Naya Mezze & Grill

HB wanted to hang out last Friday and I had happened to read an email from Thrillist that this restaurant was opening so I quickly made reservations for Friday, the day after its grand opening. I'm changing up my style a bit for this entry because something unfortunate happened but it wasn't anyone's fault so there's no good or bad.

The place is gorgeous. In my younger years, I would have been impressed. It's done railroad style, with 2 rows of white booths for 2 and 4 people. There is a back room for parties up to 10 or 12. Picture of courtesy of Thrillist.
I had made the reservation for 4 people. HB and I got there on time. Feisty and BB were running late and didn't show up until an hour later. When HB and I arrived at the restaurant, we told the maitre'd that the other 2 were running late. Since the place doesn't have a bar, they were nice enough to seat us at our table. We really appreciated that since most restaurants will only seat a complete party. HB and I sat down and decided to get drinks. We were both trying to decide between the Aryan, which is a Lebanese yogurt drink or the lemonade. We decided to be daring and try the yogurt drink. I was thinking that it would taste like Pinkberry and HB thought it would taste like Indian Lassi but it wasn't sweet at all. It's very tart and salty. It reminded me of Tahini sauce. HB and I chatted over complimentary pita chips, olives and olive tapenade for a good half hour. Through out the half hour different waiters and managers came by to ask us if the other 2 were still coming. Under this pressure, HB and I decided that it would be best if we ordered first since we had no idea when the other 2 would arrive. Ironically, when we finally decided on what we would get, it took a while to wave down a waiter. We got stuffed eggplant, falafel, fried kibbe and grape leaves. Kibbe is beef dumplings. I was disappointed that the prix fixe menu I had read about was not available.

I thought the food was mediocre. HB compared it to what she's had at Pera, where she eats often, and Naya came up short. To be fair, Pera is about 3x more expensive and caters to a different crowd. I didn't like Pera that much and it's more Mediterranean than Middle Eastern so it could be a geographic bias. I personally favor the food at Gazala Palace. The food here is fresh but none of the dishes did it for me.

When the other 2 finally came, they had better luck with their food. They ordered the lemonade, which was great. Feisty ordered kafta. BB got french fries, spicy potatoes and something else I did not get to try. The potatoes, both the fries and the spicy ones, were surprisingly good. They were both seasoned well. However, the general consensus was that the food was only ok. I'm sure Feisty will post her opinion later.

The latecomers ate fairly fast, so in all we only took up our booth for under 2 hours total. Part of the delay was due to the fact that the manager asked us if we wanted dessert but didn't give us menus. He came back later and asked if we still wanted dessert but nothing had changed since the first time he asked since we didn't get menus. We ended up not getting dessert. We were all full and the dessert options didn't sway us. The manager briskly took away the menus and gave us the check. We paid cash and got out of there fast. It was our fault that we didn't have a complete party but I felt we were needlessly rushed throughout dinner. I've had 2 hour meals before. The bill came out to be $26 a person, including a 21% tip. It was fun to try once but I probably wouldn't go back. This decision has less to do with the service than with the food.