Yaffa Cafe

I’m crushed to hear my favorite place in the East Village is closed.
And, the unfair circumnutates surrounding it’s closing are so unfortunate for Yaffa (and for the East Village). SHAME on the neighbors!!!
Absolutely crushed this one true staple of the East Village is closed.

I am just hearing about this place closing down. SO my review will be sort of an going away review. I have been coming here since 2001. I have never ever experience a place quite like this. The décor is like someone went through the dumpster of an old pimps home and put everything together. But that is what makes it different. The food here is unbelievable. I order the spinach fettucine with white wine sauce and chicken. I have never been disappointed. The staff here is wonderful, they are very polite and social. This place usually gets crowded around 5pm-​9pm. You will encounter the usual seat with animal print, some that need some repair, but honestly, you might not even be bothered by it.
I have had the tomato linguine, spinach fettucine, rock shrimp, i have eaten here for brunch, late night, and dinner and lunch. I have never had a complaint.
The drink selection here is pretty limited, but that doesnt deter you from drinking what they have lol. They have a small but good wine selection list. You would be surprised to see that they actually carry Pouilly-​Fuisse and Pouilly-​Fume wine because they are typically expensive. I will miss this place, I can never seem to get over how much fun I have had here with friends and strangers alike.
This is one of those places that are secret little gems that are in NY. There will never be a place like this again I think.
I will Miss you Yaffa, thanks for all the memories.

How did this close. NYC is changing and I get rent goes up, so places close. miss 5am pasta dishes after work. or dinner after sunday meetings.
miss you love you, garlic bread

I’m going to miss you Yaffa Café. So many hours spent writing, laughing, enjoying the delicious atmosphere.
Thank you for turning me on to ginger carrot soup in the winter of 94.
Thank you for warm food, warm place, warm service. You will be missed by many.

Great for drinks. Awesome atmosphere. Service is so so. Wouldn’t recommend the food.

Sadly, Yaffa café is permanently closed as of yesterday. This is one of the first places I’ve been to in the east village after moving to NY and I’ve gone back every now and then even before I started Unilocaling. It’s not amazing but it’s wacky, it’s open late, and it’s one of those places you go to after a late night of drinking.

sparks note version: THIS PLACE IS AWFUL!
if you wanna read more, go on.
i came here to meet a few sorority sisters for brunch a few weeks ago. some of the girls already started eating, one girl was waiting on her food (had to send it back because there was a piece of hair in it), and me, just waiting for a server to come my way so i can order. ordering the food was ok, the wait for it was just unbearable because there wasn’t a crowd. funny note, the girl who had hair in her food asked about her new food, the server had the audacity to give her attitude and told the poor girl she had to wait because she sent the food back. ummm, there’s a piece of hair in her friggin’ food!!!
i waited and waited and waited… i saw other ppl who came in after me and got their food before me. then i saw a server looking over to our table and must’ve noticed that i haven’t gotten my food yet, so shortly after, i finally got my food. it tasted ok but i was really annoyed with the service. we asked for ketchup, they brought a few tiny plastic saucers to share between us. when we asked for things, the server always had a deer in the headlight, confused look on her face. maybe she’s new, i understand, but having an attitude is not the way to do it.
when we were ready to leave, the hair-​in-​her-​food girl paid with her card and never got it back! she had to go ask our server and she flat out denied that even got the card from my friend. LIES! because my friend clearly got text notifications from her bank that the card was CHARGED. so after much confusion, we FINALLY got the card back. it was a terrible experience and i would never go back.

Passed by today and discovered that it was closed due to health code violations.
Even though it’s not the greatest of places, they had good carrot dressing for salads, their Berber chicken was always tasty, and service was generally pretty good. Hope they get it together and clean up their act because it’s an East Village institution, and I liked going there because it always gave me a homey feel.
***UPDATE 10 OCT 2014***
So, it seems that the reason for Yaffa’s demise had less to do with Yaffa needing go get its ‘act together’ than some very fishy business with the NYC Department of Buildings, the Department of Health, and perhaps an ornery neighbor. Read more:

This place is rad. Not sure how I lived in the neighborhood for so long and never ate here. Think Dennys meets Disco meets pulp fiction diner. The food took FOREVER. I hope you have patience or or lots of drinks –I was ready to eat my hand by the time the food came.
I had an eggplant sandwich, it was very tasty. My friend had a chicken salad, it was good as well. They have an awesome Happy Hour with $ 4 wine and cheap beer /​wells.
The place is huge. *
Open 24 hours *

Always a fav. So glad this place is here. Day or night it is the perfect place to stop in for a coffee, wine, or a bite. Fun and gorgeous décor. Friendly, prompt, unhurried, wonderful service. There isn’t a thing I could say unfavorably about this place. Yaffa!

This was a fun and tasty, child friendly restaurant. I love the décor of this restaurant, kind of like your funky grandma meets a 70’s inspired thrift shop. The back garden is also lovely — too bad they allow people to smoke.
The waiter was great and the food was really good. We had:
The Mediterranean Platter (hummus, babaganoush, chick peas and olives) — delicious, especially the babaganoush.
The vegetable wrap with goat cheese — very tasty
Hamburger — girls enjoyed
Almond Soda — tasty but I don’t think I would get it again
The price is right and the food is good, what more can you ask for?

Came for brunch on a Saturday morning around 11am. The indoor setting is very quirky and fun and the backyard garden is pretty cute. However, the food was absolutely terrible. The coffee was over roasted and lukewarm when served to us. The orange juice was served in a cup that was SLIGHTLY larger than a shot glass. I ordered the eggs florentine — a brunch classic. The eggs were completely cooked through when I received them and the hollandaise sauce was plastic-​y and WAY over salted. The side salad had browning leaves and the cucumbers in the salad were dried out. Everything about this meal was disappointing.

Ten of us ate dinner there last night, and it’s always a treat to eat in the garden. They set up a big table for us and they didn’t mind that we stayed for almost 2 ½ hours. Also, it looked very festive. I’ve had an up-​and-​down relationship with Yaffa over the years, as per my previous reviews — but I loved it more than ever this time. Firstly, our server was TERRIFIC; he was absolutely the sweetest, most patient and all-​around good-​natured server I’ve ever encountered (I called the owner today to compliment her — and unfortunately for Yaffa’s customers, that server will move back to Ireland in a few weeks). Also, the busboy was very sweet-​natured. Secondly, the food was as good as always (I ordered the shrimp scampi linguini [$ 15]. It came with a small salad, which was actually mediocre — although I had their always-​tasty carrot dressing. It also came with two small pieces of garlic bread and that was very good. The entrée was *delicious*).
Lastly, Yaffa has regained their «A» rating from the Health Department.

Rundown and dirty!
The funky fun décor can only help so much.
This used to be a good place to go if you got hungry at 3 a.m. and you were in the East Village 15 years ago but now the place must have bad management since it is very rundown and dirty with bad service. It needs a good remodeling, better trained waiters with good hygiene and a better chef.

I hold St. Mark’s establishments in high esteem and for good reason. Let’s be real, the only reason people end up at Yaffa is because the line for Café Orlin is too long.
I wasn’t impressed with the menu at Yaffa and was disappointed that when I walked in for a 2pm lunch on a Saturday, only brunch was being offered with a strong emphasis on eggs. I’m not a huge egg fan, and was hoping for more lunch options, but had to settle between a burger with an egg on it or a chicken sandwich.
Needless to say I was unimpressed, the complementary OJ from concentrate didn’t do much to savor my opinion.

Came here with my 2 girlfriends for a goodbye dinner. My friend picked it out, and I wasn’t expecting much, to be completely honest. I totally misjudged this place because my dinner ended up being healthy and amazingly delicious. I got a salad with shrimp, and decided to try the carrot ginger dressing on the side. It was soo filling and tasted fresh. I was really happy with my dinner.
I would buy that dressing if they sold it to go. Definitely keeping this restaurant on my list when I’m craving something healthy.
P. S. The waitress had a super cool accent, and she was super nice when I asked her about the dressing because I wanted two dressings on the side. :)

We stopped in a few Saturdays ago to kill some time, since the fancy speakeasy place several blocks away told us there would be a 1.5-hour wait (in actuality it was 5.5, and no, we didn’t end up going).
There was no wait here, so… immediate points. The décor and atmosphere were, like, a retro-​glam-​hipster-​casual conglomerate? Pictures of dazzling ladies. Low lighting. I felt not quite cool enough. There was a back patio visible from our seat, covered in snow, taunting us casually.
The service was very chill, in a good way. We didn’t really need the server to come by for anything but our initial orders, and he seemed to sense that, but once we signaled for the check, he was there.
I ordered a hot apple cider with wine and a cobb salad (I’m not usually much of a salad person, but a cobb salad is more like the anti-​salad. It’s like someone started to make a salad, began with some lettuce and tomatoes, but then realized how sad that concoction was and added a bunch of awesome.) This particular version of the cobb was made with romaine, tomato, chicken, bacon, feta, hard boiled egg and blue cheese dressing. Definitely not a light meal, but satisfying. The drink was also quite good, and really perfect given the temp outside. It seems like they only do beer and wine here, hence the substitution for the hard stuff.
However, my boyfriend got the chicken dijon (Chicken sautéed w/​mushrooms and artichoke hearts in a mustard cream sauce), which was a definite no-​go. The sauce wasn’t at all flavorful and was far too soupy — not enough cream. I’ve had — and made — better chicken dijon.
Yaffa strikes me as just a good place to hang out and a good place to bring visitors, even if its food offerings are a bit uneven.

Definitely coming back here. This place is trendy, bohemian and has great food/​service.
I had the spinach salad as well as the chocolate soufflé for dessert (which we got for free because their ATM was broken and it’s cash only! Thanks to the manager). The salad was a flavorful blend of onions, bacon and shrimp. The dessert was scrumptious and sweet with just the hint of whipped cream and rasberry sauce. As for their drinks, their Rasberry Cocktail was deliciously crisp and fruity. Their menu is filled with healthy savory options! I look forward to trying their brunch sometime.
If the weather’s nice, be sure to sit in the outdoor patio. It’s a beautiful place to lounge about and talk. Highly recommended for group outings and romantic dates!

A very bohemian style resto with a variety of contemporary art.
Yaffa Café is similar to the Montréal «plateau» style of cafés.
The service was good. The veggie crêpes tasted fresh and authentically homemade. I definitely recommend to try the salad with carrot dressing.
I noticed the ratio of much more women than men, it is a great place to hangout with some girlfriends.

I told Marcus, a NY native I’d take him out for dinner in NY, and, curiously, this is the place he picked. Yeah it was in a cool basement setting, with sexy bed head waiters, glitter and décor galor, a big outdoor patio in back, and clean, but I just found the food to be healthier version of diner meals.
He explained how his first meal here was when he was tripping on acid, so maybe
that instilled a Christmasy special type memory. Also a certain club kid celeb was waiting tables there. So maybe that explained it. My meal was blurry — a salad and something else maybe, but I was inebriated from a wine bar.
Yaffa is a safe bet for a local clean casual affordable diner type meal with a hipster slant.

Ich kann mich meinen Vorrednern nur anschließen! Wundervolles Caffe! Man unendlich viel Zeit da verbringen. Und was die kulinarischen Sachen angeht: einfach super! Wer mal ein bischen mehr Zeit in New York mirbringt sollte dort unbedingt mal vorbei schauen.

Éxcellent déco d’ambiance bollywoodiense mais le mieux de tout c’est possiblement sa terrace. Terrace avec des arbres et bien calme en plein coeur de New York
Les plats né sont pas trop grands en comparaison a la messure americaine, mais assez chargees pour le stomac europeen. Les prix restent dans le raisonable et les serveurs sont très agreables.
Un droit gayfriendly (presque gay), avec beacoup de charme et ambience.
Il faut signaler que ils ont une grand carte de produits bio, et vegetaliens.
Un endroit a visiter imperativement sur l’East Village.

une déco qui en épatera plus d’un, on se croirait dans un film de Bollywood, c est surchargé, sans etre pesant
excellente ambiance

Ein East Village Treffpunkt für Kreative. Wunderbarer Kitsch und indische Lichtspielereien machen das Yaffa Café zum perfekten Treffpunkt für romantische Träumer. Noch dazu ist das Essen gut und gesund (viel Salat). Die Portionen sind reichlich und die Preise günstig. Wer auf der Tour durch das East Village Hunger verspürt, kann hier rund um die Uhr essen.

gefühlte rund um die uhr habe ich dort verbracht. wenn ich in new york leben würde, wäre das yaffa mein 2. wohnzimmer. der leicht kitschige, indische touch, die musik, die herzlichen menschen des yaffas, die stimmung und die bezahlbaren preise der hauptsächlich gesunden, vegetarischen gerichte (hummus, omletts, pitas, salate, suppen) laden ein, daher ist es immer gut besucht. dieser laden hat einen charme, den ich seit über 10 jahren nicht vergessen kann. i love it.