Malka — Restaurant in New York

I came to Malka the other night to celebrate a friend’s birthday, and unfortunately, the experience was very disappointing. While the ambiance was nice, the food and service did not meet expectations.

We started with hummus and tahini as appetizers, but they didn’t serve anything to dip or spread with. When I asked the waiter if we were supposed to get something, he simply said “no.” We had to order focaccia separately just to enjoy the spread. Another appetizer, the white asparagus wrapped in parchment paper, had a bitter, stringy texture and was poorly presented. The arugula salad with some beats was tasty.

For the mains, the schnitzel was a letdown… it was mostly mashed potatoes with an extremely thin piece of chicken that was barely noticeable. It felt more like fried mashed potatoes than an actual schnitzel. The steak, which we requested medium, was overcooked and had more fat than meat.

Dessert was also underwhelming. We ordered the pistachio cake and apple tart. The apple tart was good, but the pistachio cake was just a plain, dry bundt loaf sprinkled with powdered sugar. When I hear “pistachio cake,” I expect something with real pistachio flavor, some frosting, or at least crushed pistachios… not a dry, flavorless loaf. To make matters worse, when the desserts were served, the waiter didn’t even bring us utensils. When I asked for a fork, he sarcastically said, “Oh, I thought you were going to use your hand,” as if that was funny. It wasn’t. It was unnecessary and unprofessional, and I don’t understand why he seemed annoyed that I asked for utensils in the first place.

Service throughout the night was lacking. The waiter was nowhere to be found when we needed assistance, and overall, table manners were poor. I was excited to try Malka, but this was a waste of money. I left disappointed and still hungry. Definitely...

Service: They sat us at one of the worst tables in the restaurant that was directly in front of their POS system with little to no room so everyone kept bumping into to me as they passed or used the POS system. Before we sat down, I asked the hostess if we could move to one of the three open two person tables (there were probably more). She rudely told my no and that she didnt want to move around reservation. Mind you those three tables stayed open the entire meal. The waitresses and waiter did their best not to bump into me while I was eating but there was simple not enough room for people to use the POS system, get past to other tables and for me to eat comfortably. That table should not exist. At one point, presumably the manager rudely asked me to move in closer to the table as if it was my fault they didnt think this through. Our table was also very wobbly and at one point the waitress leaned on it while taking our order and nearly spilled our water, she said she would fix it but never did. Later asked another waiter if I could get a match book or something to level the table and left but never came back. Also check out the other review left a little over an hour ago, they had a similar experience with service.

Food: Overpriced. As others have said the menu makes little to no sense. The dips, while were pretty good don't come with bread unless you pay extra for it and they also dont tell you that it doesnt come with bread. As other have said the schnitzel was actually pretty good. The roast beef on the other hand was way over priced for not that good, was essentially a 40$ appetizer and it was also served on a shiny gold piece of cardboard.

140$ for two people, no drinks, no desert, rude staff and subpar food. We wont be...

Had high hopes for this new spot in the neighborhood but left really disappointed.

When we saw we were seated directly next to a service station, we asked to be moved to one of several empty tables (my fiance is over 6ft tall and I am 6 months pregnant). The hostess told us no, she didn’t want to move reservations. A meal spent being bumped by every server/customer walking through on one side and by the table a foot behind us was unpleasant, to put it mildly. This was made worse by the fact the empty tables remained empty and at one point an employee asked my fiance to move his chair in so servers could get by…as if there was anywhere he could scoot and as if we had not already pointed out what a dumb place it was to put a table.

After spending 10 minutes trying to decipher all of the riddles on this menu (3 out of 4 items give zero indication of what the thing actually is), we decided on the dips (“spicy instruments to stir the soul”) and hummus - neither comes with anything to actually dip with, so we ordered $16 worth of bread in addition.

Our mains were the schnitzel and roast beef. The schnitzel was actually very good, albeit overpriced. The roast beef however - $38 for maybe 1/8lb of medium rare deli style roast beef, served not on a plate but a shiny gold piece of cardboard. My fiance asked the waitress whether the beef was as raw as it looked given my pregnancy and received a visibly annoyed “it’s medium rare, so it’s cooked”. Excellent response for an entirely reasonable dietary inquiry!

Overall pretty overpriced (even for this neighborhood) and the service was abysmal. Our high hopes for a new local spot were sadly dashed, much like the servers into my fiancé’s...