Ayat, a New York City-based restaurant chain serving traditional Palestinian dishes, opened its first New Jersey location on Oct. 8. Amid the ongoing war in Gaza, the chain’s political activism both online and in the restaurant has garnered controversy.
Located on 15 Spring St., Ayat stands in the former location of the Savory Spice Shop and is a five minute walk from FitzRandolph Gate. With a light green awning on the exterior, the restaurant’s interior features a ceiling reminiscent of a forest canopy and wall art that stretches across the entire space. The mural depicts a teary-eyed woman wearing a keffiyeh with part of her face covered by the Palestinian flag. Above the tables in black ink reads: “Story of Resilience. Feast for the Senses.”
The Princeton location’s management did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication.
The Princeton location is the restaurant’s seventh, with an eighth slated to open in Bushwick within the next few weeks. Since opening in 2020 in Brooklyn, the family-owned restaurant has gained immense popularity, securing a place on The New York Times’s 100 Best Restaurants in NYC and earning an average 4.3-star rating on Yelp.
For Adam Moussa ’28, who is from Lebanon, Ayat brought him a “sense of home.”
“We went there to try out the place because we knew that it served Palestinian food. Being Arabs by nature, we were just like drawn there,” Moussa told The Daily Princetonian. “[The food] was so good, the waiters were quick, and the whole atmosphere was nice,” he continued.
Ayat’s menu boasts over 50 drinks and dishes, including shawarmas, hummus, kebabs, Arabian teas, and pizzas baked in a wood-fired oven. Appetizers range from $4.16 to $30.16, with larger dishes like the braided filet and shrimp kebab totaling $33.28 and $23.92, respectively.
Local resident Jennifer Cohan, who enjoyed meat cigars and a cauliflower appetizer, found it difficult to choose from such an “extensive” menu. “The vibe was great — a lot of four-tops of folks enjoying a meal together,” Cohan wrote to the ‘Prince.’
“Visiting Ayat was a delicious experience,” Princeton resident Aisha Mohammed added to the ‘Prince.’
Over the past year, however, the restaurant has become a flashpoint amid the ongoing war in Gaza.
In December of 2023, Ayat’s Brooklyn establishment came under fire for a section of the seafood menu titled “From the River to the Sea,” a phrase that has drawn controversy because of its different interpretations. To some, this saying represents freedom, while others believe it calls for the destruction of Israel.
The Princeton menu features the same seafood dishes, though it omits this particular phrase. Ayat’s Instagram has used “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” in captions and contains many activism-related posts about conflict in the region.
Though Larry Schwartz praised Ayat’s food, he wrote, “I think you could have done better than to include the not-so-thinly-veiled racism shown in the attached photo of your menu.” Schwartz is referring to the “From the River to the Sea” title of the Brooklyn location’s seafood section.
Schwartz’s negative review received a response from Ayat on Instagram. Ayat’s post featured a screenshot of Schwartz’s Google review with the caption: “I need clarity on how this is racism! Someone please educate me 🙏.”
Several negative 1-star reviews were directed at the Princeton establishment mere days after its opening.
Princeton’s Ayat location has a rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars on Google Reviews. At the time of publication, there were 233 reviews. Of them, 224 were 5-star, one was 3-star, one was 4-star, and there were seven 1-star ratings. Hussein Hussein rated the restaurant 1-star claiming that, “The only way this establishment gets these reviews is if they cooked the algos or faked the reviews.”
Another 1-star rating was left by Emmili Yosub who wrote, “I did not feel welcome to eat here.”
In contrast to Yosub’s review, Cohan shared that she felt the opposite during her meal at Ayat in Princeton. “The space is very inviting, and I was immediately welcomed and taken to a table,” she wrote.
On Oct. 18, 2023, Ayat made an Instagram post commenting on Google Reviews. The post features two 1-star reviews, critiquing both the food served and the restaurant’s atmosphere. The caption reads, “So what does @Google do, let’s remove all the actual reviews from the customers (220 positive reviews removed) that actually visited and let’s keep 1 star reviews from people that are literally in Israel.”
The Israel-Palestine conflict as a political topic was relevant in both Mohammed and Moussa’s experiences.
“I cannot help but wonder what the preservation of Palestinian culture and the Palestinian diaspora will look like 20 or 50 years from now in the midst of targeted attack, expulsion, and razing over of homes and institutions by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF),” Mohammed wrote.
Moussa added that he noticed many people wearing keffiyehs during his visit, which “was something that took [him] by surprise.”
“It’s like the people are making a political statement,” he said.
In January, the chain hosted a free Shabbat dinner at its Brooklyn restaurant, garnering over 1,300 people. The event was intended to ease the unrest and polarization across NYC following the Oct. 7 attacks.
“It’s not just about breaking bread; it’s about breaking barriers, fostering dialogue, and connecting on a human level,” Ayat shared via Instagram.
“I can’t wait to return [to Ayat] and feel so honored that they chose Princeton,” wrote Cohan.
Sena Chang is a News contributor for the ‘Prince.’
Cynthia Torres is a News contributor for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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