Yemen Cafe & Restaurant- Downtown Brooklyn

Good food, can be busy at times. The complimentary tea take the cake.

Craving for some delicious Arab food & ended up going to this famous Yemen café on Atlantic Ave for a delicious plate of their popular Lamb dish which is my favorite & thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s the first time my husband had it & he enjoyed it too.
This is probably the 20^th time I came here & would certainly not be the last.

Excellent food, incredibly nice service, amazing authentic ambience, what more could you want? From the rich lamb soup that arrives at the table to start to the sweet spiced tea at the self-​serve table to end the meal, this was one of the most fun and delicious meals I’ve had in Brooklyn in quite a while. Portions are huge so divide the price by two for the per meal rate! Don’t miss the babaghanouj which is easy to overlook, it is as smoky and tart as any I’ve had and is absolutely delicious with the house bread.

Authentic Yemeni food. It took my taste buds back home which is something that is a truly amazing experience. The liver is the bomb. The lamb falls off the bone and the chicken is so tender. This place is a must go when you are in Brooklyn. When I land at JFK it’s straight to Yemen Café!

You can never go wrong with their lamb haneeth. We’re here often just to have the delightful lamb served with rice and vegetable stew. The meat is flavorful, soft and tender. I usually have issues with the smell of lamb, but not here. They know how to get it right.

Whenever the urge for Yemeni food kicks in, I’m glad and really thankful to everyone that recommended this place. It’s flavor heaven, and my wallet sings its praises every single visit.
There are two locations, so make sure you take this over the other one that is too deep into south of Brooklyn.
The décor is straight up Yemeni, with the flair and feel of a very local mid-​east kitchen from back home. Pure nostalgia for me, and their flavors are not easily forgotten.

Very unassuming place but delicious food, pleasant service, and great value! Came for lunch with hubby and our 1 year old. There are some steps to enter the restaurant, but once you enter plenty of room and high chairs to use. We had the lamb haneeth and the chicken stew. My favorites are the complimentary lamb broth they serve before the meal, as well as the fresh, clay oven baked bread that comes with most of the entrees. We had two large entrees, with enough leftovers to feed me for one more meal all for under $ 30.

Recently ate here and the food and portion is great. The rice is really good with the perfect amount of moisture and the lamb and chicken kebabs are great as well. You should try the specialty lamb, it was so tender it just falls apart so easily. I’d eat it everyday if they had delivery but unfortunately they only offer take out, which is quite the dilemma even though i live 2 blocks away lol.

Walked into this place when I was in brooklyn to see a friend. What an authentic place!!! Ambience, staff and food. So cordial. Lamb soup and house salad unlimited. With any entrée unlimited house baked bread. The bread was by far the best part of the meal. Also, their honey and bread dessert is amazing. Coming back

The classic yemini café, where you learn to share food. The spot is great. Food taste amazing. Very pricy though.

OK, this place may not look like much but the food is fantastic! If you like lamb, you will have your socks knocked off. The lamb soup was delicious, as were all the dinners. Perfect for a cold night.
I had the lamb shish kebob and my husband had the lamb Haneeth. We were both really impressed. The lamb Haneeth is slow roasted for maximum flavor and juiciness. We shared, so we were each able to enjoy everything. My friend also ordered the lamb Haneeth and couldn’t get over how good it was.
Service was not only incredibly good, but extremely friendly. The guys were all smiling, happy, eager to explain the menu and very helpful. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. We tried the dessert — didn’t get the name — but it was great, buttery and warm with honey and cream over something grainy.
Portions were huge and we took a lot home. If you’re on Atlantic Ave, try this place, it’s so much fun!

Delicious, authentic, very abundant portions.
The bread is sublime. Each lamb dish was excellent. Self-​serve herbal tea is always available from an urn.
This simple restaurant is filled with Yemeni folks, so it must be good.

This is one of my top 3 restaurants in the city and for the value you can’t beat it.
The staff is awesome and so friendly. The minute I walk in the door, they know my order and the soup (lamb based) is on the table with a good salad within 2 minutes.
The fresh bread comes out within minutes and the portion of the Lamb Haneen is giant and I never leave anything on my plate. The lamb is cooked low and slow and falls off the bone with the most rich flavor. I bring new people here all the time and people beg me to go back when they are in the city.
This is a place where I have never asked to see a menu. My Yemenese friends brought me here years ago and ordered me the lamb and I’ve never ordered anything else because it’s so good.
For after finner I order the Fatta which is very unhealthy but so good– chopped bread soaked in butter and honey and baked with sugar on top.
You can’t go wrong with Yeman Café, and I mean it!

Very authentic atmosphere and food. The food at this place was awesome. Lamb is the name of the game here, the babaganoush was complex and addicting — and the bread was incredible. Next time I want to try the hummus as an appetizer as well. Make sure you get yourself some of the complimentary tea, it’s sweet and strong and a perfect compliment to the down-​to-​earth and yummy food. Relaxed and family-​friendly atmosphere. Please also note the place is alcohol-​free. Reasonable prices for the quality and quantity. When you order, ask to see the size of the dishes, they are large portions.

My husbands choice to celebrate his birthday. The soup was delicious. Overall the food was very good and huge portions.

Authentic, classic and delicious. Order off of the secret menu on Friday for chef specialties. Best part: you’re encouraged to enjoy all of this with your (right) hands!

Great food. Love their soup and salad before the meal!

Basic run of the mill southern-​ish yemenite food. It’s great. If you want to experience southern yemen at it’s finest, wait until you’re seriously sick and go in for their brothy soup. It’ll help big time.

Excellent lamb haneth, excellent bread, and nice place. Not fancy tho if ur looking for class! Also it’s really affordable!

Amazing food, great quality, at an unbelievable price. This was my wife and i’s happy Christmas surprise with most other places closed. The place was packed yet we only waited a few minutes. We had their lamb house specialty made for 5 hours in a slow cooker… mmm mmm good. This also came with traditional flat bread, soup, and salad. This was enough for two to share. Great choice when your craving middle eastern.

I’m allergic to MSG. I WILL NEVER EAT IN THEIR AGAIN!!! Those who want to know the secret into their tender meat. It’s the MSG.

This is a 5 star place — I am giving a low rating to keep it under the radar and prevent foodies from mobbing my neighborhood favorite. Stay away Unilocal hordes

Although I don’t like busy and crowded places, this is one of my favorite places that force me to come to even on weekend days. Food are delicious and the staff are outstanding, super-​nice!
Haneeth and Fattah are my favorites here!

Lamb Hanith is outstanding. Rich flavour, melt off the bone tender.
Their lamb soup is also excellent. Warms you up on a cold day with a big spicy flavour punch.

I simply can not see why this place is so highly rated. The place was packed when we got there so we had to wait for a table. Once we were seated in the tight, dingy looking dining room, the food right away started coming out. The meal started promising, a wonderful lamb soup and a nice salad. Then, as quickly as our orders were taken, our entrees came out. Chicken haneeth was over cooked, dry and not seasoned at all. Even worse, chicken agda had absolutely no flavor what so ever. Could’ve benefitted from being served with a more fragrant basmati rice instead of the plain white rice they served with it. Service was quick and friendly. Prices are fair for the large portions you’re given. I just wish the food wasn’t so bland. I do not recommend this place at all.

I don’t usually use Unilocal much, but I’d feel ungrateful for enjoying their food so much if I didn’t give them a glowing review. This is some of the best food I’ve ever had.
Let me walk you through how your visit should go.
1.) You come in and get seated. The first thing you should do is get a cup of amazing sweet tea up front. It’s self-​service and free. They have some evaporated milk you can add if you feel like it, and they’ll bring you some lemon slices, I’d definitely recommend squeezing some lemon into the tea.
2.) They bring out a house salad and lamb broth, also free. The house salad is okay but nothing special. The lamb broth is absolutely fantastic, especially when you add a lot (and I do mean a lot) of ground black pepper to the broth. They also bring out a sort of salsa that I really don’t know what to do with. It’s good, but I’m not entirely sure if you’re supposed to eat it with the salad, the soup or the bread that you’ll be getting with your appetizer. I generally just put it on/​into everything.
3.) Now, there’s the agonizing choice. To appetize or not to appetize? You don’t really *need* an appetizer, the entrée is plenty of food, especially after the broth and the salad. But a lot of the appetizers are fantastic, and almost all of them come with limitless free bread hot out of a tandoor, which is absolutely amazing, too. Ideally, you’re here with several people and can share an appetizer. If you’re alone, I’ve gone several ways– I’ve ordered an appetizer and an entrée if I’m starving, and as a large guy with a healthy appetite I can generally just barely finish both without bursting, I’ve just gone with an entrée, and I’ve even just gone with an appetizer and not eaten an entrée at all. All valid options.
If you do get an appetizer, the lamb liver (Kibdah) and the hummus with chicken or lamb are stand-​outs, but everything is good. The fatah with cream is also fantastic but more of a dessert thing, really. The appetizers are fine to share between two people or maybe even three– they’re like small-​ish entrees in terms of size, and, again, come with limitless amazing bread.
4.) Whatever you do, you should get the Lamb Haneeth as your main dish. That’s not to say the other stuff isn’t fantastic, it is, but it’s their signature dish, it’s great, and there’s really no reason not to get it if this is your first visit. You can experiment with other stuff next time.
It’s very simple– rice with a little bit of sauce and lamb on the bone– but really, it’s so tender it will fall off the bone if you just look at it too intensely. Just peel everything off the bone– the cartilage and fat, too, and if you’re lucky enough to get a bone that’s easy to crack so you can get the bone marrow out, do that. Just mix everything together so the rice can absorb the juices and fat from the lamb, and dig in. Would also be fine to share between two people, although at that point I’d probably share an appetizer as well unless you’re both not particularly hungry.
5.) I severely doubt you will have any room for more food at this point. If for some reason you do (maybe you just got an appetizer and skipped the entrée, or shared the entrée and no appetizer?), the fatah with cream (chopped bread sauteed with honey and topped with sweet cream and poppy seeds) is fantastic for dessert.
Just enjoy and people watch during your dinner and I’m sure you’ll be planning your return visit before you even leave.

GREAT FOOD!
I used to live around the area and can’t believe I hadn’t try this place before. We went in by chance, just really hungry before going grocery shopping in Trader Joe’s. So we decided to go into this place and ordered from the lunch menu.
OMG. The food is amazing; bread is warm and just made out of the oven; portions are plentiful.
The only reasons I’m not giving this 5 stars are:
— Place needs better decoration (especially chairs and tables)
— Customer Service needs to be faster

One of the few places I would give a 5, but if you don’t mind a hole in the wall and no frill «service» it doesn’t get much better. The food was simple, unpretentious and spectacular.
I had the Lamb Haneeth and the Saltah (vegetable and lamb broth stew). The lamb was perfectly cooked. It was fatty, salty and fell right off the bone. No knife necessary. The rice was fragrant and perfectly cooked and complimented with a meet and vegetable sauce.
The Saltah was flavorful with a great spice blend but you could still taste the vegetables and it wasn’t too salty. The bread was amazing and perfect for sopping up the stew. Also definitely try the sweet honey tea.
You’re not really assigned a specific waiter but anyone can help. They don’t really speak to you but they’re not rude and get the job done which is more than ok with me. I left with a big smile on my face.

The positives– They give you a ridiculous amount of food to eat here. Too much. For starters they give you broth. It had a hint of curry. The hummus & flatbread is very tasty. Salad is ok. The main course was chicken salta & chicken kabobs. The kabobs were burnt. The vegetable sauce for the salta was unrecognizable & very salty. The dishes didn’t have a distinctive taste. Everything tastes the same.

While there, we saw a newly wedded bride in a simple traditional wedding dress having lunch with the family… Soooo cute… That was nice to see and the place is big enough for a big group of friends to gather.
The food was well seasoned… You get complimentary soup and salad before your meal… The bread is baked fresh and arrives super warm to the table which makes the appetizers more enjoyable. You can taste the seasoning in the food, got too full to order desserts or check for some but I’m sure it’s traditional and good… :)

This place is no joke AUTHENTIUC yemen food.
1. Enter with an open mind if you are closed minded culturally you will not like the enviornment. Lots of people eating there from the middle east, and its completely awesome. It onlty adds to the great feel. Just walk in and find a clean table. Don’t stand by the door confused like we did, just make sure its okay with the staff.
2. Help yourself to all the tea your little heart deisres with some evaporated milk!
The tea is just plain awesome.
3. Hummus straight ADDICTING! They also bring these huge oversized breads that they bake in a special oven to your table. The best part they keep asking if you want more (no they dont charge).
4.The staff is so so nice and help explain what you are ordering if you aren’t familiar with food from Yemen.
5. Portions are big so i split an appetizer (hummus) with my friend and the chicken salta. The chicken was soft and great but nothing super special I ordered the Salta which was interesting it is a must try.
Overall awesome place. very authentic yemen food. Not a romantic date spot but its tottaly somewhere to chill out relax and eat some authentic Yemen food!

Wow!!! Wow!!! Wow!!! I walked in and I wasn’t sure what to expect! There is open seating so grab a seat and prepare for a ride! This place is like beautiful organized chaos!!! (If there is such a thing)
At first we were almost afraid to order and weren’t sure if we had to go up to the counter and order or if someone would come by… Thankfully someone came by and took our order… Since I’m vegetarian the choice was easy for me… (There is only one vegetarian option) My boyfriend had the more difficult task of navigating this almost confusing menu… He ended up getting the chicken skewers… Everything seemed to have lamb in it and he wasn’t feeling too adventurous.
So we order and brace ourselves for what was to come next… We were afraid as we looked at other tables piled with food and men scarfing down whole green onion stalks…
So our bread, lamb soup and salad, oh and hummus we got that too! all arrives and we dig in… I had a sip of the lamb soup just for the sake of being able to Unilocal about it and I’m not ashamed to say I nearly licked the little bowl clean… (There were no actual lamb pieces in it… I am hoping it’s only made with the bones but either way… I ate it all and I am not ashamed) and the bread!!! Lord dipping that bread in the lamb broth must be equivalent to Oreos and milk in their country because goodness it was GOOD!
The salad had the most amazing vinegary dressing I’ve ever had… I ate that all too… Then comes dinner… I definitely saw Jesus when I tasted the basmati rice… I wanted to go in the back and kiss whoever made it!!! Yes it was that good!!!
I could continue to ramble on and on but I think Unilocal about to cut me off… One more note… As if dinner wasn’t good enough the sweetest boy comes over to us and he is getting what seems to be tea… He then looks at us as if we are clueless which we were and he says… You guys haven’t tried the tea??? No… We haven’t. he proceeded to bring us cups because as he professes it’s the BEST! He wasn’t lying it’s better than chai tea, delicate and the perfect amount of sweetness to end the meal and its complimentary… I’ve been dreaming of the basmati and tea since coming here… Now stop reading this and go eat here!

I don’t usually give 5 stars, unless the food is absolutely MINDBLOWING! And yes, this place achieves that job!
Best of Brooklyn’s Hidden Gems! Mind you, it doesn’t look like much from the outside or inside, but the food will take you to another level of having an foodgasmic experience! Granted it was my first time having Yemeni Food, I felt like no stranger as it felt quite similar to my own cultural food.
My in-​laws told me to pick a place I wanted to go to for my birthday dinner, being that they only eat halal, I found a few nice places in Brooklyn, but when I came across Yemen Café and saw the pictures, I could not simply resist and had to come here.
We came here on a Friday night around 9pm and the place was packed, however we were seated promptly. We started off with the Babagnoush as appetizer, the soup, bread and salad, all of which came along with the meal.
The bread is huge and they will give you more upon asking for it. Tandoor baked, soft and delicious! The soup, has a distinct taste, seemed to be more of a broth from the meat, either way I loved it! Add some lemon and some of that spicy sauce they give along with the bread and Bam! The Babaganoush was also pretty good, but I’d probably opt for a different appetizer the next time!
For entrée, all five of us decided to go with their World Famous «Haneeth». Lamb simmered in Yemeni spices for 5hrs, atop of flavored, Yemeni Rice (similar for Pualo/​Biryani), with some veggie gravy on it. first bite into the lamb, OMG! This is SOO GOOD!!! Tender, soft, flavorful, juicy, falling off the bone, fatty, cholesterol city Yumminess that melts into your mouth! At about $ 21 bucks for a plate, this is well worth it!
The service was not bad, it started off a bit aloof, but as soon as we let them know we were waiting, it went well from there on. Our waiter was very friendly, even offered us their classic Yemeni Tea at the end of our meal. Everyone in my family enjoyed the tea, except me, guess because It was too strong for my taste (cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, etc).
All I can say is that I simply can’t wait to return and tell ppl about this place. This is a MUST, if you love Lamb!!! With all that being said, I see no reason why this place deserves anything below a 5 star rating, because really, it is as good as it gets!

Location: In the center of the block off Atlantic Ave in Borough Hall /​Downtown Brooklyn area.
Service: Yemen Café came a long way! Their food has always been good but their service was grimy! They were notorious for throwing your food on the table and walking away but they stepped up their service game 100%. Finally they provide good service. I guess they realized that more american people were coming and they focus on service.
Food: This is traditional Arabic food like soups, breads, rice dishes. If you are coming here please get «Fahsa» dish which a slow roasted lamb broth with shredded lamb. Its eaten with «Malooga» which is a traditional Yemeni style flat bread. Fahsa is very hearty and comes in a large portion. If your eating with a group, this could feed 2 – 4 people depending how hungry you are.
Another food which is a must try is the Haneeth!!! Haneeth is slow roasted meat like chicken or lamb. Check out my pics to see the chicken and lamb. Its sooooooo juicy and falls off the bone. The rice is mediocre but who cares, you are coming for the meat.
Honorable mention: Hummus here is good and worth a try.
The only down fall is that there is no dessert. However there are a few Arabic stores nearby where you can pick up something sweet.

With a frame of reference I can safely say that IT IS BY FAR THE BEST FOOD AWAY FROM HOME. A low-​key and very simple restaurant.
I travel from Philly just to tame my to die for Chicken Zorbian craving. Unbelievable!
Four and half Unilocal

On the very last day of my Dining Room class, we went to eat at a little, Middle Eastern restaurant located in the heart of Cobble Hill/​Brooklyn Heights in Brooklyn.
I’ve never really had Middle Eastern cuisine before so this was very new and different to me. There was 14 – 16 of us, so we had a family style for appetizers and salad and we ordered our own entrees.
We were each given a bowl of lamb soup which I thought was sauce for the pita bread at first, but I suppose you can drink it as a soup or use it as a dip too. Any way, it had the right amount of seasoning with just a hint of spice and tasted similarly to curry. The pita bread that was given to us is similar to Roti Canai. It had a bit of a crunch to it and tastes really well when dipped in the lamb soup. The waiters also gave us a plate of hummus and Baba ghanoush which I absolutely loved because there’s eggplant in it. It complements well with the pita bread.
The Lamb Haneeth is one of the most popular dishes at Yemen Café and many of my classmates ordered it as did I. The lamb is slow roasted and served with mixed vegetables and basmati rice. I was really excited in trying this dish since it’s one of the popular dishes and I love lamb! Everything was on point and seasoned just perfectly! The lamb was so moist and the meat had a nice shade of pinkness to it, really light, moist, and the best part was it fell right off the bone. This dish was really super filling!
This was a nice experience. It was different, but I liked it. I think I would give Middle Eastern food. Now that I have tried Middle Eastern food, it makes me wonder how Australian or even Portuguese food would taste like.