Sakina's Restaurant

By: Aasif Mandvi

Narrated by: Aasif Mandvi

Sakina's Restaurant breathes new life into an age old story: the emotive tale of an immigrant coming to New York in pursuit of the American dream.

Actor, comedian, and writer Aasif Mandvi originally performed his Obie Award-winning solo show off-Broadway 20 years ago. This past October, the iconic play was reimagined and produced by Audible for a limited run at Minetta Lane Theatre in Manhattan's West Village.

Recorded for an Audible-exclusive audience, listeners can forgo the price of admission and embark on the cross-cultural journey with Mandvi. Listen in as he seamlessly transitions from character to character, impersonating a teenage girl as she grapples with coming of age in New York under the roof of traditional Indian parents, and an older male restauranteur clinging to his heritage with the same remarkable ease.

Entertaining and intimate, this story of what it means to be an American was written long before immigration became an intensely polarizing issue. Today, it’s revival feels necessary if not urgent, and certainly as honest and refreshing as ever.

Written and performed by Aasif Mandvi.

Directed by Kimberly Senior.

Originally directed and developed by Kimberly Hughes.

Experience this title in immersive 3D audio by setting your download quality to High within the app. Headphones recommended. For more, browse our entire collection of 3D audio listens.

©2019 Aasif Mandvi (P)2019 AO Media, LLC

Not my taste

I'm sure some people will love this, but as for me... I found the characters (and therefore the story) hard to follow.

There are no chapters and only one narrator. He tries his best to alter his voice, but two slightly different pitches or tones of voice just don't cut it for me. The story is nothing but dialogue, and when there's a sudden scene change, character change, and they're trying to use conversation to artificially indicate the characters' actions... eesh.

The end result was whiplash, over and over as I tried to understand the who, and what, and where until I gave up.

Just Never Clicked

This Audible Original just never caught my attention. I listened for 20 minutes or so, but . . .

An incredible story

I was very excited to listen to this story. The story is about an Indian Muslim man who goes to America to search for a better life which for him means to become a millionaire. In America, he works as a waiter at his uncle's restaurant known as Sakina's Restaurant. There we are introduced to his uncle, wife and their two children. The book is centered on an old man's desire to give the best to his children who now grown up have forgotten their values and culture.

I wish there would have been different narrators for each of the characters instead of having one narrator for the entire story.

not too good

I struggled to finish the audio. I just really didn't get the point of the book.

not what I was expecting

the narrator was good. An it showed me a life perspective I've not experienced myself an how difficult it could be.

whispers unheard

While listening in the car, the scenes where narrated whispered could not be heard. Not sure what I missed during that dialogue.

A little hard to follow

Easy listening but at times i was lost in the dialog because the interpretations od the charcters sounded practically the same to me.

Entertaining Listen

This is a great, quick listen! It is an interesting story with a great performance!

Ok but dated

I am a big fan of Aasif Mandvi , and he enacts great characters. However this piece felt like old news to me. It probably would’ve been a more interesting cross-section of the struggles and challenges of being Indian in America 20 years ago, when he first wrote it.

Separate characters

It was not clear that he was playing different characters... It should have been different chapters with a meaningful title... He went from one to the other without me noticing some times and that got me confused as his voice was the same.