Au Za’atar
“We ordered 3 mezzes – baba ghanoush, hummus with lamb, and the fried cauliflower.”
“The classic crostini and fig crostini are also a few favorites, again – super delicious.”
“There's good outdoor seating in the Sun on Ave A if you like eating outside.”
Au Za’atar
Takes Reservations: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Outdoor Seating: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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Very good Arabic food! A little on the pricier side and decent portions. Excellent service as well!
For the appetizers we had the Baba ghanoush, Fattoush, and Labne. The baba ghanoush was a little on the sour side but the fattoush and the Labne was delicious. The pita is absolutely amazing, comes out warm and super soft. They also will refill your plate, so dip away! For the main we had the beef shawarma and the chicken shawarma. The spices on both the chicken and beef are very potent, it masks the taste of the meat itself but the white yogurt with slight garlic seasoning balances out the palette really well along with the rice too. The meats were cooked really well though, just tender and not too dry or overcooked. For the dessert we got the kenafeh which was a very interesting dish… It's basically sweet cheese. A little too much sweetness for me but my friends liked it and apparently it's how it's suppose to taste like.
Overall great food, pretty authentic and great atmosphere and interior decor. I will be back to try the lamb chops, it looked delicious when it was being brought out for the table next to us.
We've had brunch and dinner here and both times liked the place. For brunch, they have a great Pre Fixe deal for $18, for which you get an entree and complementary drinks, INCLUDING belinis, beers, OJ, or coffee!
Or they also provide you the full menu during brunch and dinner. You cannot come to Au Za'atar without trying their mezzes. I recommend the following dishes
– fried cauliflower
Mezze size. The veggie is marinated and fried to perfection. it's crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside. If you like Golbi Pakora from Indian restaurants, this dish will NOT disappoint!
– Baba ganoush
a stronger than usual sesame taste, to my liking.
My friends had the chicken shwarma and lamb kabob, and both were very flavorful. They also serve ***aioli mayonnaise*** for your fries!!! #win
What keeps me from giving 5 stars is the service… people there were freindly indeed, but they are not vigilant/observant enough for a NYC restaurant… after all, we ain't got no time to wait one New York minute for them to bring the check
If you are just ordering out, however, this place is a solid choice
This place is incredible and I was very lucky to stumble upon it. After walking around the east village in the pouring rain for 20 minutes trying to find somewhere to eat, my friend and I "settled" on this place. Little did we know, we were about to be blown away. I liked it the second I walked in, friendly atmosphere with nice decor. The service was incredible. The waitress had messed up my wine order originally and gave us hummus on the house to make up for it which was just so kind. The hummus was better than any hummus I've ever had in my life, and the waitress was really helpful and tried to make sure we were content at all times(which we were!)
I can't describe how great the food was here. I had eaten at an extremely expensive Mediterranean restaurant a few weeks prior and this place BLOWS it away. Prices are fantastic for how high quality the food is. I ordered the halloumi salad thinking it would just be a basic house salad. It was out of this world. Best salad I've ever had in my life.
Overall, this place is very special and deserves more credit. I will definitely be coming back here soon and I highly recommend it to everybody. The food is unique, delicious, and memorable. I cannot wait to come back!
Another delicious surprise in the east village. We went all veg that nice and didn't miss the meat one bit. Try the spicy hummus, okra and cauliflower. All prepared perfectly. Great wine selection as well!
I was impressed with Au Za'atar! Everything was delicious. Their pita was exceptional! Super doughy and soft, pillowy but still with a slight chew. Yumm. They gave us a free pita with za'atar and labneh and it was outstanding. The meats were great too. The moussaka was a weaker point – less flavor, and with less eggplant texture than most.
The one thing to note is that the portions are a little on the small side for the prices, I thought. For that reason, I'm not in a rush to return, but if I was in the area craving Mediterranean, I would definitely consider it!
This is a great place to come with a small group and share some delicious mezzes. Au' Za'atar has a nice laid back atmosphere. We were seated immediately even though our entire party was not there. I hate it when they make you wait for everyone.
The menu consists of a large number of mezzes and of course some main dishes, but the mezzes are the way to go. That is unless you want to share a main dish, which is what we did. There were six of us and we broke into groups of three. There was the carnivore group and the herbivore group. My group ordered a mixed grilled platter. This consisted of the char grilled chicken, lamb and kafta kabobs. We then added three Mezzes on top of that to share. We got a blend of five cheeses in phyllo, the basturma and cheese cigars, and the humus. This was the perfect amount of food for the three of us. Everything came in multiples of three, which made it really easy to split among the three of us. Each of the dishes we had all had some very nice flavor to them. I left pleasantly full.
Friendly place with decent but not great service. Food was not bad, though limited in scope and not particularly interesting. My dish, for instance, featured a yogurt sauce that had a slightly gritty texture though the lamb was well cooked. Fries were tasty and well seasoned but not crispy by any stretch. Some interesting selections of Middle Eastern wines.
Great place for a group dinner. Our reservations were pretty early for a Friday night so we were seated right away. The first server we had only lasted through the wine selection (maybe she was just for drinks) but she was friendly and helpful with suggestions when our first choice was actually out of stock. Our second server was also helpful with suggestions since the menu is huge! Two pages full of main dishes, sides and mezzes, plus a separate sheet of daily specials. We had a hard time choosing but we ended up getting a whole bunch of mezzes to split.
The food came out quick and everything was hot, fresh and delicious. Standouts were the moussaka, fattoush salad and spicy hummus. I'm not a huge fan of halloumi but my friends liked it. The fried cauliflower could have had more pieces but it tasted good. Others had the mixed grill and loved it. Perfect amount of pieces of each various meat so it wasn't awkward splitting it. The labne was really really good and they gave us plenty of bread to go around.
The ambiance is cute – warm wood, nice lighting – lively atmosphere. It's a good size space but it got crowded as the night went on. Towards the end our of meal, our waiter was rushing to get us out (specifically saying "we need your table"), we were all taken aback by this because we weren't purposely overstaying. We had to finish up the wine and pay so that was a bit uncalled for. Besides that, it was a great dining experience.