Arabesque
“I had the fish which I thought was awesome and I couldn't get enough of the hummus so yummy!!!”
“I am excited to try Arabesque on Thursday for Gypsy Kings night and for Friday/Saturday for the belly dancer.”
“;)
I'm a huge fan of Arabic music and really enjoyed the man singing live and his beautiful sitar/guitar playing skills.”
Arabesque
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
Rate and write a review Cancel reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Beautiful Middle-Eastern space in the back hosted my friend's movie screening. Sexy place for a date and hookah lovers will likely be happy here. Scheherazade would be proud.
The drinks are decent, just don't look for beers. Prices are rather stiff, but you pay for the space here.
Plenty of appetizing dishes on the menu. Lamentably I didn't get to try any food.
I ordered food for pickup here. Upon entering, the fruity smell of hookah filled my nostrils. It was kind of dark, the atmosphere intimate, with people sitting at the bar or at tables in big groups. It's more appropriate to think of this place as a semi-upscale restaurant with the option to do hookah. We told the hostess that we were picking up food. One of the servers ushered us in and told us to sit and relax. He poured us water. I didn't get his name, but kudos to him for excellent customer service!
I ordered the chackchouka dinner which is a salsa-like diced tomato base with peppers and seasoning. This came with a bunch of pita bread. My friend ordered a salad with avocado in it. I did not like my dish. It was cold (supposed to be), not much more than a salsa…with pita bread! I ate it and was really unsatisfied, especially for what I paid for it. Dinner? More like snack. My friend's salad was much better. His dressing tasted fresh and slightly spicy from the ginger. It was well put-together. I should've ordered that.
Regardless, I will still probably come back here to sit-in for dinner because of how nice this place looks and my experience with that one server. Next time, I will know what not to order! I just hope that the price-portion-flavor aspect of my experience isn't representative of what else this place has to offer. To be updated!
Surprisingly, my experience here was not as bad as I thought. I came to this place to meet up with a new contact, and I enjoyed the food and the vibe on a Saturday night. This place serves some Middle Eastern style food, and late at night they offer some live music and you can even do some smoking at this place.
The Beef Short Rib dish is a pretty good choice that you can buy for $20. Although the vegetables on the side of the dish were just ok, the beef itself was pretty good, and tasted really good with the rice. I also liked the flavor. As for drinks, I got a Riding on a Camel cocktail. I couldn't remember what was in it, but it was sweet, and somewhat refreshing and it was not very strong in alcohol content. I thought it was a little overpriced at $14, but it's probably a typical New York price for a drink at a somewhat nice place.
The new contact really likes to smoke hookah, which is pretty much inhaling smoked tobacco from a somewhat elegant and large pipe. I had a few smokes, but didn't taste much flavor. The new contact is definitely much more skilled and was able to blow some smoke shapes out of the mouth. I probably would not come here just to smoke hookah unless I plan on eating at this place and I am with a large group of people. The music was fine, and the lady who took my order was nice. The place was pretty comfortable as well. You may need to talk very loud at this place, but not as loud compared to being in a very loud nightclub.
Overall, this is a decently good place if you are looking for a somewhat sophisticated setting, some good food with some hookah to smoke. I probably would not come back here again with a small group of people, but if there's a large group with a good amount of cash that really wants to eat some food and smoke some hookah in New York, I probably would take them to this place.
Cool options, most notably the pineapple, but most expensive Hookah I've ever encountered! Not worth it at all in my opinion. But I didn't get fodo so can't speak to that.
Totally disappointed about dining here. Came for a ladies night out and here is my experience.
1) AC was not working for the most part. For a hot summer day this makes the restaurant experience rather unpleasant. I felt bad for the workers wearing long sleeves here. The music in the main dining area kept turning off – going from very loud to totally silent. The dining room was pretty empty during the week night.
2) The food was on the heavy side for my taste. I did enjoy the Arabesque sampler. The pita bread on the side was not soft, however. My tagine lamb meatball main dish (25$) consisted of 6 meatballs swimming in sauces and spices and didn't come with anything else like the other dishes. I wasn't hungry anymore but found it a bit strange.
3) The bill took an hour to get paid. Not exaggerating. The system wasn't working so it took a while to sort out and apply my Gilt voucher (bring a paper copy because they have issues applying from the phone). After they split up the "remainder", we noticed that it wasn't applied so we had to do it all over again. They gave us a free dessert which was nice but the wait in the heat honestly wasn't worth it.
This place is pretty delightful. Upon stepping in, you feel as though you are in another world…dim lighting, soft velour cushions, a sexy back room with black and white films, cozy nooks to sit in and beautiful cut out dividers. Very sexy and comfortable….genie in a bottle?
Besides the beautiful ambiance..the food is also very good and the portions are large. The pita is warm and fresh and goes very well with the delicious trio platter (hummus, babaganoush and a tomato based sauce). You could eat that alone and be happy. I must also say that there is a moroccan mint tea that is excellent and highly recommended. I had the feta pizza and have also had the mediterranean salad and shish kebabs….all of these were very, very good.
Recommended spot for an intimate lunch, a private business lunch or a date. Side note, the drink menu looks very appetizing (rose hibiscus martini) but I didn't have the pleasure of sampling.
Will definitely be back to this little unknown, other worldy gem.
Beautiful, quiet, intimate space with authentic accents of Mediterranean culture. Comfortable seating (couches are so good for the tush), lightly dimmed, and soft music which are all great for conversations. Friendly, experienced wait staff…my glass was always full of water. Ahad was ah-mazing! Very personable. We laughed so hard that we cried. He is so full of personality and enhanced our experience. Great place for a small group.
Delicious, Moroccan food. We ordered the Arabesque platter (hummus, babaganoush, & roasted green and red peppers with tomatoes. The unlimited pita bread was on point. My favorite was the babaganoush and the chakchouka.
Chicken brochette (chicken breast skewer marinated in paprika and cumin with a garlic yogurt mint sauce served with mixed greens and white bean salad) for $14 was healthy, so flavorful, and well-balanced.
Members of my dinner party raved about the short ribs. I wish I sampled it myself…maybe next time.
I must say after this experience, I feel like a trip to India or Dubai is in order.
If I had the chance to break down the stars into sections, I'd give Arabesque 5 for food, 5 for ambiance and 4 for service. I really like places that put effort into their ambiance and arabesque definitely did. Nice comfy pillows, fluffy hot bread and authentic hummus. A big screen in the back playing random scenes from old arabic movies and a DJ that arrived shortly before we left played some nice gypsy tunes that cherry-on-the-topped the setup very well. The Manager was really nice and had a conversation with some of my friends. All in all, a very cozy spot to chill.
Hookah wasn't worth the $50, though.