The place setting and menu at Ayat in Ditmas Park, including olives and oil.

There’s a lot more than falafel at this Palestinian restaurant, but of course, they have that too. Ayat opened in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn about 5 years ago at the end of 2020.

Fried cheese drizzled with honey

We had a big dinner of little plates at Au Za’atar in the East Village.

Our child’s daycare celebrated Rosh Hashanah this year with a two-day closure so we did the only sensible thing: we shipped our 18-month-old to New Jersey for an overnight and made dinner reservations.