(This venue is closed.) Fatah fits right in at iftar.
A trio of dates is the traditional way to begin iftar, the meal that breaks each daylong fast during the Islamic month of Ramadan. More-substantial food follows. At Yemen Restaurant I was more than pleased to find a restorative version of fatah ($14), a dish that puts leftover bread to use in all sorts of good ways. Here the bits of bread are cooked in a lamb sauce with lots of olive oil, then bolstered with more lamb.
Also shown: fassolia ($8), white kidney beans sauteed with onions, tomatoes, and egg; ground-lamb sambosas (comped); salta ($18), a still-bubbling root-vegetable stew that, sadly, arrived at our table a full 20 minutes before the plate of roast lamb meant to accompany it.
At bottom is a fruity beverage (also comped). From the color we guessed mango, but in light of our server's hesitant-sounding pronunciation, I volunteered, "Tangerine?" No, he replied, not tangerine. "Tangelo?" proposed a dining buddy. No, not tangelo. While our server stepped into the kitchen to inquire, I took a sip and made the I.D. before he returned, moments later, with the full spelling: T-a-n-g.
Yemen Restaurant
6726 Fifth Ave. (68th-Senator Sts.), Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
718-748-4500
