Pekarna NYC — Restaurant in New York

Explore Hidden’s Tinseltown pop-up experience -A friend and I recently attended Explore Hidden’s Tinseltown in NYC. I haven’t found a place to put a review, so I’m posting here. The ticket cost $22 and was from 9:30-11. With all the new holiday bars popping up, we assumed that we’d be walking into one of those. We arrived 3 minutes late, but waited an additional 15 minutes for the “event to begin.” We arrived at a low key bar on the UES called, Pekarna. I’ve posted some photos to their Yelp page. We were offered drinks to buy and told to wait for the elf to appear on the stairs. When the elf arrived we were ushered downstairs to a beautifully laid out holiday bar, complete with the on screen Yule Log. Spacing was tight with room for 20 people max. We received a welcome cocktail and chose our seats. Shortly after sitting a group of 5 showed up, so we moved to a two top to accommodate the larger group. The operation included 3 people, the elf, the bartender, and our host. Drink menus were provided and we were handed two activity two activity sheets. After a quick emoji movie guessing game, we were given a dry erase board and played some trivia. The gaming host was a bit overwhelmed and missed our winning answers, but gave us a prize for tying with the table to our side. The atmosphere was social and interactive. Most couples came on dates and a one of two friend groups added to the mix which made for very entertaining Dear Santa letters that were anonymously read aloud at the end of the night. We had purchased a $15 drink add on per ticket before we arrived. Our host was unaware of this, but ended up offering us 3 different types of liquors with simple mixers. I managed to get a brandy eggnog cream, but the only other table who bought the same ticket add on passed on drinks when the options were not readily available. Despite the delay and slight disorganization, the night ended up being fantastic! Everyone left jovial and the team members agreed to take photos with us and answer any of our questions. We exited just after 11pm which was nice as our start time was delayed. As we were leaving, I managed to check out the adjacent room where the Alice in Wonderland brunch is hosted. The space also appears to accommodate 20 people and is cutely set up with cool and creepy Cheshire Cat eyes. I don’t know that it would be worth the cost. However, if the food is as good as Alice’s Tea Cup, it would be worth the stay. The hosts kept us laughing and it put us in the...

The short version: extremely overpriced, unauthentic, bar food and drinks.

The long version: Pros: we easily got a reservation and the staff was kind and accommodating. We received a grand tour of the entire restaurant and we’re seated on the back patio. The food and drink order was correct, hot, and fully cooked.

Cons: this food was INCREDIBLY overpriced. Clearly the owners made a bad investment in this gigantic space pre-COVID and are now financially suffering. I feel for them and for all the restaurant owners. Unfortunately, I’m not into wasting huge sums of money on mediocre food and I don’t like the feeling of being ripped off. The server didn’t even mention the happy hour menu and when we wanted to order several things off of it, he tried to sway us to order more expensive things on the regular menu. Our last round of drinks were ordered just as happy hour was ending and we were charged full price. Finally, the menu was full of lies. “Waygu beef” and “wild boar” literally equalled ground beef and spam. Everything was covered in generic Thai chili sauce. There was nothing “Slovenian” about this place either. We paid $20 for a plate of cauliflower covered in Thai chili sauce. It’s going to take me a long time to get over this place. Literally go anywhere else to...

Pekarna is probably just trying to cash in on Melania or something... They must have paid for the 5 star reviews and the NY Times spot. Nothing about this place is actually Slovenian. Has anyone involved in opening this place ever even been to Slovenia? It's just another generic EuroAmerican overpriced post work drinking spot. If Slovenia was not a white European country, this restaurant would have been cancelled by now because of how inauthentic it is! There are no Slovenian dishes on the menu, and none of the famous deserts like potica or the kremšnit or gibanica... not even any loose reinterpretations of them. Also there are so many great worldclass wines from Slovenia that are now distributed in the US that could be showcased on menu, but only a few not particularly exciting ones made the list. And there is even more of a lack of Slovenian beers and liquor. (They got lots of tequila and mezcal on the list tho... Never knew agave grew in Slovenia.) If you're calling a place Slovenian, at least make some effort... Like maybe go visit the place and eat and drink something while you are there. This restaurant is quite disappointing. Slovenia has great culinary and drink culture, but you would never know that from...