Savann Restaurant
“Places like Savann are so important for Harlem to widen the variety of food choices our neighborhood has to offer.”
“We had zucchini pancakes which were delicious then eggs Benedict (excellent) and one of my favorite Turkish dishes, manti which was wonderful.”
“It was richly decorated with chandeliers and gold moroccan-ish patterned wallpaper but yet the decor was simple and inviting.”
Savann Restaurant
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Accepts Apple Pay: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
5 reviews
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I cannot say enough good words about this restaurant. Frankly, it's one of the better Mediterranean restaurants I have eaten at in NYC, in a long while.
I went with a few people so we got to try a lot of things. First, I highly recommend for starters the hummus, falafel and the fried cheese rolls. The fried cheese rolls are absolutely divine.
For wine, I recommend either of the two Turkish red wines. But if I were you, I'd go with the second Turkish red on the menu. Sorry, I forget the name. It's similar to the first Turkish red wine on the list, but it has more spice and tannins, which I think is ideal, especially if you'll be having any lamb dishes.
For our mains we tried the Manti and the salmon. So delicious! The Manti was like a lamb dish baked inside of the classic German specialty called spaetzle. Not sure if they were going for the spaetzle effect with this dish, but it just reminded me so much of spaetzle, stuffed with wonderful and tender lamb. An amazing dish. The salmon was also really good. Spiced to perfection.
I cannot wait to return to this place soon to try other dishes. Folks, there's a reason this new Harlem restaurant as 4.5 star average. It really is that come. Come and try it. You'll be very happy.
Savann was a delightful surprise, and if I lived closer to this restaurant, I'd go back again.
My fiance and I went to Harlem to see our friend at the Apollo Theatre and decided beforehand that we'd eat at our favorite fried chicken place, Amy Ruth's. However, Amy Ruth's had a 30 minute wait (at 9pm!) so we kept walking towards the theatre and searched for places with good ratings on Yelp.
After checking Yelp, we decided to go here because I first heard of Savann at a Just Foods conference (a conference based around the sustainability/politics/planning/etc. of food) from an attendee who said her friend just opened up the place. Thus, we wanted to check it out and support her friend.
As soon as we walked in, we were pleasantly surprised. The ambiance was so different from every other place we passed by in the neighborhood. It was richly decorated with chandeliers and gold moroccan-ish patterned wallpaper but yet the decor was simple and inviting. The music was fantastic. We asked the server and it was on some Pandora station like Mediterranean nights or something… so much for asking, remembering probably would've helped.
Now to the food– I usually like to judge a restaurant by its bread, and wow, the bread was amazing. Probably the best bread I've ever been served. There were a couple of different kinds and it was warm and toasty. The olive oil had olives in it too and tasted more like olives than oil. Yum! I had high hopes for this place.
We ordered the mussels appetizer special and then shared the Turkish dumplings dish. The mussels were cooked great and the sauce was light. I liked the scallions in it. I found the sauce slightly too salty like if it just hit the threshold of being too salty but I am extremely sensitive to salt. My fiance loved every bit of it and asked for more bread to sop up the sauce with. He asked "can we get more bread" then the server responded "you want extra bread?" I thought it was weird in that second that he switched up the wording of what the customer said but I thought I was being too nitpicky. Then later on, he asked if we wanted the bread to go (a first…) and we said no. I understood why he said switched up the wording and asked for the bread to go– they charge $3.00 for extra bread. OK…whatever, not a deal breaker but the server should let us know.
The Turkish dumplings were fresh and authentic and I say it's authentic because it brought me back to the memory of my first taste of Turkish food back in the home of my neighbor who had just moved from Turkey. To invigorate a memory that strong means that this food must be authentic. My fiance and I think that the dumplings were made by gnomes in the kitchen because they are the world smallest dumplings. They are interesting. I kind of forgot what I ordered and didn't realize what I was eating until I told myself these are dumplings.
I give this place a 4 for its ambiance and food. Everything was really good but nothing was outstanding; perhaps my taste buds aren't inclined towards Turkish food to begin with. Going to be nitpicky here, but they should probably tell their customers bread is an extra $3.00.
One of the better choices on "restaurant row" on Frederick Douglas Blvd.
Both entrees we got were tasty and the starters were also solid.
No. Just no. Food is far from the best Turkish in Manhattan unless you have visited nowhere else.
The zucchini pancakes were over cooked, slightly burned and over salted. The shish kebab combo was just fine but you can't really screw up grilling meat now can you?
The service was attentive yet awkward. It's in my hood and I wish I could say of go again but I simply would be lying if I stated that.
Hopefully it'll get better.
Rating: Two flaccid undesirable nips
The lunch menu here is much more limited than dinner menu. They do offer a lunch special for $12 but selection is even smaller. I got the ezme and falafel wrap. The ezme is a spread made with blended vegetables and spices which tasted amazing on top of their warm bread. However, the complimentary bread ran out before I was halfway done with it. The waiter said an extra bread basket would be $3, but in the end was nice enough to give us another so that I could finish the ezme. The falafel wrap was nice too and came with a side of fries but was in no way authentic Turkish food. I tried my dining partner's manti and the dumplings were yummy.
The food was really 4 stars and service was nice although a bit slow. But I still couldn't help being disappointed by the limited lunch menu so I have to take down 1 star for that.