How amazing does a Mediterranean vacation sound right now? The sun, the water and obviously the food. There is something so amazing about Mediterranean food, its light and filling at the same time. If you can’t afford to hop on a flight for a Mediterranean getaway then visit the Lebanese/Middle Eastern restaurant, Au Za’atar, in the East Village.

Steph and I decided to hit this place up on a hot summer’s day after work. You walk in to a rustic, romantic dining room with a family based atmosphere. We could not wait to dive into our dinner since we were starvingggg. We decided to order two Mediterranean cheeses for our appetizer: halloumi which is a grilled Cypriot cheese served with tomatoes and cucumber and a labne which is a classic Levantine cream cheese served with extra virgin olive oil. Both came with HOT pita bread (OF COURSE).

Let me start by saying that I would have given Au Za’atar a perfect 5 based on the service alone. We basically had bottomless pita bread. Anytime our server saw that we were out she would bring us some more and it was nice and hot EVERY. TIME. If you’re a carb obsessed freak like me then this will make your day. The halloumi was delicious but surprisingly for me the labne was the star. Please don’t revoke my New Yorker card but I’m not a huge fan of cream cheese but this was ELITE. We were very close to licking the plate clean.

For our main course we decided to order the mixed grill platter that had chicken, fillet mignon, chicken kafta and beef kafta kebab served with fries.

Is it a lot of food? Well yes, its the family platter. Did we eat it all? YES. Like Gordon Ramsay would say “that was bloody good”. Everything was seasoned to perfection and the amount of food was just the icing on the cake. Steph ordered the frozen mint lemonada which was the perfect beverage to wash it all down with. There is no doubt that I will definitely be back here but in the meanwhile please go check it out for yourself: https://auzaatar.com/

Katrina: 4.8 | Stephanie: 4.8

TOTAL RATING: 4.8/5

Au Za’atar

Delicatessen

Cheese Boat