Balon Winebar & Bistro

My BFF and I were looking for a quiet, intimate venue to enjoy wine, light appetizers and overdue conversation.
Home run!
Our server Christopher Michael was awesome! Friendly, attentive and charming. He helped us decide what to order and checked in appropriately to see if all well.
The ambiance is lovely.
I look forward to returning with my husband.

Delicious foods and perfect wine pairings. Marc and Fehim were fantastic servers and extremely knowledgeable about the menu and recommended a bottle of medoc that we enjoyed. I look forward to our next night here.

Upper east side gem. Such a quaint cozy romantic little restaurant with fresh flowers/​roses, perfect ambiance and lighting…
The service is friendly and attentive — the owner is extremely kind and passionate about her business and making her customers happy.
Extensive wine list, Bordeaux was great. The food is excellent and presentation wonderful. The tuna tar tar appetizer and the scallops were fabulous.
Wonderful and highly recommend as a romantic date spot.

If you want to have great wine, lamb ribs, dim lights, chill, cool atmosphere this is def the place to come to. Even the service is great. From the host, waiter & bus boy. The food took awhile to come out of the kitchen because we were a large party &I they still managed to have the food warm & delish for us. Would def come back to this place.

What an incredible night I loved every second of my time here started with a guac that was fresh and spicy. Dinner was duck breast which was cooked perfectly and a homemade mushroom and truffle ravioli. I really can’t say enough about how delicious everything was. Perfect atmosphere to boot. Alex is the sweetest funniest server I have had in some time. Makes sure you enjoy a soufflé too.

Terrible service. AND mouse walking by my dad’s foot. waitress was rude and only asked me if we wanted to cancel the order. Unacceptable and reported the restaurant.

Wonderful hide away Wine bar just off 2^nd ave.
fun, good music not to loud and very nice staff.
wine selection is very fresh food and tasty dessert. Great spot for a first date. 20s 30s 40s age group.

Cute place but the food isn’t that great. It was a very small selection so we just decided to skip the main meal and get the Italy meat and cheese platter. It was very small and $ 20. Additionally the wines were also expensive although they did have a big selection. I wouldn’t go back

Excellent service! I came here with my boyfriend a couple nights ago looking to have a fun wine night. The bartender Kotryna was extremely knowledgable on wine and gave us an amazing meal and experience. Definitely will be coming back again!

Beautiful décor, very relaxed. Great for wine and tapas. Perfect for conversation. Romantic. If you have a friend visiting from out of town whom you want to impress, can’t miss w this place. Waiter was attentive as well as easy on the eyes. ;)
Also the front window is all open. Very ethereal. Love it.

Nice place and ambiance. Missing the mark on a tapas bar concept. The US just doesn’t get it when it comes to tapas.
1) Tapas should not start at 12 – 14 bucks or take 30 minutes.
2) Salmon ordered rare was well done. When recooked it was excellent. However cous cous were very dry. Luckily I don’t eat carbs
3) Bartender was the most disinterested, preoccupied person I’ve met in the service industry. Much more concerned with her cell phone than if my meal was cooked properly.
4) Wine was good, but would like to see some more reasonable options on the list. In Spain you can get a wine for $ 2 and a tapas for a few bucks. This is a totally different concept.
Wasted potential. I miss Spain.

Popped into Balon over the Memorial Day Holiday and had a lovely afternoon drinking wine, eating tapas and soaking in sun. The front table is great for people watching but still romantic for two. We ordered the guacamole which was freshly made and had the charcuterie plate of Spanish meats and cheeses. We’ll definitely be back!

It’s a beautiful wine bar in the neighborhood. That’s it, just came here to meet a friend.

Cute and cozy local wine bar. Excellent variety of wines by the glass. Service isn’t great… very slow… so that’s why they get a 3 star rating instead of 4.

3.5÷5 for me here
This is a cute, intimate Spanish wine bar on the UES that I am happy we gave a shot. A very simple and authentic spot that gives off a rustic wine bar atmosphere is perfect if you are looking for good food. A bar in the entrance with maybe 6 or so seats and maybe 10 tables total, make this a very small but perfect date night spot.
If you are in the mood for food, we tried the mussels that were cooked excellent in a savory broth, plus it is always easy to over-​cook mussels too, but the texture was just right. We then tried the lamb chops that although less meat on the bone than other options, it was just enough to share with some cous cous that accompanied it very well. To finish the meal off, we also had the chocolate cake with some ice cream that was rich but well balanced and the crème brulee with some fruit that was surprisingly light. Overall, the foods were all well done.
I would recommend this place for a party of only 2 people. We came as a party of 4 but I felt that we were a little tight on space, no matter where you sat. If possible, try to sit in the back of the restaurant away from the bar so you don’t feel like people are on top of you while you are dining. The service was good and price was reasonable for splitting the food and a couple of bottles of wine.
Buon appetito.

Not sure why this place is never full. It’s got a great wine selection and the bartendress is soooo friendly! She made some great recommendations for wine.
The food selection is a little limited but that may be because of a small kitchen? During the summer they open up the front and back porch areas for breeze and almost feels like an outdoor bar. Keep up the good work!

A really nice restaurant, hidden away on a side street. Really nice service, nice décor, and great food. Here’s what we had:
–Spanish Charcuterie. The chorizo is really great — bursting with flavor — and the soppressata and prosciuttio (or equivalent) were really good, especially with the jam and figs. The cheeses were also really good — I’m a big fan of manchego, and was not disappointed.
–Tuna tartare. Pretty good, the sauce had a bit too much wasabi in it though, so watch out. But otherwise, really good.
–Seared duck breast with cherries. Pretty good with the cherry sauce, though the meat was a bit underdone and a bit cool. The sweet potatoes with pecans were really good. If you like rare duck, it’s pretty good, but if not, make sure you tell them.
Overall a really nice experience.

I’ve been wanting to try this place out forever now because of how cute it looks when I walk by and I finally did! 5 stars for atmosphere, 5 stars for food. Service was a little spotty, which knocked off a star (we sat at the bar and our bartender didn’t refill our glasses of water or wine from the bottle), but overall, I really love this place and would absolutely go again. The atmosphere is intimate and romantic — but also great if you’re going with friends. They keep the music volume low enough so that you can definitely hold a conversation and really catch up with the people you’re with. The venue itself is somewhat small, so I would definitely recommend if it’s you and a «plus one,» — any party greater than 4 would probably have some trouble getting a seat here. There’s also some outdoor seating available when the weather is nice.
As far as wine is concerned, their list is full of reasonably priced bottles. We had a white burgundy that was SPECTACULAR. We started with a glass and segued into a bottle. We also appreciated the bartender’s candor when we asked her about some of the other bottles on the list.
The food we had was also very good. I would recommend going with the specials. We had the guacamole and tuna tartare to share. We also ordered a cheese plate, which was OK but not anything to write home about. It came with some toast, olives and tomatoes. We had maybe half of it.
All in all, a very positive experience and a great venue for catching up with a friend or going out on a romantic date.

Stopped by after work to unwind with a glass of wine. I’d been in before when I wanted a glass of Port, but they don’t sell it so this was my first time to eat/​drink there. The ambiance is beautiful as all reviewers remark but what is even better is that everyone there is on some kind of blind date, speaking in semi-​hushed but overly excited voices bursting with self-​disclosure. I’m giving high marks for entertainment to this place. If you need material for your next novel…
I had two glasses of wine and the service was just lovely. I also had the goat cheese salad. The salad was good but not $ 18 good. There’s not even bread and there were two small pieces of goat cheese on top. Sorry but there’s already plenty of mark-​up on wine so some shred of value on the food would be a fine idea. The wines were OK. I agree with another reviewer that Calif Cab should be on the list. Also Port.
(Revising from two stars to three– maybe I was harsh with the memory of my two glasses of wine and salad for $ 60 still too fresh. The wine didn’t blow me away, though.)

We want to like this place and we sort of do, but it’s complicated.
On the plus side, it’s small and intimate, they have some decent wines and the staff is usually friendly and helpful. So if you know what you want and are ok with the price, you’ll enjoy your experience.
On the downside, the good wines are few and far between. Most of the wines seem more geared to the masses (e.g. Very fruit forward and palatable in a juicy way). The good wines are on the pricier side (+$ 15 per glass). The food is average to good, but admittedly we’ve only had the cheese and meat plates.