Tavern 157
“We tried several dishes and some of our favorites were:
– Fish Tacos
– Truffle Fries
– Bone Marrow
– Coconut Mussels
– Ribs
The owner (Kathy ?)”
“Went for happy hour on Sunday – the fact that this place has HH every day (4-7:30pm) is a plus alone!”
“Best rack lamb I've ever tried!”
Tavern 157
Takes Reservations: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Happy Hour: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
PokéStop Nearby: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
5 reviews
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Went for happy hour on Sunday – the fact that this place has HH every day (4-7:30pm) is a plus alone! The HH is probably one of the best you can find in the Flushing area. $5 house wines (red = merlot or cab sauv and white = pinot grigio or sauv blanc), $3 beer (excluding guiness), $4 sangria (red or white) and half off oysters!
The bartender John was super friendly (ended up being a friend of my brother's – small world) and spontaneously brought us two free drinks that he made! It was this lychee mint cocktail that isn't on the menu yet and it was SO good.
We already ate before coming so we just had some popcorn chicken. It was a little salty, but it worked well with the drinks. It was more like karaage & some pieces were just fried skin, but I love fried chicken skin so no problems here. The presentation is also very nice. The portions are kind of small, but it works as nice accompanying dishes for drinks.
I'll definitely come back to try the oysters & the other dishes on the menu!
To me, Tavern 157 has been an nice addition to the hub of cafés, restaurants and bars on the Northern Blvd strip in East Flushing.
I've come here twice with my eating buddy, and during the first time, I immediately noticed that the vibe reminded me of cabaret: lively and a touch upscale. That atmosphere shows through the dim lighting and the bar's dark red / brown interior and the servers wearing black suspenders and a white button down.
I enjoyed their red sangria a lot, because its taste was sweeter and less heavy on the alcohol. Another plus was that I got it for a couple of bucks during happy hour. I also ordered the chocolate fondue dessert to share. The melted chocolate was dark chocolate, so slightly on the bitter side, but I didn't mind that because of the sweetness of the marshmallows and fruits I dipped into it. If the bar offered milk / dark / white chocolate as options for the fondue, that'd be interesting.
The second time I came here wasn't as enjoyable, because the bar got super rowdy when a group of guys, all friends, were at the bar and kept on bumping into us / invading our personal space without realizing or being mindful of how much space they were taking up. Food and drink wise, my peach sunrise cocktail tasted sweet and felt refreshing to drink. The crême brulée was fluffy in texture and beautifully presented with a mint sprig, but for $7, I expected a larger portion. Overall, I'm a fan of this bar and plan to go when I want a calmer night out over drinks and light food.
Cool new place on Nothern blvd, great addition to the area. Loved the decor inside, it's really nice, even the bathroom's nice. I came later at night with a bunch of friends and got the sangria on their happy hour, white sangria tastes better than the red. We also got some snacks to share. Good hangout spot!
From the outside looking in, one would never know that such a beautiful place existed beyond the borders of northern boulevard. The decor is exquisite, with dark wood, light fixtures, and warmth that makes any restaurant goer want to stay for more than a few hours.
I wouldn't say the food is particularly spectacular- but generally good.
My party and I tasted the following:
Coconut Mussels (no coconut flavor)
Truffle Fries (pretty good but not much truffle flavor overall)
Crispy Calamari (good)
Braised Short Rib
Rack of Lamb
Seafood Spaghetti (good)
Yes, the portions here are tapas style, so don't go with anyone who won't enjoy this. Although I wish the food had more overall flavor, I think $8 is a very good price for most of the tapas dishes. However, the higher priced items like the braised short rib and the rack of lamb did not really deliver flavor-wise.
HOWEVER, the drinks here are a winner and for that, I will be coming back. The white sangria here is divine- the best white sangria I have ever had. And I've been a ways from Spain and back. I will be coming back for that white sangria. The red sangria, the new fruit flavored sojus were all very delicious. The bartender was nice enough to personally deliver a bottle to our table.
For the ambiance and the white sangria, I will certainly be giving this place several more tries. Although all the food isn't amazing, the service, decor, drinks will definitely have me back.
Tavern 157 is a fairly new place and I suspect that most of the reviews that are written before me (all unanimously 5 stars) are from the staff and/or friends. This may NOT be the case but it certainly seems that way.
Before I start, a caveat. I like good food. I pay well for good food. If you know me, you know that I don't even bother looking at the price for most food if it's good. However, I do not enjoy paying a LOT to eat good food that can be and is made cheaply. I also love fusion restaurants but for a fusion place to be good enough to charge extra, they have to do something extra. If you get creative with your food, I'll drop the cash needed to eat it. If you just have two different styles of dishes in one restaurant or you incorporate that one sauce in that one dish, I'm not gonna bother. For reference, I think basta pasta is a great example of a good fusion restaurant that I would be gladly willing to pay the money for. Alright, with that aside…
The food is good but very veryyy small.
If you've ever been to France, yeah it's like that (maybe even smaller??). This by itself is not an issue but I just cannot in any possible way justify the price for such small ports of relatively "simple" food. No offense to the chef and the rest of the staff but braised short rib and a dollop of mashed potato just does not call for a mid $20 price point. These are literally things I could make at home without much hassle and still have it taste exactly the same (braised galbi is a very simple Korean dish). Yes, the place looks high scale but this doesn't justify making the food so expensive when other places don't even come close to that level of price.
Expect $30+ per person if you want to eat well. Easily, $50 with drinks. This is definitely $$$ not $$.
Here's the breakdown of the dishes…
Fries – Probably the best bang for your buck. $8 for nice, thin, crispy fries with truffle oil and parmesan cheese (I think)
Calamari – Nice thick, completely round (it's like not then flat circle kind you get at some Thai places), and crispy. At $8 bucks, it's reasonable. The quality seemed to be pretty high.
Rack of lamb – I believe this was… $17? It tasted good but was it $17 good? Eh… Asked for medium and got medium. Came with a very small potato croquette. No string beans (unlike one of the pictures – yelp.com/biz_photos/tave…).
Braised short rib – Either $22 or $25 (can't recall the exact price). The width/length is smaller than most smartphones. It's about 2 inches thick. It's literally like an overpriced filet mignon. It came with a scoop of mashed potatoes, string beans on the side, and some chips on top with string beans on the side. This dish is crazy easy to make a ton of and not even all that expensive… Priced this high, it probably has one of the highest profit margin out of all the food they had… It did just melt in my mouth but it's also braised so… that's to be expected.
On service…
It was good on all fronts except for my weird complication with trying to get a beer "during" happy hour. I couldn't get beer priced for happy hour because it was 6:59 PM when I asked them and the machine didn't allow the beer to be priced cheaper once it hit 7 PM (when HH ends). I feel like a smart move on the waitress's part would have been to just charge for the entire beer and comp the money but who knows, maybe the machine doesn't allow for that as well. It might also be docked from her pay but I feel like talking to the manager would've fixed something like that…
I don't know, why are all these hipster Korean food places so expensive?? I'm not even all that picky about spending money on food but these Korean places with mostly uninspired dish that cost a lot just frustrates me. I really hope this doesn't become the common theme on Northern (I'm looking at you, MFC and pizza maru). The food always tastes good/fine but are almost always overpriced. I suppose non-Korean Americans just feed into it or something.
MFC actually has better portions for just as tasty foods (though the quality has dropped a bit recently) than Tavern… Yeah, I just said that. You should realize how bad the portion size to pricing ratio is for Tavern if I'm willing to say something like that. Go read my reviews about MFC if you don't know.
Joah gives pretty decent portions but isn't crazy expensive. I don't even know how they manage… /s
I'd really love to come back but the price is just too much…
I am… still hungry… =[