Yemen Restaurant

After seeing the favorable reviews, I thought I would give this place a try.  It is in my neighborhood and I've been wanting to try new places that I haven't been to before.  I went in with a friend on a Tuesday night.  Upon entering, we both thought the place did not have any food smell, but smelled of cigarette smoke.  After standing awkwardly for a moment, a woman came to ask what we wanted.  Puzzled, we replied that we'd like to see a menu and have dinner.  She said they were only offering lamb and rice.  Being vegetarians, this was not an option.  Sadly, we left and went to another nearby establishment.

I went two times to it. I like it.
I ordered "Zerbian Lamb"  Baryani. and Mandi chicken. which was the best.

This is a fascinating little place.  Until now, the vast majority of the Middle Eastern food I've had has been Levantine (look it up if you don't know what that means),  I've had food from Iraq too, and it's really not all that much different from Levantine places.  I have never had food from the lower Arabian peninsula, which is obviously where Yemen is.  I found so many noticeable similarities between Somali and South Asian food, which makes sense given the historical trade routes between the regions, i.e. the Yemeni island Socotra is a Sanksrit name.  Anyway, enough of the History and Anthropology...

Food

Their biryani reminded me of what you get at Somali and (surprisingly) Afghan places: delicately seasoned with a hint of sweetness along with a huge hunk of meat on top. Don't get me wrong - I love my desi brethren and sistren, but it's sometimes nice to have biryani that doesn't smack you upside the head with spice!  

The menu has little diversity, but what is there is cooked well.  Though you'll have to eat around a fair amount of bone and gristle (don't be surprised - you're at an "ethnic" place), the lamb shanks are very tender and flavorful.  They had a lamb and bean dish ( variation of ful medammis?) that I have never seen before, and was basically a red bean stew cooked with chunks of lamb. It was executed well.  

There were some more Levantine items on the menu, i.e. falafel, hummus, Jerusalem salad, etc.  I couldn't tell whether these have become incorporated into Yemeni cuisine over time or are just offered because more folks in the US will be familiar with them.  In any event,  the hummus was top notch, and I'm a hummus snob to be sure.  We also had this cucumber yogurt salad appetizer that was like a cross between raita and tzadziki; it was amazing and added a cool richness to everything on the table.  They also had some interesting beverages, a spiced lemon-lime drink they called "lemonade," and a few unusual types of teas.  All in all I was impressed by the food.  Interestingly, this is the only Middle Eastern place in the area that I know of that's open for breakfast, so I might just have to hop over there to see how they serve up their eggs and falafel in the AM.

Ambience

The interior was surprisingly neat and clean; actually, it looks quite nice.  They just opened and obviously spent a little time thinking about or at least painting the place up.  It looks good.  Black and white Arabic (Yemeni?) movies play on a TV and there are some nice pictures of Yemen on the walls.  The only flaw was that the smoke detector needed a battery so we had to deal with regular chirping every minute or so. Meh, I've certainly eaten in more trying locations during my travels.

Service

The place was empty save for a group of Yemeni guys hanging outside.  The one waitress was very nice; she explained what the menu items were, which was actually quite necessary given that the many of the English entree descriptions are "chicken and rice," "meat and rice," etc.  She brought our food quickly, put pitchers of water on the tables and basically left us alone.  No complaints.