D Girard

The service was excellent. Waitress was patient and knowledgeable about drinks. She was able to help us make just the right choice on drinks based on our palate. Food is always wonderful. One of my favorite go-to restaurants.

+1

Jerica Xu

Amazing hidden gem spot in UWS! very yummy north african inspired food- loved the dishes we tried. Personal favs were the lamb meatballs pearl couscous and the burekas (both cheese and dessert ones) see more on ig: @jerica.feasts

+1

Jon Aguilar

Our server Beck was amazing, and was always attentive. Food arrived at a good pace, with each plate being delicious. The bartender provided excellent drinks, and with a cozy atmosphere, we will be sure to be back and recommend this place to all of our friends and family.

Charlotte Oestrich

Gorgeous restaurant! Feels like stepping into an old haunted house, in the best way possible! The decor is seriously top tier and makes a great atmosphere for a date. The food was fabulous and had good sized portions! A lot of the menu can be made gluten free & is safe for people with celiac! I got the chicken kebab sans the pita and they offered cucumber slices as a replacement. The chinotto soda was AMAZING! A must try for a non-alcoholic beverage! The server was so friendly and knowledgeable too! I will definitely return here! Prices are good— about $50 a person for dinner!

Jessica L. Rollén

I was nervous from the photos that the ambiance here would not be good, like it would feel dirty or dank something - but I was pleased to find that it was actually super beautiful and romantic. The atmosphere surpassed my expectations in person. I think the photos do a poor job of capturing the low light ambiance. Shalel was both romantic and cool - the perfect date spot. The food wasn’t the best I’ve ever had, but they had some solid dishes and plenty of variety on the menu. The cocktails were actually fantastic, and pleasantly the non-alcoholic cocktails were also interesting and well-done, which I find is rare. Several vegetarian options and a few vegan options.

+7

toffy concepcion

This a a very unassuming from the outside, Middle Eastern restaurant. But when you step in you'll be blown away. The decor is so wonderful you wouldn't expect this in a basement. Everything was done in a world class manner. The drinks were excellent. We really enjoyed the pomegranate margarita as well as their not sweet sangria. The moussaka was a vegan dish that even carnivores would enjoy. The mixed grill is a good sampler and the desserts with labneh are so good.

+13

Yu-chen Karen Chen

Lovely, unique, romantic Mediterranean restaurant with amazing food! My husband hat a lamb dish and I had a seafood item, both very delicious. The staff was also very helpful and friendly, recommending wonderful appetizers and dessert items which we loved! We went there for our anniversary after watching a show at the nearby Lincoln Center.

+5

Ali Bakhsh

You’ll likely remember this place more for the unique rustic (and almost dungeon-like) interior than the food. The food was great though! But the true star of the experience was Andrew. He was the host, the server, AND the bartender (although it was not a particularly busy night). On top of all that, he had a very difficult customer to deal with but he did so graciously and somehow managed to keep his cool (I know I wouldn’t have)! If you see this, Andrew, you’re a freaking rockstar!!

+3

Had dinner last night with a friend at Shalel on the Upper West Side. I was a bit apprehensive about coming here, given the reports of rude management and poor service from other reviews. We arrived at our reserved time and were told there were no tables available. I don't understand establishments that do that - if you have a reservation for a specified time, your table should be waiting for you, with a 15-minute grace period. We waited for 20 minutes at the entrance of the restaurant, pretty much in the way of waiters rushing by with food for other tables, while the hostess hummed and hawed on where to seat us. Her behaviour was odd, it was as if she was either new at her job and didn't know what to do, or she was extremely disorganized. (She should have suggested waiting at the bar with a drink on the house). 20 minutes after we arrived, we were seated at what was supposedly the "best table in the house". I wasn't overly impressed with the ambiance and atmosphere of Shalel - dark little alley-like corners to look like mini caves, with little / no light and dangerous uneven flooring. They should improve the lighting situation so no one falls. Our table was near a small waterfall-like pond filled with flower petals. We had a hard time reading what was on the menu, even with our iPhone light, it was hard to see. We had a very friendly waiter and this improved our mood. The food is ok - I would not really describe it as Mediterranean, it's more like Turkish or Moroccan. We shared 2 appetizers: artichoke fritters and dates wrapped in bacon - both were amazing! Our entrees were less exciting and we couldn't really see what we were eating - meat which covered a pile of rice with a spicy sauce. Mediocre at best. I would not return. The cave like dark atmosphere really made me uncomfortable, mostly because we were underground. Above us was an apartment building. It felt claustrophobic.

David Thompson

+ Our entrees (lamb kofta and chicken basteeya) were tasty--like well-made home-cooked food. Would order again! -- The appetizers were overpriced. The server recommended the mezze platter, which cost $28 for what turned out to be small amounts of hummus, baba ganoush, etc. The octopus app was $30. So, that was almost $60 for a relatively small amount of food. Would go back. Would not order appetizers next time.

Quasar

A feast for the eyes but not so for the palate. Romantic atmospheric nooks that silently promise a sumptuous meal but that the kitchen cannot deliver. Though the mediterranean olive appetizer was well balanced with herbal notes and pickled veggies with the right amount of toasted baguette slices, the chicken Bastilla was a travesty- flat like a tortilla served on a metal casserole - with a single layer of filo dough under it and a floating soggy one top. Not wrapped all around the filling as it should always be. The filling in between was heavy on soupy fried onions, with just two chunks of chicken (not shredded as it should be) and maybe a couple of almonds. The mint tea was passable but it did not make up for the overall disappointment. I chose to dine here because it came up on Google as a Moroccan restaurant l, food that I am passionate about, but the menu is all over the place, from Turkey to Egypt to Italy and Greece spread too thin to its own detriment. Well thought out decor and friendly service, but who are we kidding?

+6

Diana Bocina

So my reviews are all over the place but I gave this restaurant 3 stars. The hostess was kind enough to postpone our reservations since coming from Long Island and we hit traffic. The reservations were for a greenhouse but it was the size of a pantry.. Not what my boyfriend and I expected. So the hostess accommodated us to a corner table with comfy, beautiful pillows. The hostess said to us we have until 930 to use the table (an hour and a half or so) until the next party comes in. The food was amazing, the apps wise. To our surprise again, the server comes over and after the apps were taken if we wanted to see a dessert menu… Keep in mind we had a show so we were rushing. The server never placed our dinner order. Don’t get me wrong, the ambiance in the corner table and the apps were amazing but the service absolutely sucked. I’ll also add that we had complimentary drinks but to find out again, something was missing from our dinner and it was the broccolini side. (The server and hostess were the same person and it was her first time serving, she should have done this dual shift on a slow night to acclimate)

Alex Zhang

A hole in the basement restaurant in UWS. I wouldn’t say the ambience is romantic, while they dim the light really low that I couldn’t even see what’s in my food. The decor is morrocan but food is a mixture of Moroccan, Portuguese and Italian. The seats seem crowded and not comfortable. Don’t book outdoor seating unless you want to be on a basement alley right under the sidewalk We didn’t make reservation so we were seated at the bar, as we were told all the tables were booked. But the table right behind us that we asked for were empty the entire time even when we finished the meal, the restaurant didn’t seem busy at all but they didn’t want to sit three of us on the table. The service was awful. There were three of us but only two menus were available while the restaurant was only half full. Light was so dim and only candles were available, it was hard to read. Asked for the wine menu, we were also told that the menu disappeared. The food was mediocre for its price, lamb Tagine is $37 for couple pieces of meat on couscous. Flavor was alright, not very authentic to my taste compare to when you eat in Morocco. The only thing that stood out was the cod Croquets. The wine we ordered Shiraz was definitely a low quality wine but at a high price point. I don’t see myself coming back here.

+4

We had 5:30 PM reservations at Shalel near the Beacon Theater before a show and arrived exactly on time. Despite the charm of the room, the evening went downhill fast. The drinks were excellent. The food was outstanding — the kitchen clearly knows what it’s doing. Unfortunately, the front of house seems intent on sabotaging it. Our waitress was curt from the start. After dinner, we asked for the check. One member of our party stepped away to use the restroom. At 6:55 PM — well short of two hours — we were told they “needed the table.” We said we’d leave as soon as our guest returned. Five minutes later, with our friend still waiting in a restroom line, the manager arrived to inform us we had exceeded the two-hour limit and had to vacate the table immediately. Our reservation was at 5:30 PM. That means 7:30 PM — not 7:00. The math isn’t complicated. I’ve worked in restaurants. If you need a table, there’s a professional way to handle it. This wasn’t it. It was graceless, inhospitable, and unnecessary times two. We spent over $80 per person. The dismissive treatment from both the waitress and the manager completely erased the charm of the space and the excellence of the food. With competent hospitality, this could be a great pre-theater option. Instead, it’s a lesson in how to drive customers away. We won’t be back.