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Dinner at On Coal, Waterloo Region’s first Yemeni restaurant, was reminiscent of my first visit to Muya Ethiopian Café in 2016. In both instances, the visit offered a warm welcome by folk proud of their culture of origin, exposing me to cuisine I’d not previously experienced.

Yemen, in the Arabian Peninsula, riven by war and humanitarian crises, largely remains culinary terra incognita. Even Saint Anthony de Bourdain never attempted a visit.

On Coal delivers 100 per cent Halal Middle Eastern and Yemeni cuisine. An exemplar of vertical integration — the same family owns the adjacent Kishki Supermarket — I guess they’ll never run out of the lamb, chicken, and rice dominating the “cultural platters” on their menu.

Many cultures traditionally eat food with their hands: diners at On Coal should face the fact they are inevitably going to end up tearing off a tempting piece of charred chicken skin or a hunk of succulent lamb with their fingers and be thankful for the individual bottles of hand sanitizers supplied. A holdover from early COVID times, currently plastic cutlery only is provided along with paper plates and napkins. The thinnest of plastic tablecloths is set to contain stray food and facilitate cleanup.

For the full experience — if you’re flexible enough to sit on the floor for an hour or two — reserve the cushion-strewn shoes-off majlis area where one can lounge somewhat comfortably. While descending to floor level was not a problem, I confess I had to be levered back upright by my younger companions: on a future visit I might seek table seating in one or other of the more semiprivate areas available.

One orders at the counter: unfamiliar with the cuisine, and despite prior research, it proved difficult to reliably establish the differences among how the dishes were prepared. Tempted as I might have been to simply go big with an order for a whole lamb ($600), Abobakr Al-attas, the friendly manager, helped me pare back my selections.

Hummus ($4.99), a kebab with smoked rice ($14.99) and a mixed lamb Mandi and BBQ roasted chicken platter with the same rice and a few quarters of pita ($38.99) arrived after almost 40 minutes’ wait which we whiled away chatting in our niche. An odd, distracting, juxtaposition was a TV opposite us showing a recorded soccer game from last season.

The food was satisfying, though not necessarily to everyone’s taste. The kebabs were nice, though completely unphotogenic. The Mandi saw lightly spiced, somewhat fatty lamb steamed for hours in the oven, providing fall-off-the-bone meat that complemented the flavourful rice.

shawaya chicken — roasted in a hot oven — was distinguished by a complex, secret BBQ rub known only to the On Coal’s owner. Applied overnight, I gleaned it contained a special Yemeni chili, lime, vinegar and garlic. Cumin was also certainly present among the other spices. The crisp rendered skin was delicious and thigh meat juicy, but the breast was overcooked and stringy. An accompanying house-made vinegary hot sauce and tahini were nice accompaniments.

We closed our dinner pouring straight black tea from a pretty pot ($5.99) while chatting with Abobakr and his cousin, Mohsen Al-attas, who owns the business. The latter came to Canada in 2010 and moved around southern Ontario a bit before settling in Waterloo. He likes to cook and is proud of his BBQ marinade, an item he is considering marketing, according to Abobakr.

Having inadvertently avoided anything cooked over coals — order a farouj Cornish hen for that — we compounded the error by not even thinking to ask about desserts. There are two (at $12.99): maasoub is a paratha bread with banana, cream, and honey, sprinkled with nigella seeds, while areekah’ — which I’d be intrigued to sample — features paratha, dates, cream, honey, smoked milk, and nigella.

Apart from the longish wait for food, there’s room for other improvement, including having a voice mail and proper reservations system: telling customers to call an hour before they are coming, and then not answering the phone consistently does not elicit confidence. Nonetheless, we enjoyed our visit and I’d be more than happy to order the tasty BBQ chicken and rice for takeout and using knife and fork rather than attempting bird dissection with a brace of bendy plastic spoons.

On Coal — Middle Eastern Cuisine & Grill

Hours: Open daily 12-9 p.m.

The bill: $70.93 including tax but not tip for two substantive mains, hummus, water, a pop and tea

Getting your food: Dine in, takeout or order using Uber, DoorDash and Skip.

Accessibility: the restaurant is accessible, however both washrooms are downstairs and thus inaccessible to wheelchair users.

Notes: Check online or ask about specials: For instance, a quarter-chicken Mandi with smoked rice and hot sauce or tahini was priced at $6.99 according to the coupon I picked up at the Kishki supermarket checkout. Though aimed at students, the manager assured me it would be honoured for anyone who presented it.

Ordering food in the time of coronavirus: As restaurants are making decisions on a day-to-day basis, please check their social media or call them for updates. Lists of restaurants operating while dining rooms are closed can be found at https://bit.ly/3d2JV74 and wilmotstrongertogether.ca; a crowdsourced list is on Facebook’s Food in the Waterloo Region at bit.ly/3d1cKAX

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