Throughout my first year of studying in York I have founds dozens of unique restaurants options. Many world foods are available here that you might not find throughout the rest of Yorkshire. In this article I will be looking at five of my favourites restaurant rarities that are available in the cathedral city. So why not push the boat out this week, get out of your comfort zone, and go try something new?

Yemen Heaven – Yemeni cuisine

98 Walmgate

When I first went to Yemeni Heaven it was with a work Christmas party with a partially set menu, the service was amazing and I liked the food so much I have since been back later on a date.

The interior is rather formal, not taking too much inspiration from Yemeni culture and ascetics. Outside they have a lovely courtyard where they offer many different flavours of shisha, which is perfect for big groups that want to drink before and after their meal.

The menu offered one of my favourites man’ousheh, a type of Arabic flatbread traditionally covered in a za’atar seasoning, it has a similar cooking process to pizza.I’m familiar with these from my time working in kitchens with Lebanese chefs, so on my visits I pushed the boat out and ordered new dishes that I have not tried prior.

When visiting with work we started with a sharing platter of mezze, then moved onto a selection of mains we shared including- fasha, fool, and seabass mandi.

All of which were brilliant. Upon my return I tried the adas- a lentil and sumac soup. For anyone who likes richly spiced foods and is looking for a slightly finer dining experience I would highly recommend Yemen Heaven.

The Blue Barbakan – Polish food

34 Fossgate

Now for a restaurant that I am massively bias towards. While this may not be too unique or worldly for me, given my mother is Polish and I have grown up on the food.

There is a distinct lack of high-end Polish restaurants in the UK when compared to other European cuisines.

Of course any Polish restaurant caters well to my pallet, however of the three Polish restaurants I have visited in the UK, The Blue Barbakan leads the race by quite some distance.

The Barbakan is based in a building in the centre of York that sits right on the waters edge, interestingly long ago the building was used as a brothel. It was previously a French restaurant, and there are some signs of this still in the building, with an art deco style painting on the mirrored wall behind the bar.

They offer a wide selection of Polish beers, some of which you cant find in your average Polski sklep, as well as a range of Polish wines from Silesia.

The pierogis are a must, the small Polish dumplings with various fillings. My favourite filling they offer being the rabbit.

And if you’re looking for a more authentic experience I would recommend going for a more traditional dish like Bigos- a hunters stew served in a bread bowl, or Placki- a potato and onion pancake, served with smoked salmon for lunch or Hungarian style goulash for dinner.

But both my favourite meals come from the more pan-European items namely the scallops in pancetta and the pancetta wrapped rabbit leg. Admittedly that is due to my addiction to almost anything cooked in lots of butter and wrapped pancetta.

Though not strictly Polish these pan-European and Germanic items like the turkey schnitzel do save it an option for people that have fussy eaters within their group.

Everest Gurkha- Nepalese restaurant

7 Fossgate

Amazingly this is one of two Nepalese restaurants in York, the other being The Yak and Yeti. Everest Gurkha is a small cosy restaurant, that could be easily missed amongst the many options down Fossgate.

Everything is centred around a small bar where they serve Gurkha lager, which I must admit was a slight disappointment when compared to other Asian lagers like Asahi or Tiger.

I went to Everest Gurkha with my work friend, off the back of his recommendation. I was originally fooled by the modest interior, but the food that came out was excellent.

We started with they dried yak, a polarising dish. For me it took too long in the mouth and was too hard to chew, even for a dried meat. However it was my friend Dan’s favourite dish of the night.

I would recommend Nepalese to any curry lover, the spices are adjacent to an Indian curry but unique enough to differentiate from other options.

I personally found they contained more of what I would consider to be winter warming spices like cloves and star anise.

It’s a really unique curry that is more homely and warming rather than spicy, with Everest Gurkha being recognised as Nepalese & Indian Restaurant of The Year for the North East of England in 2024 by the Asian Curry Awards.

Oshibi- Korean BBQ

9 Franklins Yard

Tucked round the back off Fossgate these is Oshibi, a small Korean restaurant offering at the table Korean BBQ. Again one of a pair, this time alongside Bulgogi on Swinegate.

I went to Oshibi on a date with a girl who was a lot more well-versed on Korean food than I, so I was advised to get bibimbap- a fried rice dish served with egg and beef. It was a personal first and I must say it was excellent and very filling.

But I was regretful that I didn’t get the traditional BBQ. I like having the ability to cook the meat to my preferences, and the novelty of the table-top BBQ, and it often it comes in very large portions for good measure.

For me the highlight of any Korean spot is soju, the flavoured rice alcohol goes down far too early and very much creeps up on you with a 15% alcohol content similar to a wine. Although I must say the prices for soju in Oshibi are quite high when compared to online or specialist stores.

The menu is also slightly limited, pushing customers unexperienced with Korean food like myself, towards the BBQ options.

Damastique- Syrian Food

63 Goodaramgate

This restaurant’s ceiling is filled with traditional lamps and fake greenery making the whole place very colourful.

The walls were also adorned with shutters and painted with vibrant colours, which matched the fabric on the seating. A very pretty, well designed interior that makes the whole experience seem more authentic.

I went with my mum and her friends for a lunch, and we were slightly overwhelmed by the Menu. But the host was excellent, he walked us through the dishes and gave a selection of gluten free options for a celiac that was eating with us.

We started with a mezze platter that was very rich, it was very easy to guess between the dips based on their descriptions we were given to us. All were very unique.

I moved to a chicken shawarma for my main, whereas the others went for a stuffed aubergine dish and a lamb mandi. I chose badly on this particular occasion, my shawarma was good but I have defiantly had better in the past on a few occasions. Admittedly those were usually whilst rather drunk at 1:00am from local Lebanese takeaways.

But despite this, the rest of our parties food was excellent especially the stuffed aubergine and the halloumi, that had a really unique seasoning mix on them which I was told was zaatar.

Previously we have really struggled to find places we can enjoy with my mother’s celiac friend, with her often receiving strange plates of food from kitchens and menus that are ill prepared to deal with a gluten intolerance. But massive credit to Damastique who had a wide selection of options for celiac, without the usual compromise on flavour or authenticity.

Contacts and bookings:

Damastique – 01904 659294

Everest Gurkha – 01904 622688

Oshibi – 07729 649333

The Blue Barbakan – 01904 672474

Yemen Heaven – 01904 658582