Obnoxious People & Good Food, Balaboosta

Image via NY Mag

Great food and obnoxious staff yields quite the irritating combination. Does one boycott the establishment because the staff are so rude? Or ignore and get over it because the food, the vibe and the location are great?

You can be the judge. I've already tried it a couple of times and have formulated my own conclusions. 

Balaboosta is the sister restaurant of Taim and Taim mobile. The second Taim has now opened  its second location two storefronts down from Balaboosta. I've been to Balaboosta twice for lunch, once for breakfast and once for dinner. Meaning all three meals of a day have been experienced at this eatery. In all of my experiences, the hosts were obnoxious as hell in person as well as on the phone and if you can get past this, as I was quite put off at first, then take the plunge and make the reservation. 

The Food

Mediterranean

Well, this very category is what had me coming back for more, (along with the fact that I lived around the corner), although I did not need to drag my family here for graduation brunch or my grandmother for Mother's Day lunch if the food and atmosphere weren't appropriate and impressive.
Balaboosta's food is super tasty, light and fresh. Yes, as are most quality places in this city. At this point, if a restaurant's food cannot be described by those three latter adjectives then it is NOT worth the bother(ahem ilili). And, more than anything, it is doubtful whether anyone is interested in leaving  a restaurant feeling too full or heavy either. At Balaboosta the latter is something one does not need to worry about. 

They say, the lamb burger at Balaboosta is the best dish and its been raved about by the reviewers left and right. Sadly enough for you carnivores (although not for myself of course), it isn't something I'll ever be ordering but I do recommend it as everything else is great, and would only expect the most sought after dish to be just as fabulous.
One thing to skip is the zaatar potatoes. Each time I expected them to be crunchy and zesty and each time I remembered that they never really live up to either. The cauliflower salad, fried olives and mortar and pestle chummus (don't make fun, I love saying chummus with the chhhhh), are all FAB and I definitely recommend the carrot puree pizza as an entree as well. Most importantly if you're there for brunch go for the shakshuka. Yes, I said it a thousand times, I hate brunch food, but kids, I LOVE SHAKSHUKA and this is some good shakshuka! 

Fried Cauliflower

Mortar & Pestle Chummus 

Image via Google Images
Carrot Puree Pizza

Image via Google Images
Shakshuka

The grilled whole Branzino and the Red Snapper are filling and tasteful entree options.
Finally, you MUST MUST MUST, order the chocolate mousse dessert. Its served with crunchy pieces of milk chocolate at the bottom and the perfect combination of thick and thin chocolate mousse on top. It's a unique type of chocolate mousse that isn't as fluffy as the usual mousses one may have tried. Regardless, the taste and the consistency are too difficult to pass up tasting so make sure to save room for dessert. I embarrassingly wipe the cylinder clean every single time!

Wait Time & Resos

THEY ARE SO OBNOXIOUS, as has been mentioned multiple times in this post already. I've been here a number of times and their obnoxiousness is continuous  If you don't make reservations then don't bother. They wont even attempt to seat you at the bar. Actually, they might. They've lightened up a bit recently. Oh! and once you arrive with a reservation the hosts still make your party wait. Honestly, if the food, vibe and location weren't all that great then I wouldn't have come back so many times. Oh, I will admit that I did show up with my mother, sister and grandmother at 4pm on Mother's Day and it was pretty empty and so they were obviously "forced" to seat us immediately. Because, quite obviously, who would EVER want to ever have an empty restaurant in Soho on a Sunday, or at any hour for that matter?
It's terribly bad for business.
Otherwise, it's hopeless without a reservation. 

Ambiance

Downtown, casual and chilled is how I would describe the atmosphere. 

The scene is young to middle aged. I'd say there is a mix of bobos, carnivores who are there to sample the lamb burger and neighborhood locals. It's in Soho, what else would you expect?
Overall, it's not too scenie and you don't need to be all too dressed up to eat here without feeling out of place.

Image via Google Images

If you're looking for something downtown and quality Mediterranean food, I'd try it out. 

Good For: Groups, vegetarians, brunch, lunch, dinner. I wouldn't recommend coming here on a date, unless you've been dating for a while. The lighting is weird and the vibe is a tad too casual, unless its a day-date. 

Location:

Balaboosta

Mulberry St

(between Prince & Spring)

http://balaboostanyc.com/

ilili Disappoints

Four stars on yelp?
Why????

I get that yelp is supposed to be a user generated platform but that is the inherent problem. Literally anyone, and anyone is referring to individuals illiterate when it comes to taste, food and restaurant, can give ill deserving restaurants 4-5 star ratings. I know what you're thinking, what makes me different than these other yelp users? I'll give you this much, after tasting the food at ilili there is no possible way it could merit 4 stars and for that, I am unlike these yelp users. Anyone who gave ilili this many stars either lacks taste buds or is restaurant and taste illiterate. Yelp is littered with reviews from people who think they know the slightest thing about what good food actually tastes like but, in actuality, have no idea. I had read about ilili when it first opened and had seen it's pop-up at Madison Square Park Eats a couple of years in a row but never took the opportunity to try it. I live for my weekend ventures to new restaurants and figured a four star yelp review would prove impressive.
Lesson learned, skip the yelp reviews and make you're own judgements!

The Food

Lebanese

I went in hoping for a warm and tasty plate of fresh hummus paired with crispy falafel. I was not satisfied with either. The hummus was nothing special and lacked flavor completely while the falafel did not have that perfect falafel combination of crispy outside with spicy, moist and steaming-ground-chickpea inside. The only thing it did have was a cool presentation of falafel cubes instead of balls. (see photo below). Points for eye candy. Although, in a restaurant the real points should be for mouth and taste candy. 

Hummus & Babaganoush

Cubed Falafel

The babaganoush was too smokey. I normally don't love smokey dishes but when done right, I don't mind. This dish, I minded.
The warm eggplant, served with tamarind molasses was sweet and tangy although the small slivers of eggplant were somewhat (not totally though) drowning in the tamarind sauce. I'll eat anything with eggplant and enjoyed a few bites of this dish. Honestly, too many bites became too much with all that tamarind. 

Eggplant & Tamarind Sauce

We also ordered mouhamara which I had quite high expectations for. I've tasted home made mouhamara and have also futilely attempted to make my own. Expecting a paste of spicy and somewhat crunchy (its made with ground walnuts) paired with a hint of sweet and tang, this mouhamara was bland and lacking in any of the former as well as any real flavor.

I walked away feeling like the fries were the best thing on the menu and they weren't fantabulous either. I wouldn't say to run back for them or anything. They were cut fresh and seasoned with loads of herbs and spices. They were good though. I'd order them again if I were, god forbid, dragged back here.

I did not leave feeling satisfied with my Sunday lunch, was quite disappointed and proceeded to clear my palate with the lemony fattoush salad and mint tea. 

Attempting to fill up on tea and salad because nothing else was satisfying

Ambiance

ilili seems to believe it is a fine dining establishment. It starts the customer off with beautifully folded napkins, lots of forks and spoons and well dressed, pretentious waiters to go along with it. And yet, the food is no where near on par with fine dining. Everything about the presentation seems to be trying too hard to be  upscale. The waiter's "have you dined with us before" question, paired with his long soliloquy on ilili's type of cuisine as if no one in this melting pot city are familiar with Lebanese food, was ridiculous and seemed like posing pretentiousness. It would have been quite possibly tolerable and acceptable (and only possibly because poser pretentiousness is never really tolerable) if the food was actually on par with it's fine dining decor and presentation.

The crowd was mostly families and couples and the space seemed quite large for the number of people dining. 

Wait Time & Resos

There was no wait and we were happily seated immediately. I'm sure that you could most probably walk in on any given night and be seated quite immediately as the space is quite large.


Too harsh of a review?
Maybe...
Honesty is always the best policy.

Good For: I don't really recommend it being good for anything. It's nothing special. 

If you are still interested in giving it a try it's good for dinner or lunch with friends and/or family. 

ilili

5th Avenue

(Between 27th & 28th)

http://www.ililinyc.com/