Taverna Mediterranean Restaurant

A nice Turkish restaurant hidden near the D train. The mixed appetizer dish was delicious. Eggplant sauted, Babaghanous, hummus and stuffed grape leaf. For 12 $ it was a great spread with fresh crunchy bread. We also tried the manti which was delicious. Similar to tiny dumplings which had lamb inside I believe. A huge platter well worth the $ 13. Could easily be an entrée. The main dishes we ordered were OK. A bit more rice than actual meat. We waited almost 45 minutes for our food to come out.

Oh gosh… very disappointed. Let me start by saying the place’s décor was ok. The waitress was nice in a way… and the owner I think who was. he was nice too. On another note, they need to change their cook ASAP!!! I was here with my friends having dinner, the appetizers were good. the bread, the grape leafs wraps, the eggplant dish was good, we ordered calamari but it was sooo chewy tough so much flour over cooked it was just like chewing on rubber. Then 2 of my friends ordered steak. one was medium well the other one was medium rare. they were both over well done and tough to chew, the cook made cuts on them im assuming so it cooked faster? FAIL!. The rest ordered the lamb and some chicken, it was all dry meats were just not cooked the way they were supposed to. I ordered the salmon with rice and salad… the salmon was burnt and it tasted like its being on the grill several times and never served, over cooked!!! And the salad had more salt than the ocean, horrible. It was just a big failure with their food. the only thing I enjoyed was the company, some appetizers, my apple tea, and my friend’s order of french fries.
sorry but this place’s food simply sucks! Never coming back here again…

I’m from KC and was visiting NY with some friends. Most of us never had Mediterranean food before and we saw good reviews for this place so we stopped by for lunch. It had a really nice interior and very clean. Oddly the place was empty we were a group of four and no one else came in the whole time we were there.
The waitress was great, supper attentive and really nice. She explained a few dishes to us and was really helpful.
They had pita bread, white sauce (tzatziki) and red sauce (like buffalo sauce) as a starter and it was delicious. We ordered falafel on a bed of hummus and it was brought out pretty quickly. It was really good, but apparently a softer kind of falafel we had to eat it with a fork since it would fall apart easily, really crumbly.
Our entrees did take a long time to come out, I mean like 40 mins, it was fresh though, but not worth the wait.
Also the restaurant got really cold it felt like the heat wasn’t working, we didn’t take off our coats the whole time we were there. It was the middle of Dec in NY!
At the end of our meal they did give us complimentary baklava and it was insanely good.
The prices weren’t bad but not worth the wait and the freezing building but i would go back just for the baklava! :)

Me and my husband had great expirience in Taverna. Service was very nice, it was very clean. Excellent menu. Wonderful wines.