Café Yemen

Yemeni Food Is Finally Coming to the Seattle Area | Eater Seattle

"Tawfik Maudah says that for years, people have been asking him, “When are we gonna open a Yemeni restaurant? When are we gonna open a Yemeni restaurant?” — and the answer is next month, when he plans to open a full-service restaurant in a former Pizza Hut on Sunset Boulevard in Renton; it will be the second Yemeni restaurant in the Seattle metro area to open this year following a Kent business called Taste of Yemen. Maudah says this lack of places to get Yemeni food was a glaring need in Western Washington, noting that he worked in restaurants in Dallas, Chicago, and Detroit, and adding, “There is a big community that grew up eating Yemeni food. Ethiopians, Kenyans, Somalis... like Pakistanis, Indians, they love Yemeni food. Malaysians, Indonesians — there is a big presence of Yemeni food in those countries. So all these communities are here in Seattle, and they are longing for Yemeni food.” He describes Yemeni cuisine as centered around meat, which can be cooked in underground ovens or on rocks and is often served with sahawiq (a sauce with cilantro and garlic he likens to salsa but with more greens and tomatoes). The planned menu includes zurbian (a variety of biryani) and a lamb stew called fahsa; the kitchen will bake its own flatbread (Maudah hopes to get a brick oven eventually but the current space won't accommodate it). The restaurant will also serve breakfast with shakshuka and bean dishes known as fouul and fasoulia. All meat will be halal and organic, sourced from a farm in Oregon, and some portion of proceeds will be donated to people in Yemen, which has been embroiled in civil war for over a decade. Anticipating that the site will become a destination for East Africans and others longing for Yemeni food, Maudah plans to hire landscapers to turn a patch of vegetation into a garden, “so this will become a site that people will come to take pictures at and visit and enjoy.” “It will be a very unique experience,” he adds: “Like, ‘Oh, we’re going to that restaurant with the beautiful garden outside,’ or, ‘Oh, I like the flowers of this restaurant.’ Something that sticks in their minds.” Opening is slated for sometime in April; follow on Instagram for updates." - Harry Cheadle