בקורת:
I have been to several restaurants that serves hummus and this is by far my favorite place in town for it.
Hommus: chick pea puree, tahini, lemon, olive oil. I believe their hommus is made to order, because it's served at room temperature. It's just more pleasant to eat than cold ones. It's also drenched in good olive oil.
Warm Eggplant: tomato, scallions, tamarind molasses. It's more interesting than the baba ghannouj because the eggplants are warm and the molasses makes it a sweet dish.
Phoenician Fries: sumac, parsley, garlic whip. I really like these fries with the aioli! They came out piping hot.
Whenever I want some fresh made hommus, I like to come to this place. I don't need the bread, I simply like to order 3 plates of mezza and eat them by the spoon.
Definitely coming back here for brunch! I trekked through the winter storm Jonas to eat with a friend who was visiting– despite the horrible weather conditions, the waitstaff were incredibly polite and courteous.
The brunch prix fixe menu lets you have two drinks, a main dish, and a side. For $28 in NYC, I think this has one of the better brunch values. The lamb burger is definitely amazing- the melted feta and pickles take the cake.
I'm a huge fan of the roasted beet side dish- the Aleppo honey butter just made it perfect. The sausages were a tad too salty, but they give you a basket of pita, so you can dip it in the grease and use it to balance the saltiness of the meats.
My first restaurant week menu coming into the new year. Picked Ilili because I do not have to worry about eating unhealthily even if I go wild during the night (cannot go too wild anyway given the limited amount of RW course set up).
At Ilili, you first choose from two appetizers (as opposed to one), followed by a main dish, and eventually the dessert. My friend and I were basically sharing everything – hummus, garlic eggplant, falafel and the marinated chicken liver. Like the eggplant the most as it was refreshing; chicken liver was a bit disappointing…Both the chicken and lamb chop were fantastic, juicy! I opted for the vanilla panna cotta for dessert. Thanks to the sour raspberry on top, it was not too sweet.
Service was for sure a minus point here – cannot blame them as we all sort of understand how RW could mess up the whole thing. My suggestion would be to visit Ilili during a normal hour and see how well it goes. Took away one star here and look forward to adding it back.
