Balkanika

Found this charming Mediterranean restaurant by accident. What a great surprise. Great food great service let me not forget the crepes yummy

I went into this shit hole at 5:30 pm on a Saturday evening (1÷30÷16). The hostess, who was a bitch, asked me if I had a reservation. I replied, «no,» to which she very curtly responded with, «we’re booked for the evening and have nothing available for you.» I looked around the restaurant and there were about 20 tables, ALL EMPTY. I asked her if she was serious thinking she was joking and she asked me to leave because I didn’t have a reservation and wasn’t allowed to loiter. She can fuck off and so can’t the nasty restaurant she works in. Also, bitch, you’re a hostess. Check your damn attitude.

There’s only one thing that you really need to know about Balkanika: they serve cheese wrapped in chicken wrapped in bacon.
That is all.

Great ambiance and service. Restaurant serves Balkan food which is basically Mediterranean cuisine.
I am a big fan of mezes.
They have the largest selection of mezes.
All very delicious! My favorite one are the hazelnut beets and the red paper hummus!
The Burek was homemade and pretty authentic.
Defiantly a must try.
The grilled meats were good. but I felt they were a little bit oily and there was a puddle of oil at the bottom of the grilled meats platter. Overall a good experience.

Love this restaurant. Wonderful fresh dishes and lots of vegetarian options.

Stumbled into this place, and it was great! Ordered a bunch of the mezzes/​small plates (grape leaves, orzo, hummus, beets, and giant beans), as well as the salmon and Greek salad to split amongst three people. It was the perfect amount of food and everything tasted fresh, authentic, and delicious! It also came out to about $ 60, which was very reasonable for the quantity of food we got. Would definitely come back.

Very good authentic Mediterranean food! I come from a Greek family so I’ve grown up eating authentic Greek food and everything I tried here was great! The pita bread basket and another bread basket came with a lot and were free! Great prices, too.
The Turkish Kofte was delicious! The fava was good but also much smoother like hummus. Then again I’m biased as I’ve eaten a lot of fava in Greece that I definitely prefer.
The staff were all very nice, coming to check on us often and recommending some great options.

After work, I headed here to meet up with some family, and it was spectacular! Normally when I go out, we do American or Italian food, but I enjoy trying other types of food. Balkanika does not disappoint!
The table ordered an appetizer, which was pita with an array of variously based delicious spreads. Then we got Beef Burek, a cheese fondue, and veggies. Everything was cooked to perfection, and it was, overall an enjoyable eating experience.
The location is convenient — close to Times Square, but not in Times Square — and the atmosphere of the restaurant was lovely. Equally suited for a friendly outing with friends and/​or family, or a quaint date night.

This is a GEM! I’m not even sure why it doesn’t have more stars!
My cousin and I came here before a show and ordered a choose 6 Mezes with the # 1, 4, 6, 8, 9 & 16. We also got 2 spinach Bureks and a bottle of wine.
I was in heaven! Everything was so tasty so flavorful and the service was wonderful. We also came on a Friday night and were able to be seated right away. Which was great considering we had a show to catch at 7:30.
This place had great lighting, it was very cozy, still felt very familyesk but would be a wonderful wonderful date spot too. Seriously please eat here!

Great authentic food and amazing service!
The restaurant is Macedonian-​owned, but offers pan-​Balkan food options. The mešana skara (mixed grill platter) was fantastic, perfectly seasoned, and an authentic representation of Macedonian/​Balkan cuisine.
The only down side is that it was a bit more expensive than I hoped.

I love this place. It’s in a vibrant part of the city but once you get inside you’ll have a feeling like you’re in a restaurant somewhere outside NYC. Atmosphere, music, food, amazing waitresses and service — makes you feel like you’re at home. I’m originally from Balkan and all of the things from above give you that tiny touch of nostalgia but at the same time makes you feel like you’re not that far away from home.
I would definitely recommend this place for dining out, you won’t regret it.

I’ve been couple times here and this is great place to dine in, Cheese Fondue is my fav, but you should definitely try out the other things like Halumi salad, Burek, Baklava etc.
Servers always provide excellent service, even though it is steady busy, you won’t feel that.
Music is nice and relaxing, as well.
Definitely recommend this place!

Balkanika. What can be said in favor of excellence? Balkanika is one of my favorite restaurants in Manhattan. Spectacular food, and immensely charming service. These people are beautiful, and gregarious. I have enjoyed several evenings here in the past two months, and I will continue to return. If for nothing else for the wine selection. The pepper dolma tho. #amazeballs #awesomesauce

Delivery– one Burek and some mezzes took 2 hours.
Dine in– no hostess, seat yourself, waitress removed dirty dishes and spot cleaned the wet parts of the table with a dirty napkin.
I’ll be going back… never
Don’t sit next to the front windows as the glass doors let smoke in that the employees in the front are puffing away.

Before I start rambling, I have to admit that I am NOT the biggest fan of mediterranean /​mixed turkish & greek food but this place I am very okay with.
I’ve been here twice now, both times with a party of 4+ people & we’ve all loved the dishes. We ordered:
Mezes Sampler — $ 26 — would not recommend if you don’t have at least 6 people. The plate itself comes SUPER colorfully and big but out of all the mezes I tried, I probably only liked 4 of them (can’t tell you which ones bc I honestly had no idea what I was eating…)
Zucchini Pancakes — $ 12 — super creative way of cooking zucchini but I would have liked it to be less soggy and crispier. It comes in 4s /​pretty reasonably sized — a little bit smaller than your typical buttermilk pancakes.
Greek Salad — $ 11 — I could honestly eat this salad all day and I don’t even like salads that much! It is the freshest salad I’ve ever had and I order this every time I come here! The feta cheese is amazing.
Balkanika Signiture Salad — $ 12 — this is a Greek /​Turkish version of the Italian caprese salad. The cheese is grilled and stacked on top of a slice of tomatoe and a basil leaf. Do NOT get scared away by the «beets» description (like I would have had I paid more attention at the time of ordering) — I did not taste beets at all.
Stuffed Eggplant — $ 12 — did not look appetizing at all. It looked like enchiladas that have been drowned in chile con queso. I still gave it a try but given that I’m not a big fan of babaganush, this dish was just okay.
Chicken Shishkebab — $ 16 — This was my favorite part of the meal bc I’m a carnivore. Chicken was super tender & juicy and the potatoes & peppers were perfect! I feel like I would have liked it more if I weren’t so full from the other dishes that preceeded this one. That being said, I would opt for the Salmon if I could. At $ 4 more, you get to choose 3 sides. If you are self conscious /​want to avoid carbs, salmon is definitely the better option!
The food came pretty slowly but we ordered a lot and the waitress was super nice!
I’m giving it 3.5 stars bc one thing that really took me off guard was that BOTH the plate and the glass they gave me were dirty. There was a grain of some sort stuck to the inside of the glass, and there was dried pea paste or something similar underneath the plate I was given. Yuck! Please double-​check next time you bring out the plates & cups!
Oh also, they have this giant TV that just displays pictures of their dishes… it breaks off the interior design theme and frankly, I think that TV could be put to better use.

An ok Mediterranean restaurant. Nice ambience nothing special about the food. Same mezes (small appetizers) like hummus, baba ganoush, red peppers, assortment of dips and spreads.
A nice bourek and stuffed pepper but that was it. I don’t have a great memory of the place. It would be better if they have live music which I think they might have on weekends.
A little bit on the expensive side for the quality of food

Great place to go to if you like to have a little bit of everything on one plate. We had the hazelnut beet spread, olive tapenade, brussel sprouts, cauliflower and mushrooms. All really good and the atmosphere is really nice and the staff were super friendly and helpful. Would go back for sure!

Oof, this place was not great. Overpriced, small portions, and slow service all made our trip to Balkanika mediocre at best. We made a reservation for six on a Sunday evening and were seated quickly. Our waitress initially seemed attentive, but after accidentally knocking a bottle of beer to the ground at our table (this really was not a big deal, at least for us), she seemed to shy away and we were suddenly forgotten for the rest of the evening. Prices here were high for what you got, even if you consider that you’re eating in Hell’s Kitchen, and while the food tasted decent, the portions were very small.
On top of the mediocre food, rather than replacing the ¾ full beer bottle that was knocked on the ground by an employee of the restaurant, they brought a smaller, less expensive bottle to the table. That is just POOR service and not the way to run a restaurant. I would not recommend Balkanika to anyone. While the experience probably could have been a little worse, it could also have been significantly better. Avoid this place, there’s plenty of other decent restaurants in the neighborhood and elsewhere in NYC.

In our search to try a new cuisine, I and my husband stumbled upon this place. N boy, we don’ t regret even a bit! The wide selection of Hummus served with a freshly made whole wheat pita bread just left us wanting for more. But the winner dish was their Baklava. It’s undoubtedly the best Baklava I have ever had. It’s like I can still feel its taste in my mouth.

Spontaneous brunch afternoon with wifey. Had a living social deal, so decided to venture out to the city. Ba lkanika was a present surprise tucked away on 9^th ave and 48^th, in thr heart of NEW YORK’S own Hells Kitchen.
The hummus selections were amazing. Our entrees consisted of salmon and lamb chops with accompanying asparagus, beets and steamed cauliflower sides. Topped off with a mouth watering strawberry n nutella crêpe for dessert. One star less for an unkempt, bathroom and a filthy toilet. but otherwise a great place for Brunch. Will be returning shortly.

Balkanika ist ein tolles Balkanrestaurant mitten in Hell’s Kitchen. Wer nicht weiß, was er wählen soll, probiert am besten den sampler with all mezes!