By Lily Seltz
Ayat Hind’s Hall, the newest branch of the popular Palestinian restaurant chain Ayat, is now serving guests after a surprise “soft open” on Saturday evening.
The restaurant, located at Amsterdam Avenue and West 106th Street, is named in honor of Hind Rajab, a 5-year-old girl believed to have been killed by the Israeli Defense Forces in early 2024. During the spring 2024 Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University, students also occupied and renamed a university building “Hind’s Hall” as a homage to Rajab.
Although Ayat announced the opening on Instagram just 30 minutes before their first seating, the restaurant filled up completely within the first hour.
The restaurant is smaller than the popular East Village location, and more warmly lit. It lacks the brightly-colored mural art that has become Ayat’s signature, and is instead decorated with dozens of jugs of olive oil resting on hanging shelves above the open kitchen—where diners can watch the restaurant’s chefs prepare dishes like the “pizzawarma” (beef shawarma, halloumi cheese, and other toppings on a pizza crust) in a wood-fired oven.
During the Rag’s visit, waitstaff maneuvered through the narrow gaps between tables; diners, young and old, in pairs and in larger groups, and at least one wearing a keffiyeh, chatted over baba ghanoush, falafel, and lamb. Curious pedestrians intermittently stalled on the corner of 106th Street to comment or speculate on the proceedings.
Owner Abdul Elenani wrote, in a message to the Rag, “We’re just grateful…You never really know how [many] people will show up, so seeing the turnout means a lot to us.”
Hania Khattab, director of operations at the new branch, told the Rag that she had been surprised by how the evening was going—especially because soft opens at other Ayat locations had seen lesser crowds.
Ayat announced that they were expanding to the Upper West Side in August 2025. “I’ve been waiting for it,” said Nasiha, a Columbia graduate who asked to be referred to by her first name only. She told the Rag that she’d previously visited Ayat locations in Astoria and the East Village.
“I love that they really try to bring the community together,” Nasiha said, mentioning a Thanksgiving “feast” that Ayat hosted in Astoria, one of many community dinners that Elenani has run out of various Ayat locations. (Elenani previously told the Rag that he hoped to offer free meals to Columbia protestors.)
While Nasiha heard about the Hind’s Hall opening from the Instagram announcement, another group of young diners, including Gabriela (who declined to give her last name) ended up at Ayat after their plans to eat at a restaurant across the street were upended by a long wait time. Gabriela said that she and her friends—who, like Nasiha, had visited other Ayat locations already—had been anticipating the Hind’s Hall opening.
“It was super exciting to be here,” Gabriela said, praising the chicken shawarma (“delicious”) and friendly staff.
Another member of Gabriela’s group reported that a woman had smiled and waved at them through the window during their meal: “It seems like people are excited about the opening.”
Elenani told the Rag that Upper West Siders had responded to his choice to name the restaurant after Hind Rajab with “respect and understanding.”
“That’s all we could really hope for,” he wrote—adding that he looks forward to “earning people’s trust, having them come back, and building something steady over time.”
Khattab said that she doesn’t think the team has had any “negative interactions with people in the community—yet.”
“But we’re expecting it,” she added. If the restaurant does meet hostility related to Ayat’s explicitly pro-Palestine, anti-war orientation, she said, the plan is to “ignore, ignore.”
“We stand on the right side of history,” Khattab told the Rag. “Every child deserves to live.”
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Fantastic, happy the soft launch has gone well, I can’t wait sit to eat there myself
I walked by today and they have barricades set up like you would for an outdoor cafe except they took over almost the whole sidewalk on Amsterdam. You have to detour around them.
I can’t wait to eat the Jordanian, Syrian, and Egyptian food!
There are many places already offering this kind of food.
Clearly the point of my post was missed. It’s that there is no such thing as “palestinian”food.
What does this even mean? There have been people living continuously in Palestine for millennia. If you were trying to diminish the culture you could at least call it Ottoman Syrian food and get the history right.
Yes that food is called Arab or Judean/Israeli food. Ottoman sure. There has never been a distinct “palestinian” culture in the land the Roman’s called “palestine” to erase the Jewish links to the area. There’s the history.
There’s no such thing as “Israeli” food
We need to support this neighborhood place.
Why?
Why not? All restaurants are, or should be, welcome. Particularly with the ongoing “empty storefront syndrome” affecting the entire City.
Why not?
Why not? It is in our neighborhood and we are a community.
I find it a tad disingenuous that they are surprised how well the soft opening went. Didn’t the owners in the original article say they chose that location because it is close to Columbia? This only makes sense if the East Village location didn’t have such a successful launch and that branch is also really close to NYU.
Hopefully there will be a lot of police patrolling the area.
So, here’s My Story. I’d like to try the new neighborhood restaurant, but keffiyas supporting Palestinian Resistance to the Right of Israel to Exist cause me to lose my appetite. Hersh, z”l, was MURDERED IN A TUNNEL IN GAZA. Hind was used a human shield as well. Maybe the restaurant should be called Hind and Hersh Hall to honor victims on both sides?
So don’t go. That’s your right, as it is the right of the restaurant owners to honor whomever they please. Some people might just like, or want to try the food on the menu.
Good for you. The “occupation” of the Columbia building was ILLEGAL.
Awwwwww, the actual occupation of Gaza, the West Bank, and now every home that is slated to be destroyed in Southern Lebanon, is illegal. Your feelings are inconsequential in light of current events
Now that Iran has reconstituted the brutal Hezbollah terrorists they are taking over Lebanon as a convenient location from which to launch Iran’s next stage of Israel’s destruction. Ballistic missiles have already destroyed homes, murdered and wounded 400 Israeli residents The Lebanese people, unable to defend themselves against Hezbollah, officially requested Israel’s help. Judea and Sumaria Palestinians are planning another major massacre against Israelis.
Its Judea and Samaria and has been since before the Romans, the west bank is Hoboken and Fort Lee. Your feelings are inconsequential in light of history.
While I fully sympathize with your story, you are doing what all too many people do; conflating the Palestinian people with Hamas, which represents a smaller percentage of them every day. You can be angry and horrified by Hamas, but to broad-brush all Palestinians as supporters of that group is unfair and inaccurate. And it is Hamas – and ITS founding documents – that claim that Israel does not have a right to exist, not the Palestinian people as a whole. And btw, the keffiyeh is a traditional garment that was worn LONG before there was an Israel, so it is absurd to equate the wearing of one to a particular political position. In fact, Jews also wore them, and many continue to,.
With regard to the “strife” in that area, if Israel had not violated every single document that called for the creation of two “States” – including the (unstated) intention of the Balfour Declaration, and particularly U.N. Resolution 181 – which specifically called for two separate “States,” one Jewish, one Palestinian – as well as many later documents and agreements, and had Israel treated the Palestinians better and not created what amounts to an apartheid state in Gaza, then Hamas would never have formed, and there would be peace in the Middle East.
In other words, while there is NO excuse for what occurred on 10/7, there is plenty of blame to go around for the situation in the area: British, U.S., Palestinian, and ESPECIALLY Israeli.
It was the Palestinians who rejected the two state solution. It was never two states they wanted. They wanted All of Israel.
Except that Israel has agreed to a Palestinian state multiple times, only to be met with violence.
Hamas enjoys great popularity among the Palestinian people. These are facts.
I’m not conflating the entire Palestinian population with Hams but the simple fact is that it was Hamas’s brutal mass terrorist attack against civilians in sovereign Israel that got the attention of the Social Justice Warriors in our neighborhood. And the keffiyah has in fact, become a symbol of the “Resistance.” Why is it that Hamas got the world’s attention? Why is it that the River to the Sea became such a popular chant? Where is a Palestinian leadership that is willing to acknowledge the difficult facts on the ground? Maybe conversations at Hinds Hall will result in some reasonable people finding some reasonable solutions. Neither population is going anywhere. And I am wondering if you remember the 7 cities of Palestine in Waiting that Arafat negotiated for the Palestinian people as part of the Oslo process? Jenin was one of them. Bethlehem too. Ramalah. Jericho. Tulkarem. Quaquilya…do you remember the 7th? And what about Abu Dis?
“particularly U.N. Resolution 181 – which specifically called for two separate “States,” one Jewish, one Palestinian”
You are mistaken. Contrary to popular myth UN Res 181 did not call for a “Palestinian” state.
UN Res 181 called for Palestine to be partitioned into a Jewish and an Arab state. The term “Palestinian” does not appear anywhere in this Resolution.
Ironically, back in 1947 the only people who referred to themselves as “Palestinians” were the Jews living there. The Arabs were just Arabs.
In any case UN Res 181 is null as seven Arab countries attacked Israel in 1948, therefore rendering the Resolution void.
And let us not forget that Mandatory Palestine was much larger than the state of Israel. 80 percent of Mandatory Palestine became part of TransJordan and Jews were prohibited from living there.
Thank you for taking the time to correct the Record. The academic/political world of Edward Said and Walid Khalidi want the world to see what a “mistake” the UN made in 1947. What really stinks is the historical fact that the Diaspora Jewish community helped build and frankly continues to help build the infrastructure and civil society of Israel. The Jewish Agency was the government in waiting. BUT THE ARAB WORLD WENT TO WAR AGAINST THE NEWBORN STATE OF ISRAEL. No “Palestinian Diaspora” helped prepare the Arabs who lived in Mandatory Palestine to govern themselves. Somehow, the “Palestinian” Movement seems to have forgotten that fact. I speak with some knowledge of history -my grandfather was a Palestinian – born in Jerusalem, Ottoman Empire actually (not even Mandatory Palestine) in 1911.
Yes, it was definitely for the British to decide, and not the Palestinians who fought for their own country against the Ottomans (and were lied to that, in doing so, their country would be returned to them)
The British did not “decide” on the future of Palestine.
The international community decided to create a Jewish state at the UN.
Look up the Balfour Declaration – the Brits *did* decide
Thank you for the well put facts. Unfortunately, most people don’t care about them. The collective memory now only covers maybe 25 years. The rest is meaningless to most people who are more interested in their own facts and emotion.
25? Try 100+ https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-41765892
It’s a new restaurant, not a political statement. I hope you do try. It’s part of the community.
New to the city? New Yorkers will politicize a piece of used chewing gum. Occasionally, they’re actually justified in doing so.
Are u kidding? Naming this place for a dead child supposedly killed by Israel is very political and emotionally manipulative— maybe some nights they could host a seminar on the history of the region and how and why Israel came into being—like some restaurants host retirement info or mystery dinners—might help balance the one way narrative they’ve got going
It’s both & the owner would probably agree with that but hopefully not killing children is a humanitarian value and not controversial.
From their instagram account:
Hind Rajab represents every child taken too soon. Every innocent life caught in violence they never chose. Every small voice silenced before it was ever heard.
From Palestine to every corner of this world where children suffer under oppression, and cruelty… this is for them. We don’t say her name to mourn quietly. We say it so it lives. Because when the world forgets, we refuse to. Because saving our children and our people is not a political stance, it is humanity.
This is just me, but from where I’m standing, not using a child as a human shield and then celebrating it’s death for political and economic gain is also a humanitarian value.
Extremely disingenuous.The name of the restaurant is already a political statement
How is honoring a dead child a political statement?
So glad to hear! And cannot wait to stop by.
I don’t eat politics. I eat food!
Heart burn from political content aside… Heinz Hall is punny.
except you’re pronouncing Hind incorrectly.
I hate using people as vehicles for political positioning. This is just as bad as Trump memorializing victims and “heroes” at the State of The Union. It’s cheap and patronizing — it’s an unending game of “we have victims too!”
I am so very sorry that Hind, an innocent 5 year old, was killed. Truly horrific.
I am also sorry that her memory is being dragged, yet another time, through the mud by both sides in a futile attempt at righteousness. This is not right.
If my child was murdered in a van by a military, with the last moments of her life spent sitting next to the bodies of her family members who had been shot dead as they tried to flee to safety… I would want the world to know the name of my child. What happened to little Hind was torture and murder of the cruelest kind, that no child should have to ever experience. The only thing that could make it worse, is if her story is forgotten and erased. If Hind were my child, and a restaurant was opened with her name, I would feel it honors, not drags, her memory. This isn’t for political positioning. I suggest you read more about the restaurant and their choice of naming it after Hind, perhaps your interpretation will change.
So you wouldn’t think the Anne Frank Diner would be in bad taste?
If that is the case a memorial would be more appropriate.
So, so happy that Ayat Hinds Hall has opened in the neighborhood and that we can enjoy and share this beautiful Palestinian food and culture! Walking by in the morning has brought me so much joy. My close friend and I have had it planned for weeks go to Ayat Hinds Hall as soon as they open. It is such a beautiful restaurant and I’m really excited about the outdoor seating too, with the nice spring weather coming up
It’s nice to have another restaurant in the neighborhood. Can’t wait to try it.
Just curious, since the name of a supposedly murdered Palestinian child is being used to bring in business, are the owners donating profits to support organizations assisting Palestinian children? Or its just a hook?
“The Voice of Hind Rajab” is a critically acclaimed Oscar-nominated film. And the Hind Rajab Foundation is a nonprofit devoted to ending impunity for war criminals, wherever they may hide; much as happened with Nazis who escaped through ratlines after WW2. And as for parental permission, Hind’s mother was in full support of the Columbia students naming Hinds Hall after her, Macklemore wrote a song, Hinds Hall, about Hind Rajab and what her life and death should mean to all of us.
I’m all for skepticism in general, but that this Palestinian child was murdered was reported by the across the reputable press, including the Washington Post and the NY Times:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2024/hind-rajab-israel-gaza-killing-timeline/.
Good question, and I guess the answer is no.
Did they get the relative’s permission?
It is like naming a restaurant “Napalm Vietnam Girl”. The business is to be perceived as righteous, not being righteous.
I look forward to eating at the Palestinian Arab restaurant, however I agree with those who say naming it after a deceased child is tasteless and inappropriate. It doesn’t matter who the child is. I wouldn’t want to eat at a restaurant named after the Lindberg baby, either. The dead, no matter who they are, are not food associations. It would have been more appropriate to introduce Middle Eastern cuisine of the sort by evoking something delicious and pleasant: olives, figs, spices. and other things grown in the region. A restaurant is a business, not a morbid, political memorial.
The 5-year-old child is not dead, she is murdered. It is a monument to her memory, and that of the tens of thousands of children who are genocide victims like her. Genocide victims should not be nameless.
Not sure this one’s a genocide when the population actually grows—if it’s a genocide by Israel they’re failing—think it’s important to not just throw around these words that have actual meanings
I guess the Emmett Till Waffle House would be perfectly acceptable to many posters here.
I am delighted this restaurant is opening! In response to the author of this article’s: “…Hind Rajab, a 5-year-old girl believed to have been killed by the Israeli Defense Forces in early 2024”, let me remind you that a forensic examination proved that she was hit with 350 rounds from the IOF. Along with the ambulance personnel who tried to save her.