July 15, 2026

Reef Zaman, Redwood City: A Yemeni Immigrant's Charcoal Bet on a Former Sizzler

One SF/Bay Area opening a day, chosen and checked. Today: the Peninsula's turn, with a Yemeni-born restaurateur and a grill hand from the James Beard-nominated Mazra lighting a charcoal fire in a long-empty Redwood City Sizzler.

The long-empty former Sizzler at 1011 Veterans Boulevard in Redwood City has a charcoal grill in it now. On June 29, Reef Zaman began quietly serving, and its grand opening is this Sunday, July 19, at 5 p.m., with an open buffet, a Jordanian dance performance, and a DJ (Redwood City Pulse, July 14).

The man behind it is Faris Alqabass. He grew up in Yemen, came to the United States at fifteen, and got his start making sandwiches at a New York City deli. He opened Yemeni Restaurant in New York in 2019, then Mandi House in Los Angeles in 2024, with a San Francisco outpost as well. He had meant to open Reef Zaman in New York, but pivoted after finding the Redwood City space, and he already plans to take Reef Zaman to Walnut Creek and Mandi House to Sacramento (Redwood City Pulse, July 14).

Running the grill is chef Mohammed Al-Omari, who came from nearby Mazra, the Makableh brothers' Mediterranean grill whose chefs were 2025 James Beard Award semifinalists (Redwood City Pulse). Al-Omari worked the skewer grill at Mazra's San Bruno kitchen (San Mateo Daily Journal). Now he is the one over the coals at Reef Zaman.

The menu is open-fire Mediterranean: whole grilled branzino, kebabs, lamb chops, shawarma wraps, and plates of shawarma or lamb shank in the roughly $22 to $32 range, a falafel platter around $24, and baklava and warbat for dessert at $5 to $9 (Hoodline, July 14). Alqabass told Palo Alto Online he has eaten in many places and never tasted a lamb chop like the one he makes (Hoodline, July 14).

The room seats about 280, and a roughly 2,000-square-foot patio is planned for later this summer (Hoodline, July 14). Reef Zaman is open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., walk-in, at 1011 Veterans Boulevard, Redwood City (Redwood City Pulse).

Why this one: Redwood City's Veterans Boulevard corridor is turning into a Mediterranean destination, with Mazra's James Beard-nominated kitchen already down the road, and Reef Zaman adds a Yemeni-born owner and a Mazra-bred grill man to the biggest box on the strip. Where most kebab shops default to a generic format, this one roots itself in a Jordanian-Yemeni heritage, down to the Jordanian dance at Sunday's grand opening. The lamb chop over charcoal is the dish to drive for.

Also opening

• Notte Divino, Sausalito (Marin): opens July 24 in Osteria Divino, the jazz-and-Italian spot Elizabeth Nebot ran for 20 years before her death in March, with chef Yovani Castillo, twelve years in that kitchen, back at the stove, and live jazz set to run to 1 a.m. (Marin Independent Journal, July 14)

• Broken Dreams, Oakland (East Bay): Geoffrey Deetz, chef-owner of the late Temple Club, a 2018 Chronicle Top 100 restaurant, and his wife return August 10 at 1312 Broadway with a fast-casual com tam shop named for the broken-rice dish and the setbacks; entrees $14-20. (SF Chronicle, July 15)

• Saam, San Francisco SoMa: Bangkok Michelin chef Thitid "Ton" Tassanakajohn, of Le Du and Nusara, opens his first U.S. restaurant next week at 415 Brannan, and Axios reports diners are already snapping up reservations. (Axios SF, July 15)

• Tartine Mill Valley (North Bay): the bakery's first North Bay outpost lands at Strawberry Village in late July, a return to Marin County, where the bread operation began in Point Reyes before moving to San Francisco. (SF Chronicle, July 13)