Yemen Unity Restaurant

YEMEN 🇾🇪

Sometime shortly after a 2016 article, the owners of what used to be Yemen Cuisine in Cobble Hill decided to pack up the business and start fresh in Bay Ridge. As Atlantic Avenue seemed to be less and less conducive to operating a restaurant, 5th Avenue in their new neighborhood apparently has no limits for more and more Yemeni and other Middle Eastern-owned businesses.

This address has went through a few changes since the move, first keeping the name Yemen Cuisine in English, then changing to a sign only in Arabic that said Yemen Wahdah. Wahdah means "unity" in English, and it is this name that they seemed to have stuck with, offering both languages now on their sharp new sign.

Despite being old and frayed, the old laminated menus from Cobble Hill, still with the address from Court Street, have survived and prove the kitchen is still making everything the same way. Stickers have been placed over prices to offer new (higher) ones, but otherwise the feelings of their friendly hospitality are just as they always were.

You can still expect a warming bowl of maraq (not shown) to arrive before all the orders, along with a salad. While the greens are just greens, the soup is delicious; a cloudy broth full of lamb stock. Squeeze just a bit of lemon in to cut it, and your taste buds will jump into action.

As before, some orders offer the chance of attaching what they call "cultural platters" to an entree. The salta (above) is $10 on its own and comes with their freshly baked bread, but was added to our broiled fish (below) for a total of $18 for the pairing.

Possibly the most iconic dish in Yemeni cooking, salta is a mixture of vegetables and spices heavy with fenugreek. It comes in a clay bowl still boiling, so be careful while scooping it up with the bread.

Listed as a breakfast but available anytime of day or night, lahm baltamat (above) is a sauteed dish of lamb with tomatoes and onions. For $2 extra (and a total of $14), it can be served over a bed of hummus, which seems like a no-brainer.

The lamb saleg platter ($21, below, served with a cultural platter) is a meaty hunk of lamb that has been spiced and boiled. The bones slide right out of the tender non-fatty meat. On this occasion the table paired it with the fatta (below), bread which has been soaked in a lamb gravy. As it did four years ago, the dish brought up Thanksgiving reminiscing.

The last order of the evening was a chance to sample something completely new, chicken gelaph ($12, below). This was cooked not dissimilar to the lahm baltamat, with a reliance on tomatoes and spices for sauce.

It is tasty but does not quite have the impact as most of the rest of the meal, especially since the meat used is just tasteless white cuts. For your chicken needs, stick to the lovely roasts and kebabs they offer and prepare very well.

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BAY RIDGE Brooklyn

6726 5th Avenue

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