Meze — Restaurant in New York

While any diner in town can turn out perfectly passable Greek food, it takes a dedicated Greek restaurant to fully dedicate their efforts to perfecting the pita, and slaying the slouvaki. Meze isn't quite there all the way, but its bright spots shine enough to merit choosing to come here instead of a greasy spoon diner.

Where Meze really excels is in its selection of authentic Greek appetizers, namely the spreads and the flambeed cheese. By far my favorite was the Meze spread, mixing the salty goodness of feta cheese with a flavorful hit of lemon and the most luxurious olive oil to give the entire mix a smooth finish. The Saganaki, flambeed tableside, leaves a delicious taste in your mouth, with the hit of caramelized melted cheese being like heaven on Earth.

The one place where Meze could pick their game up is on the spinach pie. While most are topped high with cheese and spinach, covered in a flaky hot crust, ours came out looking like half the spinach went missing between the kitchen and the table, and the filo crust had taken a steam in the sauna, coming out understuffed and barely crisp.

Sadly when it comes to a Greek restaurants bread and butter, Meze falls short. Their lamb gyro platter, in addition to being a small portion for the price, comes out overcooked, with most pieces of meat crunchy and slightly dry. Combine that with the hard pieces of gristle that come off the meat makes this a sad attempt at what's usually a hard staple to drop the ball on.

Service can be slow at times with wait staff who barely put the effort in to know the menu - when we asked what was in the 3 for all dip, we were given a bland rereading of the menu description itself. Additionally for the prices, the servings are...

I’ve been coming here for YEARS ! I moved to Brooklyn 7 years ago, my friend and I decided to walk around the neighborhood and found this hidden gem and the rest is history! My favorite dish would be the linguini with clams 😋but all of the food is amazing. I recently had went with the same girlfriend for the very first time since the pandemic and the food was just as great. My server on the other hand was not so great. I had stopped her from clearing off and table and I apologized for “bothering her” but I wanted to let her know my Pinot Grigio tasted like the bottle may have been open and sitting in the fridge and just tasted flat. Instead of saying she was sorry that my drink had tasted that way she proceeded to be A. Annoyed beyond measure with me. B. Give me attitude that I honestly did not ask for. C. Say to me “What do you want” “What do you want me to do” “The bottle is fresh I just opened it” continues to just tell me I’m wrong and then Rolls her eyes at me stomps her feet rips a new bottle out of the fridge grabs two glasses and pours wine into one shoves it in my face and said it’s going to taste the same and to taste it. THE WINE DIDNT TASTE THE SAME! So she poured the glass and stomped away. I work in customer service as I sell wedding gowns for thousands of dollars and I have to keep a smile on face no matter what situation I face with my customer. I also believe she wouldn’t have spoken to the man at the other table like that if he said his wine was flat. I felt shocked, confused and very offended that she spoke to me that way and ruined my dinner. She definitely needs to take a break drink some water...

Our dinner at the restaurant was a total letdown, and I gotta say, it was a real bummer. We were stoked about the meal, but it turned out to be a big disappointment. To begin with, the food quality left much to be desired. I ordered the sole stuffed with lump crab, and our waiter assured us that it was made with real crab meat. But when it landed on my plate, it was more like a crabby breadcrumb stuffing mixed with something sweet. It was seriously inedible. The fish itself was no better – swimming in a pool of what I assumed was melted butter, it was way too sweet and salty for my taste. Our disappointment didn't end there. One of our party members had ordered the special fish of the day, porgy, but before we could receive our entrees, the waiter informed us that they had run out of porgy. Instead, he suggested branzino. We declined the offer, opting to share the sole instead. But the waiter did a 180 and told us they miraculously had porgy. He even went to the fridge and pulled out some fish to prove it. It was puzzling and left us feeling misled. Furthermore, our dining experience was exacerbated by the consistent response from our waiter, who seemed to have a single refrain: "It's delicious." Regardless of the questions we posed about the menu or our concerns about the food, his stock answer remained the same. To sum it up, our dinner was a disappointment, and we left with a bad taste in our mouths, both literally and figuratively. We hope they step up their game because, at the moment, we wouldn't recommend this...