. I've heard of Murag (soup) from Hydrabadi's and always wonder what it'd taste like but it was a nice salty lamb broth with pepper, on a rainy day it helped warm me up along with the tea. The salad was nice but the spicy sauce was great.

Just when we thought we were going to get our food we were given a big over baked flat bread, fresh, hot, and a bit charred. We were told traditionally people would eat the bread with the tea and that's what we did. This is all before we even got the actual food we ordered.

2 Lamb Hanifa & 1 Mix Grill, this was well above what 4 male adults could eat but we ate it and I savored every bite. Plans for desert were canceled for me, the tea at the very end. Definitely will come here again. Hopefully it always stays in buisness and maybe even expands, everyone should be able...