Leyla — Restaurant in New York

The food was fine; it all tasted good-especially the lahmacun. But the service was horrendous; there were too many people around each seem to have different responsibilities. One to fill the water, one to bring the plates, one to take the empties out and one to take the order. If you ask help from any one of them for an item that is not within their responsibility, they kindly tell you that they will get the other person to do it in a few minutes. For example, the waiter could not take a single empty dish off the table and she had to send the right person to do so.

The person who was taking our order was just awful- firstly, she left us unattended after our starters that we had to chase after her to be able to order our main dish. After waiting with nothing in front of us to eat for 15 min or so for her to come and get our order, I decided to take the matter on my own hands. There was this one kind guy, very attentive - I asked him if he can take our order; but no, he is not allowed to it seems. He was kind and quick to find the actual waitress to finally come to us and ask us what we want to eat.

We finally get to order; my 9 year old son orders Lamb Shank and asks that it has no greens or vegetables on it. The waitress says sure. Next thing you know, she bring it with all the decorative vegetables (baby sprouts and chopped chives - you name it!) with a straight face! I could not believe it! When he asked about it, she said they are “decoration.” We spent 10 minutes painstakingly removing each of the “decorative” vegetable pieces. She offered to get a new dish made but we were almost done with the clean up and too hungry to wait any further at that point.

The rest of the dinner went downhill from there. It is either she does not care or she is not capable; I can’t tell which one.

This restaurant has to promote or empower their capable staff to properly serve; and train those who are simply not equipped to do a good job yet.

Awful experience!

PS. They had Turkish red wine; which was fine (super...

This was our go-to restaurant on UWS and have gone to no less than 7 times in the last 6 months! The food is delicious, fresh, and reasonably priced. Particularly love their veggie appetizers and cocktails. But the experience the other night was so upsetting, that my partner and I don't feel comfortable ever going back.

We had late seating and were enjoying hosting a guest from abroad in their outdoor seating. We did not know that closing was quite early, at 10pm, and was not given clear information about this at all. In fact, the wait staff only caused further confusion. From 20 mins up till 10pm, our waitress informs us that her shift is ending, but we are welcome to sit inside and her colleague will be taking over. She welcomed us to order dessert. This all sounds fine and the new waitress tells us that we can actually stay outside later, but then reneges on this. We tell her what our original waitress told us (that we were asked to move inside) and begins to act passive-aggressively - like we are demanding to be moved indoors and continue ordering. We are moved to a table and get very little service and by the time we leave, the attitude from the staff is downright hostile with nasty looks, silence when walking out to "thank you"s. My partner mentioned that it seemed like we had overstayed our welcome and both our waitress and another staff member mouthed "yes you did" with a glare.

I've dined near closing time and it is never handled this way. I have no expectation around staying past closing and we only needed effective communication for us to wrap up and leave. A simple - "so sorry, but we are closing, we cannot accommodate any later, and here is your check" would have sufficed. This back and forth with the wait staff led us to be in a weird spot to wrap up for our guest and we inadvertently staying much later. We are so sad and disappointed to lose one of our favorite...

Incredible meal from start to finish! Every single dish was outstanding. As vegetarians this restaurant is basically a goldmine of delicious options. It was hard to not order the entire menu as everything sounded amazing.

We started out with the nutty, savory and slightly sweet Muhammara spread. I loved how light the toast was, you could really appreciate the texture and flavors of the spread. Next we tried the Veggie Pide, which ended up being pleasantly light and smaller than I thought. Loved how thin and crispy the dough was. The veggies really shined.

Next we tried the Beet Carpaccio, which was not only a beautiful dish but by far the best beet dish I’ve ever had! Loved how thin the beets were and the balls of goat cheese were heavenly which all paired so well with the zesty arugula salad on top. It was everything I didn’t know I wanted in a beet salad.

Lastly we tried the Vegetarian Manti (the only picture I got because I was too busy enjoying the food) and wow! I didn’t think the meal could get any better but it did. This dish was absolutely transportive. The velvety eggplant filled pasta topped with a smoky yogurt sauce just melted in your mouth. The tangy sumac and fresh parsley added so much depth. If I had to pick a last meal this would 110% be it.

Not only is the food out of this world (and country) the cocktails were amazing too. They were all very well-balanced and perfectly boozy. We tried the Pistachio Mud Heaven for dessert which was like eating a big, nutty, lightly sweetened shredded wheat cake that paired so well with the creamy, chewy icecream. We ended the meal with a couple glasses of Turkish Tea which was the perfect bitter, earthy follow up to dessert.

All in all, we can’t wait to go back and bring friends here so we can order more of menu. And when the temperatures warm up we’ll definitely want to dine in their charming back...