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Alibaba
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515 Amsterdam Ave.,
New York, NY 10024
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Hours
Sun-Thu, 11am-midnight; Sat, 7pm-5am; Fri, closed;
Nearby Subway Stops
1 at 86th St.
Prices
$5.95-$22.95
Payment Methods
Cash Only
Special Features
- Delivery
- Take-Out
Alcohol
- No Alcohol
Reservations
Not Accepted
Delivery Area
70th St. to 102nd St., Central Park West to Riverside Dr.
Profile
"I was living here for eighteen years, waiting for someone to open a place like this," says Moshe Harizy, a fifth-generation Yemenite Israeli and Upper West Sider. Two months ago, evidently sick of waiting, he converted his stationery store into Alibaba, a eight-seat glatt kosher restaurant and takeout shop specializing in Yemenite-Israeli cuisine—with a macrobiotic twist. "Six years ago, my father was ill," says Harizy, who helped conquer his dad's heart problem by amending his diet and along the way changed his own. That accounts for the presence of brown rice and black beans on Alibaba's menu, a compendium of Middle Eastern fare like koufta kebabs, baba ghanoush, bourekas, and melawah (lightly fried dough with crushed tomatoes and a hard-boiled egg). He imports spices, fava beans, and fruit nectars from Israel and bakes his own lafah which makes his turkey shawarma something special.
Recommended DishesTurkey shawarma, $8.95; lamb kebab, $11.95
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