First Time at Shukette? Here’s What to Order

Shukette’s menu is built for sharing, which is exactly why it trips people up on a first visit. There’s no obvious appetizer-entree-dessert path. Instead, you’re looking at a wall of breads, dips, small plates, and charcoal-grilled mains that all seem to want a spot on the table at once — food that fits squarely into Chelsea’s Mediterranean dining scene. The good news is that the menu has a natural order to it if you know where to start, and it follows the same rip-and-dip logic the kitchen is built around.

Start with bread and one or two dips

Every table at Shukette should start with bread. The Frena, a Moroccan-style bread finished with garlic and oregano, and the Lafa, a grilled flatbread brushed with ramp butter, are both built to be torn apart by hand. Order one of those and pair it with a dip or two rather than trying all five. Not Your Average Hummus, topped with marinated chickpeas and bang bang shata, is the most requested for a reason, but the Beet Tzatziki is worth ordering if you want something brighter and less familiar. For a table of two, one bread and two dips is plenty before you move on.

Pick two or three plates from the Shuk

The Shuk section covers the vegetable-forward, market-style dishes, and this is where the kitchen’s seasonality really shows up. The Pea Party, built from snap peas, snow peas, asparagus, and pea shoots with zhoug, is a good bet in spring and early summer. The Glazed Sweet Potatoes with charred scallion crème fraîche work almost any time of year and tend to please people who think they don’t like vegetable-forward dishes. If someone at the table wants something more substantial, the Egyptian Spiced Grilled Wings or Shrimp à la Plancha with harissa butter fill that role without straying from the rest of the meal.

Choose one dish from Al Ha’esh, the charcoal grill

Al Ha’esh, meaning “from the fire,” is the section built around Shukette’s hardwood charcoal grill, and it’s where the kitchen’s technique is most obvious. For a table that wants to split one grilled main, the Joojeh Chicken, a saffron-yogurt marinated half chicken served with toum, is the most approachable and feeds two comfortably. If you’re leaning further into the meal, the Grass-Fed Steak Shish Kebab with carrot harissa is a strong second choice, and it pairs naturally with the Jeweled Rice from the Shuk menu if you want a starch on the table. For more on how this section of the menu is cooked, see our guide to Al Ha’esh charcoal grilling.

Leave room for the Tahini Soft Serve

Skipping dessert at Shukette is a mistake most first-timers regret. The Mic Drop, a tahini-based soft serve topped with halva floss, hazelnut, and pomegranate, is the dish most people ask about after they leave, and it’s a genuinely different flavor profile from a typical restaurant dessert — we cover exactly why in our breakdown of the Mic Drop. If tahini isn’t your thing, the Pomegranate Crasher, a pomegranate sorbet finished with dark chocolate and lime, is the lighter alternative.

A sample order for two people

That combination covers bread, a dip, a vegetable plate, a grilled main, and dessert without overloading the table, and it gives a genuine sense of what the kitchen does across all four sections of the menu. From there, a second or third visit is the right time to branch out into the Fish in a Cage, the Lamb Kebab, or one of the rotating seasonal specials the kitchen adds throughout the year. If you’re eating with a larger group, our guide to group dining at Shukette covers how to scale this same approach up.