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/

Food & Hookah, Fifty Five Lounge

Hookah, food and non-grungy couches is almost nonexistent uptown. So, when we stumbled upon this spot last night on our way to a neapolitan pizza spot, we ditched the pizza and hit this up instead.

Food 

I'll start off by saying that the food was nothing amazing. It was, quite possibly, a level up from bar food. Pretty standard hummous but nowhere near close to the best I've ever had. I'm a HUGE hummous lover and can tell you when I'm tasting fantabulous hummous.

 The mixed green salad had some sort of purchased dressing that tasted like it could've been from Hale and Hearty, meaning, it was good, but nothing artisan or farm-to-table-esqe. The babaganoush happened to have been really light and didn't taste like it had mayo like most cheap babaganoush. The falafels, like everything else, were no artisan falafels, but were fried fresh and the fries were the exact Manhattan diner fries you can get anywhere. They weren't really too crispy but still fresh and definitely weren't sitting under a heater either. This is what I would call upper level bar food, nothing more. The margarita pizza was long and sliced into eighths. It was quite cheesy and the sauce also tasted like a purchase and was not made fresh in-house. I used to work in an office next door to a bar kitchen and I know what bulk purchased cheese, tomato sauce and fries taste like. I'm spoiled, I guess, and I know the difference between in house dressing, tomato sauce and fries verse purchased. But again, this is a hookah "club" and so the food is not going to be anything amazing. 

Very honestly though, I'd go back. 

There aren't any spots in my hood that serve decent food, hookah and are clean as well. Most hookah places downtown are pretty dirty and dingy and I wouldn't really want to be sitting on the couch I'm forced to park myself on in order to smoke some hookah.. 

As much as I may be a food snob, when it comes to quality, sometimes I don't mind a standard spot that's going to give me everything I like all at once (hummous, hookah, music). 

FYI, the drinks were EXTREMELY watered down. 

We all left sober after 2-3 drinks a person. 

(I apologize for no food photos)

Hookah

For $40-$100 hookah, it's totally overrated. I make better hookah in my apartment that doesn't go harsh as quick as this one did. But hey, it was hookah and it hit the spot. Go for the fresh fruit flavor. It's the best bet. 

Ambiance

The lights are dimmed, the couches are clean, new and very unlike most of their hookah spot brethren. The scene is pretty random and it turns into a "club" that wants $500 for bottle service after 11pm on a weekend. Obviously, its more of a chilled spot to start out your night before 11, that plays nostalgic 90s disco/dance music. The photo below sort of over glamorizes the place  ad tad and there are no longer any curtains. 

Photo via GrubStreet 

Wait Time & Resos

There is no wait to be seated and reservations are NOT necessary. The service isn't great though. I asked for silverware three times. I needed to ask for water, and I have a feeling the waitress forgot to put in our margarita pizza order because I needed to remind her about it and it took quite some time to arrive.

Good For: Hookah, Chilled, Friends, Chilled Date 

Location 

Fifty Five

47 W. 55th St. 

(between 5th & 6th)

212-957-1899

http://newyork.grubstreet.com/2011/01/hash_55.html

Jack's Wife Freda

I've come here a couple of times and since its opening and they've changed around the menu a bit only to improve it for the better (they got rid of some items that really weren't all that great. A definite good sign of a restaurant looking to succeed). Its Israeli owned and has a cosmopolitan Tel-Aviv x French Bistro vibe. I've alway ended up here on a chilly Sunday afternoon and never regretted it.

Food

The food tastes home cooked. Buuuuut.... imagine it's a home cooked meal by a friend or family member that you can always rely on to make really tasty foods that is fresh, light, very simple but also quite flavorful. Other than the french fries which are pretty standard, I had green shakshuka, made with green tomatoes, (yes I'll eat sunny side up eggs in a shakshuka ANY DAY), an amazing tuna salad of Italian tuna mixed with avocado, mushrooms and arugala and an amazing sweet vinaigrette and a Cafe Gitane style avocado toast that was served on a whole grain sourdough type of bread and was not nearly as bland or tasteless as Gitane's. It was served with a sweet tomato sauce on top that the perfect final touch. I'd also recommend the kale salad and the eggplant sandwich.

Ambiance

As I've already mentioned, its got a bit of a warm French bistro/cafe vibe and can feel really intimate.

Its casual and trendy and a no reservation type of spot.

Wait Time

I've never had to wait, but I've also never gone at peek hours. I hear it gets busy though.

Good For: Lunch with friends, casual date, Brunch, casual and trendy

Jack's Wife Freda

224 Lafayette St.

(212) 510-8550

http://jackswifefreda.com/