I love to discover delicious food in unexpected locations—quiet and plain storefronts that are bustling with warm conviviality inside. For nearly the last decade, in a modest shopping center near the corner of Cleveland Avenue and Morse Road, Chef Najmeddine Gabbar has been reliably turning out the dishes from his home country in the appropriately named Yemeni Restaurant, which has quietly earned a reputation for its wonderfully comforting fare.
In fact, Columbus Monthly named chef Gabbar a “Tastemaker” in 2022 for his pleasantly spiced and melting lamb dishes, and for bringing three Qamaria Yemeni Coffee shops to town. These paved the way a flurry of new Yemeni cafés around town in recent years, including Marib, chef Gabbar’s newest coffee house, which is set to open on Schrock Road this spring.
At Yemeni Restaurant, welcoming kindness is as important to the dining experience as the restaurant’s spice blends and hearty dishes. On one chilly night, the staff insisted on helping us schlep our carry-out bags to the car, plying us with to-go cups of warm, sweet tea for our drive home. On another trip on a humming Sunday night, we were greeted with a “welcome back,” by our host, who in the same breath said, “see you next week,” to some exiting regulars.
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For the unfamiliar, Yemeni cuisine finds commonality with Middle Eastern and South Asian traditions, with offerings like biryani, tandoori and hummus peppering Yemeni’s menu. But there are also plenty of dishes that you won’t see at many other area restaurants. Because the translations are often vague, it’s useful to call on the aforementioned friendly servers to help you navigate all the dishes and flavors. Ordering a combo tray with some of Yemeni’s more popular entreés takes out some of the guesswork (but doesn’t have any cost benefit to ordering a la carte).
Guests are welcomed to Yemeni with a small cup of complementary lamb consomme infused with cloves, cinnamon and cardamom—the flavorful broth is made from the meat’s long, slow braise. While lamb is clearly dominant here, there are just as many chicken entrees and even a few vegetarian and fish options too.
What’s on the menu at Yemeni Restaurant?
I start every visit to Yemeni Restaurant with the hummus with lamb appetizer ($13.99), a traditional puree of garbanzo beans and tahini topped with spiced bits of sauteed lamb. I love its contrasts: smooth and textured, vegetal and meaty, earthy and smoky. I especially love scooping the dip with torn pieces of Yemeni’s warm, pillowy and charred house-made flatbread. Truly, this dish is the driving reason I eat at this restaurant and is one of my all-time favorites in Columbus. It’s a terrific lunch paired with the special house salad ($5.99), which features chilled strips of romaine lettuce, chopped cucumber and tomatoes dressed in a zesty vinaigrette that’s loaded with dark maroon flecks of tart sumac.
Leading Yemeni’s entrée section is the much-celebrated lamb haneeth ($24.99), pieces of slow-roasted, bone-in lamb richly spiced with cinnamon, clove, cumin, turmeric and saffron, served over a colorful pilaf of some of the longest grains of rice around. For an additional $2 charge, you can upgrade to flavored rice that’s studded with pieces of smoky meat and vegetables. If lamb is not to your liking, Yemeni also offers a chicken haneeth ($14.99) prepared in the same way. In fact, most of Yemeni’s entrées can be made with either chicken or lamb.
Another star entrée at Yemeni is the fahsa (chicken $13.99 or lamb $24.99), a piping-hot stew of shredded meat in a warmly-spiced tomato sauce thickened by pureed potatoes. It dramatically arrives at the table in a dark clay pot that keeps the stew bubbling throughout the meal. It’s hard to wait for the fahsa to cool to a reasonable temperature before digging in with pieces of khubz Arabi, Yemeni’s tandoori-cooked flatbread.
Also appealing is chicken biryani ($14.99) with its fall-off-the-bone pieces of red tandoori-cooked chicken, so tender that no knives are needed. Chicken kabsa ($14.99) uses similar spices and the same tandoori pieces but adds tomato sauce for a slight twist.
Vegetarian options such as foul stew ($11.99), a rustic puree of fava beans, or shakshouka ($11.99), eggs scrambled with tomatoes and onions, curiously appear on the breakfast menu, though the restaurant only opens at lunch time.
There is no alcohol on Yemeni’s menu, but there are a variety of teas, sodas and yogurt drinks to explore. I enjoyed the lemon mint beverage ($5.99), a bright green concoction served in a Mason jar, which was both incredibly puckery and sweet. Akin to a Mexican agua fresca, this drink provided a great contrast to the richly spiced meat dishes.
Yemeni Restaurant delivers rich comfort in its dishes that are generously spiced, but not spicy. (Heat at Yemeni comes in the form of a house-made hot sauce—a herby blend reminiscent of a thin Mexican pico de gallo where the tomato water carries the heat of chiles.) With welcoming staff and cozy fabric-laden decor, Yemeni Restaurant is a warm and unexpected treat for all who visit.
This story appeared in the May 2025 issue of Columbus Monthly. Subscribe here.
This article originally appeared on Columbus Monthly: Review: Spices to Savor at Yemeni Restaurant
Reporting by Amy Bodiker Baskes / Columbus Monthly
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