Middle Eastern Restaurant at Hudson Yards: Zou Zou's Hearth

Zou Zou's serves dinner from 5pm to 11pm every night at 385 Ninth Avenue, on the ground floor of Pendry Manhattan West, and the opener to know is the $39 spread of five dips with bazlama flatbread. The room seats 75 around an open kitchen with a wood-fired hearth, and reservations run through OpenTable. If you typed middle eastern restaurant near me somewhere between Penn Station and Hudson Yards, this is the one built for a full evening rather than a quick wrap.

The restaurant does not face the avenue, which confuses first-timers. Its own directions say that if you come in from 33rd Street, between Ninth and Tenth Avenues, you follow the walkway into the plaza, turn left, and the door is on your left. From the Ninth Avenue entrance at 32nd Street, walk through the plaza toward Whole Foods; Zou Zou's appears on the right just past the NHL Experience store.

Transit is easy from three directions. The 7 train stops at 34 St–Hudson Yards, while the A, C and E and the 1, 2 and 3 lines all stop at 34 St–Penn Station, and OpenTable lists all three as the nearest stations. Coming off a train at Moynihan Train Hall puts you one block away, which makes an early dinner here an easy fit before an evening departure.

Zou Zou's opened in September 2021, when Time Out listed it among the newly opened restaurants of the Manhattan West development. It is run by Quality Branded, the restaurant group behind Don Angie, Bad Roman, Quality Meats and Smith & Wollensky. The opening chefs were Madeline Sperling, who had cooked at Gramercy Tavern and The NoMad, and Juliana Latif, also from The NoMad, according to NYC Tourism.

The design firm AvroKO built the room around the hearth, using dark wood, off-white plaster, arches and domes, and bright blue and green tiles. The ceilings are high and the lighting is low, so it feels more like a hotel grand café than a neighborhood kebab house. In March 2022 the team added Chez Zou, a cocktail lounge upstairs, and The Infatuation gave the downstairs dining room a score of 8.3 that same month.

The dinner menu dated September 29, 2026 is organised around sharing. The dip spread at $39 covers chickpea with black garlic, ember-roasted eggplant, whipped ricotta with saffron apricots, green tahini and kabocha squash, served with crudité and warm bazlama. It is enough for four people to share, and it is the cheapest way to sample what the kitchen does with spice and smoke before the larger plates arrive.

The Hot Kasseri Cheese, $24, comes bubbling in a cast-iron skillet with Lebanese focaccia, and The Infatuation describes it being flambéed with arak at the table, which is why heads turn when it leaves the kitchen. Our Manti, $24, are small beef dumplings under garlicky labneh. The fattoush, $23, swaps the usual tomato for Honeycrisp apples and candied pecans and comes topped with a huge, wafer-thin disc of pita.

For mains, the Yemeni Au Poivre Kebab, $59, is filet mignon crusted in a hawaij peppercorn spice, and the smoked cherry Colorado lamb chops cost $65. The Moroccan Fried Chicken for Two, $86, arrives with beghrir, the spongy semolina pancakes, and lemon labneh. Add a side of Wadi Rum Jeweled Rice with broken tahdig for $15. The lamb tartare, $19, with merguez flavours and bulgur, is the lightest opener on the card.

Groups of up to eight can hand the ordering to the kitchen with the Chef's Menu at $79 per person. Lunch is a cheaper way in: on weekdays from 11:30am to 3pm, and weekends from 11am, the menu offers dip sets at three for $29 or five for $39, which pairs well with a walk on the High Line afterward.

Book on OpenTable, which lists the dress code as smart casual and the price as $50 and over per person. A snapshot of the page in March 2026 showed it booked 145 times in a single day, with more than 2,000 reviews averaging 4.7, so prime-time Friday and Saturday slots go early. One March 2026 reviewer still waited about ten minutes for a table that had been reserved.

The biggest mistake here is over-ordering. The Infatuation noted that servers warn guests that portions are large and that the menu does not split neatly into starters and mains. A reviewer in March 2026 said the dishes were larger than expected and their server did not mention it. For two people, one dip spread, one small plate and one main is plenty; skip the second meat dish and save room for the rice.

The room is loud when full, and The Infatuation called it perpetually packed every night of the week. Two private rooms take the pressure off for groups: the Mural Room seats 24 and the Parlour Room seats 18, with floor-to-ceiling windows in both, and together they can host 42 people seated.

Expect corporate cards. The Infatuation tags Zou Zou's for big groups, corporate cards, date nights and impressing out-of-towners, and 2026 OpenTable reviews mention business dinners and large parties. On a weeknight that means office teams from the surrounding towers next to couples on a date night, which explains the noise level by 8pm.

If you want a quieter meal, come at 5pm when the doors open, or book a weekday lunch, when the dip sets are cheaper and the room has not yet filled with dinner groups. If the room is fully booked, NAYA, the Middle Eastern fast-casual counter at 351 West 33rd Street, is a short walk away and needs no reservation.

Before dinner, walk through Moynihan Train Hall, which fills the old Farley Post Office between Eighth and Ninth Avenues from 31st to 33rd Street. It is open 5am to 1am daily, and the skylit hall is worth a look even if you are not catching a train. The food hall inside is useful for a coffee if you arrive early for your booking.

After dinner, head west to the High Line. Park-level stairs at 30th Street at Hudson Yards and at 31st Street and Dyer Avenue put you on the elevated walkway, which stays open until 10pm through November 30. An early booking leaves time for a short loop above the rail yards before the gates close.

Zou Zou's, 385 Ninth Avenue, Suite 85, New York, NY 10001, ground floor of Pendry Manhattan West. Dinner daily 5pm to 11pm; lunch Monday to Friday 11:30am to 3pm and Saturday and Sunday 11am to 3pm. Reservations through OpenTable; smart casual dress. Dip spread $39, Chef's Menu $79 per person for parties of up to eight. Nearest subway: 34 St–Hudson Yards (7) and 34 St–Penn Station (A, C, E, 1, 2, 3).