Le Souk

Le Souk has always been hit or miss, but since it’s re-​opening I think things are changing for the better. Music-​wise the DJ is good and can keep the crowd going late into the night. Hookah’s are also quite delicious and the drinks are reasonably priced. The Moroccan ambiance can also hit all the right spots.
Also, while still selective, there is something less pretentious about Le Souk that makes it more casual and approachable than other lounges of its kind. With that being said, don’t be surprised to be turned down at the door if you are underdressed or come without an «appropriate» male to female ratio. Of course, bottle service is always an option.
The downside is that the place can get too crowded for its own good, and the quality of the crowd can vary depending on the night you go. In my opinion, off nights are always best.

My friends and I went here last night. It was the first time they had gone and the second time I was there. I arrived around 10 (they were there about 15 minutes earlier) and they had already received their food. I had to leave to get a friend with one of the others while everyone ate and then later ordered a hookah.
Half an hour later we receive a frantic call from our friend saying the waiter was trying to make them leave even though they weren’t finished eating. He took their food away and put it in a doggy bag when they weren’t finished yet. When people were trying to pay their share on their cards, he overcharged them $ 5 each. One of the girls who already paid tried to leave and he grabbed her by the arm to keep her from leaving because my friends were trying to rectify the situation with the manager and the waiter didn’t want her to leave until the bill was paid up. I’ve never seen such pretentious waiters in my life… and I’ve lived in New York for awhile. I can’t believe that he’s working at a restaurant that represents Moroccan/​Tunisian culture and cuisine, he is the opposite of everything North African hospitality represents.
Upside was that chicken tajine was pretty good and the manager did what he could to rectify the situation. Needless to say, we won’t be going back for a long time.

Let it be known that the one star is purely based on my dinner experience. We had intended to stay after and enjoy the nightlife but hated it so much that we got the hell out.
As everyone knows, its a small restauarant, bathroom is near the kitchen which is in the way of all of the waiters. Really awkward.
My friend and I ordered some food and decided to splurge on the pitcher of sangria, why not right? We were going to party it up! $ 45 bucks later, tummys full of liquid with no buzz in sight, we were uncomfortable and pissed. How was it possible that there was no alcohol in this heavy pitcher of red sangria? So we paid our bill, stopped by Horace and realized that there was no way we could consume more liquids since we had been tricked by the sangria. So we went home. Sad really.
Belly dancers were ok. Food was nothing special. I’m never going back.

Le Souk is a cute little place in Alphabet City.
My friends and I went when they were promoting Malibu, so we got free tropical drinks and free t-​shirts. That was a major plus!
It’s a restaurant/​bar/​lounge that has food, hookah, and dancing. It’s extremely dark in there with candles to guide you throughout the place and it gets a bit crowded. The music wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t terrible!
The music upstairs was definitely better than the little downstairs area. (It was more hip hop upstairs and trance-​like downstairs.) The downstairs area had a lot of plants and vegetation around which made the place feel like an indoor patio, but once it got too hot and crowded– i felt like i was in a greenhouse minus sunlight.
I think this place is good for a few drinks with friends, but go somewhere else that has more space once you see the place filling in too much.
The bouncers at the front will give guys a hard time especially if you go after 11:30pm since it gets so crowded, so make sure you get there earlier or have plenty of lady friends to help you get in.

Too crowded, too dark, too loud, too crazy, too rude, too labyrinth, too sweat, too chaotic … and the music didn’t reach my heart as well
too too too. of everything … Except by the food and drinks which are not that «too good». Just ok .
I have been here twice, though any of them for a «real» dinner. We just grab some starters from the mezze menu; and well. it didn’t get my attention enough to come back to be honest.
did I mention too rude people? either gals and guys, and this last ones. seriously. are you looking for a Harem?
too much for me.

I passed by Le Souk earlier today and I nearly had a hernia just remembering my previous experience with them. If it weren’t for my Mama’s teachings, I would have thrown a Yugo through that window.
I called to make a reservation for a party for 15. That’s as far as I got.
See my review for Horus for the rest of this misadventure. Effin waste of time I will never get back until touchups to my time machine is complete:
Le Souk le SUCKED

I have to say, there’s a person at the door opening it for us on a cold day, and there’s two levels — the second is better than the first. Bellydancing most days with your meal.
The lamb here is the best. The pork okay, and the chicken okay, too. Sausage, not bad. Music is okay, but the staff were good, fairly responsive.
The Moroccan food is decent, the tangine was only okay. The grilled kebabs were nice (and gave you a little grill to finish off how you like it), and the sangria was sweet, but minimal for a $ 45 pitcher (only 6 glasses out of it!).
Expensive for the food but not bad ambiance which is what you’re really paying for.

I had no problems with Le Souk… then again I’m a hawt girl.
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When you go:
1. Definitely check your coat. The staff does sweeps of unattended items.
2. Standard Manhattan prices for cocktails, but getting a bottled beer is safer considering how packed the place gets.
3. Decide on a meeting spot ahead of time for you and your drunken homies. We lost two of our seven friends, and haven’t seen them since. Javi, are you ok?

I have been to Le Souk (or as I like to call it after this visit, Le Suck), before. The first time we had a good experience. This time was entirely different. We made a reservation on opentable, it took them 30 minutes to seat us. What is the point of making a reservation? Nor did we ever receive an apology.
We wouldn’t have minded waiting had the restaurant not been so incredibly packed. We had no where to move! I dont mind waiting when I can grab a drink and relax, but more than once, the ladies in my party were almost knocked down by the obnoxious servers.
The meal was fine, nothing exciting. It was frankly too dark to even see the food. But at the end of the meal, I ordered a Hookah for our table to enjoy and the waitress said «we could not have one, we should have ordered it at the beginning of the meal». Thinking this must have been a mistake I called for the manager. Who came over, and promptly said the same thing!!! I have never been so annoyed at a restaurant. They brought our check, did not ask us if we wanted more drinks, or even dessert. All they wanted, was to turn over our table (the table mind you, which we waited 30 minutes for).
The manager was a jerk to us and should be fired.
We had guests in town and wanted to show them a fun NYC time, I guess the place lived up to that «NYC attitude» people always think we have. I was mortified. Thanks a lot Le Suck!

The drinks are expensive (and sometimes not very strong), the shisha is expensive, the food isn’t cheap, but I think this place is great. For the amount of people that can be packed into this place I’ve never seen the bouncers be rude or offensive. The waitstaff are all friendly and patient. I think the downstairs club is awesome, and I love all the stairs and rooms and booths. Great low-​key party-​hearty atmosphere. Great loud music. Great place to just let go and have a blast.

This was the after-​party to the corporate dinner I had at Capital Grille.
What does that mean? Ye ask.
Corporate event = FREE EVERYTHING.
I liked the décor, I liked the hookahs, I liked the DJ… above all I liked the FREE BAR. *grin*
I did not like the asshole bouncers, the snotty hostess & the way it can get over-​crowded.
I want to say that the only reason we were treated like royalty was because this event was dropping a pretty penny in their establishment.
Price point? Can’t tell ya, once again… we know how I roll, ssson.
I don’t think I’d go back on my own… if a corporate event is held here again– who the hell am I to turn down a free drink? HA!

Hostess: [insert attitude here] Do you have a reservation?
Me: Yes, it should be under Wendy.
Hostess: (Rolls eyes) How do you spell that.
Um… Seriously? We then ask to be seated since the restaurant is empty but the owner/​manager/​host (??) told us to go outside and wait because 1 person out of the 5 in our party was late. We finally convinced him to seat us but then after looking over the menus for a few minutes, the waitress comes over and says, «if you don’t know what you want then give me your menus so that I can give it to another table». What? She proceeded to take our menus and left us with one. What???
I should have known: any restaurant that is in a ‘club’ should automatically be avoided. Especially if they card you before letting you into the restaurant! The food was ok but my dish was served tepid. Yuck. And the service all-​around was just plain ridiculously BAD.

This place sucks. First, it shouldn’t have a line. Second, it’s designed really stupidly. Why do we go downstairs to get in, and then they have an upstairs? Why do you have to walk through the bathroom area to get to the main part of the club? Why does the DJ play random songs ranging from the 50s to today, without mixing them? Why are the drinks so expensive that to get drunk you have to give up your apartment?
Why do people even like going to clubs that are so crowded that you can barely move, let alone dance?
I’m over it.

Sssshhhh, don’t tell anyone that I was smoking from a hookah last night.
I haven’t tried any of the food; but the drinks are pretty strong. $ 30 gets you a hookah with apple-​flavored shisha. (Apple was the only flavor that they had). Although the DJ does spin good music, I seemed to hear a few songs a few times within an hour. It also gets very crowded in the dance area… this makes the walk to the bathrooms a bit challenging. On top of the crowd one must fight across the dance floor, the stairs to get down to the bathrooms are steep and poorly-​lit. On top of the obvious tripping hazard involved with the stairs, it is easy to get lost finding your way around because there are private rooms. The bathrooms, while attended, are unisex… which means there is a high chance that some drunk guy peed all over the toilet seat.
Eh, go once for the experience… don’t become a regular. Eh, don’t listen to me… I could just be getting old.

Le Souk was le awesome!
1. Lines/​Getting in: Came over Saturday night some time in or around midnight. Hopped onto a short line, was asked how many people (5 — three girls, two guys), passed along, had IDs checked, no cover. Nice.
2. Setup: it’s a weird setup architecturally speaking, with a circular means of getting through the two levels. But that’s a good thing. So yes — two levels with two very different kinds of music. Downstairs, house and electronica; upstairs, middle eastern music, which then turned a little hip hoppy, then top 40 pop/​dance. Also the adjacent room is where you get the hookah, and I guess food people were talking about.
Worst bit were the washrooms by the exit. As you are trying to leave, others are exiting the bathrooms and trying to wash hands at the outside sink. Weird fire hazard.
There are a number of areas to lounge/​take a break. That’s cool. They seemed to empty out with parties — so you may not get that break, on the other hand.
3. Prices: I can’t write on this. I actually just had a water (an earlier caipirinha wiped me out at this point, and I needed proper dancing hydration). And as I said — no cover (w00t).
4. Music: On both floors, sound was good and music was good. I’d say what is rough, however, is transitioning between the two, as you will move very differently to the two. It might take you a while to readjust. But I love having the choice.
5. Crowd: people who wanna dance. It was fairly packed, and stayed packed as we left around 2. I stuck with my group and was never bothered by anyone. Everyone was in their 20s/​30s it appeared, mixed race crowd.
I’d come here with a small group, though, due to the population at this place at any point in time. Not really a place to hold a party, unless you don’t mind losing each other for fleeting moments, and there isn’t any space where you can really have a conversation (although sound was not blaring, seemed the right amount loud — I did not have ringing ears when I left!).
When I go to clubs, I just wanna dance. I don’t wanna pay to dance, I don’t wanna be paid to dance. Just dance. This goes in that special list of mine for places to mooove.

Was there this past weekend with several girlfriends celebrating an engagement. We made reservations weeks ago, and were seated RIGHT at the entrance, and had the pleasure (denote sarcasm) to be inches from the host stand.
Great — whatever. It was 90 degrees out and ridiculously humid, and most of us had walked from the subway 8 blocks away, so all we wanted at that moment was water. Yes — ice water please, just bring us water for now, and we’ll order drinks in a moment.
We waited almost TWENTY MINUTES for a damn glass of water. If I wasn’t sitting in the middle of the table (with no clear way of getting out), I would have gone to the bar to get it myself. We saw our waitress walk by at least 3 times before we could flag her down again (and again and again) to just get some water. We were served the first course of our prix fix meal (and sat there and waited without touching the food for an additional ten minutes) waiting for any sort of liquid in a glass. I was ready to FLIP A SHIT, but couldn’t since we were there to celebrate something. Awesome.
So after asking her AT LEAST three times for some goddamn water, we finally get some. Awesome. We ordered pitcher of sangria and mojitos (at a whopping $ 45 per pitcher). Sangria had absolutely no alcohol in it (I get red after a glass of wine — I had a pitcher all to myself, and I wasn’t even tinged with a hint of blush). But whatever — we’re finally drinking and eating (we all had the prix fix, so they just brought out platters of food).
They took away our wine glasses when they were empty — and yet, we had just ordered more sangrias, and we were still in the middle of our meal. So we had to request more glasses to replenish the ones that were taken away… which resulted in waiting another 15 – 20 minutes.
The food was pretty good. First course was an assortment of dips (hummus, baba ganoush, beets, etc) with spongy focaccia like bread. Second course was a mixed spring salad with fennel and caramelized walnuts with brie topped crostini. Third course was six platters (braised beef, fish, chicken, couscous, rice, vegetables — our table was PACKED).
We each spent about $ 70 for the food and drinks — which was a pretty good deal considering the amount of food we had.
But given the god awful service (the girl didn’t know what she was doing, and it was ridiculous that we had to keep waiting for water and glasses and she kept giving us the wrong drinks), I will NEVER GO BACK. Oh, and I’ve never been in a place before where the servers are bumping into me and not even offering an «excuse me».
And it was 90 degrees and humid out, and there was no air conditioning.
Joanna was NOT happy.

Large lounge that can turn nice or into the most crowded place. Get there early and avoid long lines. They’ve got hookah, and an amazing variety of music that plays. The crowd is diverse, most of the time. The spot is definitely somewhere I’d return. There is no cover, at least for the ladies. The bathrooms are clean, and the drink prices are the usual.
EDIT:
I don’t think I’m ever coming back. They attract a crowd of people that are totally ridic — Europeans that just arrived from Europe probably… definitely won’t be going back.

This place has a nice décor but sometimes it is so crowded that you can’t move. Just a couple of restrooms for a thousand people.
Music is okay… a mix of world music.
Prepare yourself to be stuck on line especially late hours.

le suck

Great ambience. felt like we were in the middle east somewhere smoking hookah. complete with belly dancers and great music. The food is pretty good as well. We finished a party pitcher of mojito and sangria. The only drawback was that it appeared they only had one flavor for the hookah. green apple.
Food: ⁷⁄₁₀
Service: ⁷⁄₁₀
Ambience: ⁸⁄₁₀