Au Za'atar

We were the only group on a non-busy, off-peak time and they sat us at a table that’s in the way of a blasting wind bc they don’t close their doors when they move in and out of the restaurant. Told them multiple times to please close the door and the staff tells me he has no control over the door (?). We were literally the only customers at the time and it’s not busy at all. The least you can do is to close the door when you go in and out of the place you work at. I had to get up multiple times to close the door thinking it’s the last time it’s going to happen. Chicken was mediocre. Hummus was good. Wouldn’t go back again.

Great food and service! Ask for Zorbey when you arrive, he made our dinner experience one to remember!

We really enjoyed our visit. Service provided by staff (namely Zorbey) was excellent. Zorbey was very helpful and professional. We visited with a baby and Zorbey made the experience much easier by providing the perfect table to accommodate the stroller and sat us in a quieter location thank you. The food was absolutely delicious and the recommendations were excellent. Great experience with professional, attentive and enthusiastic service. Highly recommend!

The food was AMAZING and the overall atmosphere here was very laid back and friendly. Our server Yugg was very helpful in providing recommendations and explaining the menu. We loved it here and can’t recommend it enough!

Noisy place, very tight sitting. The food was good tho. It’s a cool place to go on a date, or go with people. Has a strong Arabic vibe to the spot. Just the noise I was a bit to much, I couldn’t hear my date much. But you should give this place a try no matter what. Good date spot if she never had Arabic food before.

Very tasty food! We ordered the table lamb shawarma. The portion is huge! (Enough for 4 ppl). The seasoned fries are amazing. The mezzo spreads are great too! Highly recommend

My friend and I were savages and ordered way too much food for 2 people and it didn't even all fit on the table (it was pretty small in my defense)! I'm from NJ where people don't even care if you're coughing, they just want paying customers. Here, the plates/utensils were wrapped in plasticand barriers set up between each table. Everything we ordered was delicious, especially the LAMB SHANK (which could use a bit more salt)! The drinks were also delicious. My only issue was that they forgot 2 items (out of 7) we ordered but we forgot to check whether they charged us or not. If your party is ordering a lot of food, just keep that in mind! Keep track of what you ordered and check the receipt at the end! This is by far the best Mediterranean restaurant I've been and will definitely be returning soon!

Definitely overrated. Absolutely no reason for it to be hyped up to what it was. Expect a 2 hour wait, to then not have the option of your protein choice (lamb or chicken).

Staff is inconoetent. Food is terrible. Clearly in this case 2 plus 2 is 5.

Arrogant manager
Short staffed restaurant
Air conditioners are out of order
Unpleasant smell
Fire hazard due to insufficient capacity of electricity

I was at this place last night. It was my second time and I’ve really enjoyed the first dinner I had there. The only reason that I came to this place was their table side shawarma which I’ve seen a video on Facebook. I read the reviews and decided to give it a try. I also invited two of my friends who were fasting which means they didn’t eat or drink anything approximately 17 hours. I personally went in to ask if they have table side shawarma Since it is the only reason that we went there. They said yes and I told them to arrange a place where we can have table side shawarma

We had our reservation and everything was going well until they got the table ready for us. We were waiting to order table side shawarma. The waitress came and told us that she could only bring the table side shawarma without the hot plates around it because of the electrical problems that they had. It may be very dangerous if they plug more than two electrical hot plates at the same time. I already saw 3-4 table sides shawarmas at the time she was explaining this to us but I’m not sure if they are plugged in or not. I assume nobody wants to eat cold shawarma but since I didn’t check the plugs I can’t make any comment on this.

When we told for the 3rd time that the table side shawarma is the one and only reason that we were there and we want to have it warm and cooked she told us they cannot provide it. We tried to stay calm and ask if it is possible to find a table anywhere that we can have cooked and warm shawarma. She went in to talk with her manager and in 10 seconds she came back saying that they have a table where we can use the plugs to keep our shawarma warm.

It was 9: 10 pm while we moved to that table. The place was overcrowded, the air conditioners were not working, especially the unpleasant smell was not a good match for a soft light theme where you cannot even see your fork.

We’ve already ordered shawarma and some hot appetizer since we are told that shawarma would be ready in 20 to 45 minutes.

At 9: 30 a new waitress brought our appetizer and she told due to some problems they cannot bring the shawarma in 1 hour. She said It may even take more time so if we want to order something else.

It was the 4rd time that we said we were just there to have shawarma. We explained that we are told shawarma would be ready in 20 to 45 minutes. After 20 minutes of waiting she was there saying that it won’t be ready even in 1 hour.

We said we cannot accept this situation and we insisted that we have already ordered to other waitress. She called the other waitress. When she came to our table she was nervous and kept saying that we should be understanding.

When we were talking with her an arrogant guy came up. He told her that she should leave and take care of other people in the middle of my sentence. He turned us and told WHATS THE MATTER WITH YOU GUYS. He was so insolent that other people around us got nervous.

We told him for the 5th time that we came to have shawarma. But he was denying anything that we say.

It was the moment that we decided to leave this place when he said DONT WASTE MY TIME

We were so hungry that we couldn’t argue with this arrogant guy and make this worse.

If you are planning to go this place think twice.

I realized that we were not the first people behaved this way. I really regret that I have not read the reviews here and other apps like yelp.

Update: after 2 years I tried this place again for brunch. Everything is salty that I could not taste other than salt. Do not recommend

Went for my birthday dinner last night with my wife and it was very pleasant! Everything was great and our waitress, Julia was great too! Great service and great food, hope to go back soon. We got the table side shwarma, spicy hummus, chocolate soufflé and milk pudding. Very tasty food too! Definitely recommended.

This place is garbage food I swear you will regret coming here only on videos on Instagram looks good but if you know the real Arabic food this place straight trash came here once never going back there again
Plus they charged me $290 for only four different meals meals I was shocked when I saw the bill and I had my friend with me I invited him I didn’t wanna argue about the price straight up trash straight up thieves I swear I didn’t even take the rest of the food home it was so bad

Robust and complex flavors, out of the ordinary, if you want a humos with a touch beyond the common, this is the place. A nice place, well located and with an excellent staff. The portions are generous and the prices above the ordinary, do not order with your eyes.

I’ve been a regular customer at au zaatar but it’s time to stop ordering from here. The managers at the east village branch are very rude and disrespectful. We called them to inquire about our door dash order status and after 2 hours of wait they tell us that the restaurant is busy and we can go ahead and cancel your order in a very rude way! Ridiculous! Another manager named honey is equally rude and does not know how to speak with their customers! My friends and I are never ordering from here again!

Great Lebanese Halal Middle eastern restaurant. Service was prompt and good. Food was delicious. We ordered the family style table shawarma and it was a lot of food. The fries were tasty.

The person I was with and I ordered food. Then 10 minutes later they brought the food for the person I was with. Then 20 minutes after he received his food I asked about the food I had ordered and they said "Did you order food? " I then had to tell them again what I had ordered. Once my food finally arrived the person I was with had long ago finished his food. Once I finally received my food the person who delivered it asked the man I was with what food he was waiting for even though he had already eaten a while meal and an appetizer. Why was there no concern when I was waiting for my food and had nothing in front of me? Why did I receive my food 45 minutes after I ordered? At the end of the meal they then even added an extra wine to my check. They did take that off, but it was just another thing on top of an overall negative experience. They were completely unapologetic for everything. If they had just said one sorry or had seemed to feel bad for the mistake the whole experience would have been different. However, this was not the case.

Despite the blaring loud music, and the laughably small portion sizes. The food was tasty, but very basic, and far too expensive.

Every time I come to NY, I have to pass by Au Za’atar and get the Shawarma Experience. It’s just so gooooood! Andres makes our experience way more enjoyable. He’s always very attentive and kind!

Honestly, the food is.amazing! There is no other way to describe the food. The chicken shawarma was cut in front of us! Overall, 5 stars

Had a great dinner here with a friend. We did the tableside chicken shwarma, and the portion was huge- definitely more for like 3-4 people, with just us two we left with two full boxes of food! The food was flavorful and really good. I love the hot sauce and toum that came on the side. I’ll definitely be returning!

This was the best Lebanese food I have ever tasted. Portions are big and the staff and ambiance is very nice.

The food was amazing as always, and Our server Louis was a total gentleman and took really good care of me and my partner. Can't wait to come back!

Came here for dinner and we had the mixed grill for two. Let's start with the good parts: the service, and the sauces specially the garlic sauce. The chicken tawouk is pretty good too
The failures: kafta is dry and the flavor is overpowered with cinnamon, the filet mignon was chewy and over cooked, the fries were cold and stale, the bread was a disaster with the smear of tomato. My high hopes came crashing down with these mishaps. Best wishes for the owners I hope they pay attention to these comments.

Amazing! Really authentic lebanese food. And the service is excellent. I took a group of 16 people there and they were blown away with the food and service. Bravo!

The food was so good and the place was so fun! Andres gave us amazing service, 10/10 would recommend as a must in NYC

The spit of Shawarma at the table was so much fun, and tasted as good as it looked. I like the crispy shavings of shawarma and there are plenty of crispy bits when you get the whole rotisserie to yourself. It was pricey though- $98 and fed about 3 people. The mound of fries fed the whole table, and were perfectly delicious.

The falafel was good. The mint lemonade was good. The sauces, especially the hot sauce, were great.

What kept me from giving a 5-star review was the bread. The pita served with the shawarma was thin, dry, brittle, and not freshly made. Coming from Chicago where all my fave Middle Eastern restaurants serve fresh, chewy, hot, house-made bread. This part was a letdown.

I'd def go back though. An overall good experience.

I highly recommend this restaurant, the words fails to describe how everything is good about that place. The ambiance the food the hospitality. I will always come here whenever I visit NYC

Au Za’atar served up an incredible meal and their staff are incredibly friendly and helpful. Their fries are.

Au Zaatar always has great food, great ambience and great service. Jose was kind and knowledgeable. Everything is delicious!

I don’t understand how this place doesn’t have only 5 stars reviews. Had an amazing dinner here, service was incredible (kudos to our waiter Rashid who was so nice and super attentive). Food was getting to the table in a timely matter and the taste… oh my GOD! SO FRESH! We had the Kibbeh for starters and I had the Filet Mignon Shish kebab and my partner had the amazing (pretty f*ing incredible) Dalaa Mahshi, worth every penny (big portion, could serve 2).
This restaurant is great. Please go