The Yemen Restaurant

Description:
The Yemen Restaurant, in Dokki, is like a no-frills diner for traditional Yemeni food. It's popular with expats and students as well as locals, and while it's often busy it's rarely full. There are a few gorgeous pictures of Yemen on the walls, a TV, and a bunch of simple tables covered with large sheets of paper. Why the paper as tablecloth? Because eating Yemeni food can get messy!

Each meal at the Yemen Restaurant starts with a complimentary bowl of hot, oily chicken stock soup, and comes with a mixed salad and a spicy, slightly watery tomato salsa. You can choose from dishes such as Mandi (mutton or chicken with rice), Fahsa (mutton stew), Haneed (a broiled slab of mutton) or a whole fish.

The food is heavy but extremely tasty, and most of the meat comes still on the bone so you need to tear it apart with your hands. Just discard the gristle and bones on the table - it'll all be crumpled up in the paper tablecloth at the end of the meal.

The Mandi is the house speciality at the Yemen Restaurant, and is particularly good. Also make sure to try the beans with egg, which have been cooked together in a metal pot to make a kind of pasta bake (without the pasta). The fish is... read more
The Yemen Restaurant, in Dokki, is like a no-frills diner for traditional Yemeni food. It's popular with expats and students as well as locals, and while it's often busy it's rarely full. There are a few gorgeous pictures of Yemen on the walls, a TV, and a bunch of simple tables covered with large sheets of paper. Why the paper as tablecloth? Because eating Yemeni food can get messy!

Each meal at the Yemen Restaurant starts with a complimentary bowl of hot, oily chicken stock soup, and comes with a mixed salad and a spicy, slightly watery tomato salsa. You can choose from dishes such as Mandi (mutton or chicken with rice), Fahsa (mutton stew), Haneed (a broiled slab of mutton) or a whole fish.

The food is heavy but extremely tasty, and most of the meat comes still on the bone so you need to tear it apart with your hands. Just discard the gristle and bones on the table - it'll all be crumpled up in the paper tablecloth at the end of the meal.

The Mandi is the house speciality at the Yemen Restaurant, and is particularly good. Also make sure to try the beans with egg, which have been cooked together in a metal pot to make a kind of pasta bake (without the pasta). The fish is also excellent, and the bread is divine, a little bit like super-sized parathas. The best thing to do is to buy a selection of dishes and share, though be warned the portions are pretty big.

Service at the Yemen restaurant is also good: friendly and reasonably efficient, though you often have to remind them about the drinks for some reason! (No alcohol served.) If you have over-ordered, which is easily done, the staff will wrap your food up for you to go.