Yemen Café & Restaurant • 1986

On a storied stretch of Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn's Cobble Hill, this legendary spot slow-roasts its lamb haneeth for six hours until the meat falls off the bone with a whisper. Yemen Café became one of the first Yemeni restaurants in America when co-founders Muthana Nassir and Yahya Alsubai opened it in 1986, initially as a social club to help Yemeni immigrants find work and housing before evolving into a full-service destination for clay oven-baked bread, bubbling fahsah served in stone bowls, and complimentary marag lamb broth that greets every guest. Nearly four decades later, the fluorescent-lit dining room with its fish tank and scenic Yemen photographs still feels unchanged since day one—functioning as equal parts community center and dinner table where regulars linger over free sweet tea and plates piled high with tender, fragrant lamb.