Restaurants serving Mediterranean food, pastries and meatballs are the newest additions to the Upper West Side.
Bustan, the high-end Mediterranean spot on Amsterdam between 83rd and 84th streets that we first wrote about in December, has opened its doors. The menu is eye-catching: hummus with toppings like beef cheeks or chicken liver, flatbreads of many flavors, small plates like charred octopus and squid a laplancha. It’s already getting good reviews on Yelp. Youad called it the best Israeli restaurant in New York: “It’s just a whole other level of fine dining. I challenge any one to find me better octopus dish … bring it on!” Efi Nahon, formerly of Taboon, is the chef. We have posted a photo of the menu below, but it’s difficult to see. Hopefully, they’ll have it up online soon. Thanks to Ira Glasser for the photos.
The Meatball Shop is opening at 447 Amsterdam Avenue (82nd street), the former home of Social House and Amsterdam Diner before that. DNAinfo reports that the space will be open late: “An average entree of meatballs and other dishes will range from $17-$18 per bill at The Meatball Shop, which also hopes to serve alcohol at its new location until 4 a.m. The request was approved by Community Board 7’s Business and Consumer Issues Committee Wednesday night.” We hear good things about the place. Upper West Sider Chris Peterson says: “Hands down, The Meatball Shop is my favorite spot in the city. It’s about time they brought their balls to the UWS!” Check out the menu at its other locations here. The opening date is unclear.
Macaron Parlour at 560 Columbus Avenue (between 87th and 88th streets) opened this week and it’s not just serving its signature pastries. The menu includes “a bacon, scallion and gruyère scone ($3.50) and a tomato pesto pretzel ($4) along with Blue Bottle Coffee,” notes the Daily News. The owners’ kickstarter campaign that we wrote about achieved its goal of raising $15,000, so you can look forward to a new espresso machine and more goodies.
Bustan’s menu is below (click to enlarge):
Mmm… Blue Bottle Coffee (Macaron Parlour). I spend time in a place where the big, hard, grape size flies are called Blue Bottle Flies.
I think I’ll pass, thank you.
I think maybe you should be passing on the place with the…(ahem) hard flies, not the place with the tasty beverages.
Blue Bottle is one of the nation’s top coffee roasters. They’re probably second best in New York, with shops in Chelsea, Rockefeller, and Williamsburg. They take their name from the first coffee shop in Central Europe.
Not to mention Blue Bottle jellyfish!!!
And, don’t forget Blue Bottle Jellyfish!
Been to Macaron already. Spoke to the owner and the staff for awhile and they were all great. The Macaron’s and pastries are REALLY good and their coffee is outstanding to boot. Go check it out. It’s a much more relaxing place then Milk Bar or Joe’s and tasty to boot.
Bustan sounds awful, wonder if it will crash and burn like Hey Mambo did, it is the same owners. Hopefully they learn from their mistakes and hire a functional staff this time.
It’s where Hey Mambo used to be, but not the same owners. And in what way does it sound awful? It’s a new place with an interesting menu. I haven’t been, so it could be awful, or great, or somewhere in between, but why angrily assume it’s bad? Take a deep breath, Jack, and try to be a nicer person.
@Jack– Bustan is NOT the same owners. You should know your facts before you write disparaging comments.
@Ann @UWS-errrr, the owner or Bustan IS the same as Mambo, Tuvia Feldman. Maybe its time to start researching your info before you comment.
D’oh. I stand corrected.
Went to the Macaroon place. GREAT pastries, macaroons and Coffee. Staff and Manager (or owner?) were all VERY pleasant and well trained. DEFINITELY worth checking out. Coffee was some of the best I’ve ever had!
Thank you for mentioning us .
Our website is currently under construction
But we do have our menu posted on our Facebook page https://facebook.com/bustannyc
Our opening hours :
Mon-wed 5pm-11pm
Thur-sat 5pm – 12am
Sun 5pm – 10pm
Please come and join us for dinner !
Judging by the prices:
Hummus – $11.00
This place is nothing but a ripoff.
Costs them less than $1.00.
Chopped (Israeli) Salad – $13.95
Ya gotta be kidding!
The reviewers must have been paid off.
$11 for hummus is steep. On the other hand, there’s a steak entree for $25 and a lamb for $24, and a squid appetizer for $10. Etc., etc. You don’t mention those. Why are you calling the place a ripoff and rooting for it to fail? Yeesh.
UWS-er, do you have an affiliation with Bustan? It’s pretty obvious that you do. Also, why can’t you let others have their own opinion without adding your two cents?
#ripoff
Er, no, I don’t have an affiliation, or else I would have said that $11 hummus was worth it, while I said it was steep. I also would have said “oh my god it’s so good” while in fact I haven’t been. I’m putting in my two cents the way you did, only my two cents is that of course you should actually go to a place before you decide it’s bad. I just think it’s odd that you’re sitting around trashing a place you haven’t been to, that just opened. Why not give it the benefit of the doubt, or at the very least reserve judgment, until you’ve been.
Do YOU have some personal vendetta against the place? If you assume I’ve got an affiliation with it, I guess I should assume you’ve got some weird reason to hate a place you’ve never been to?
Are you kidding me ??? What can you get for a $1 now days ?? You obviously don’t know the cost of things . To me the prices seem fair .
Re: “…What can you get for a $1 now days ??”
Ummm…Esther, the 98-year-old hooker ???
Bustan was DELICIOUS. We went on Friday after reading this post. We shared a few different dishes so we could get a good feel for the menu, and we still want to go back to try more. The hummus, tahini, and spicy feta mazzetim were full of flavor, and they were served with a mouth-watering fresh-baked flat bread drizzled in olive oil. We then shared the halumi beet salad, also delicious. The fried halumi with the sweet dressing was well-paired. For our entree, we shared the Lamb Terracotta. I’m still amazed by it. Lamb sausages, tomato, and onion are baked in a shallow terracotta dish, completely wrapped in soft dough, then cut open at the table. We ran out of room for dessert, so we’ll have to go back. It was on the pricey side, but worth it. We’ll mostly likely go back for special occasions.
Not only does Bustan have bogus reviews posted to their yelp page, but they are hitting up West Side Rag too.
That was not a bogus review. I’m just lazy and mostly copy pasted my review from yelp. I thought it was delicious, albeit a little pricey. Not sure why the restaurant would call itself pricey if it were a bogus review, Mike. That’s not exactly to their benefit. I also don’t understand why people are writing nasty, disparaging remarks without actually having tried the food. How about supporting local independent businesses so we don’t get stuck with a bunch of chain restaurants on our beloved uws?
I support many local businesses and don’t know of any chain restaurants on the UWS.
Yours may be legit, but the other reviews on their yelp page are totally bogus.
Well said.
Re: Macaron Parlour:
I wish them luck, but when they signed their lease, did they realize that there is another well-established dessert/cafe place (with a much larger selection of everything) a mere 4-5 blocks down Columbus that already sells delicious, pricey macarons? I doubt the neighborhood can support two of these places.
I gave Macaron Parlour a try this weekend and had one of the bacon, scallion and gruyère scones and a cup of the Blue Bottle coffee. Both were very good. I think one of the problems that they will have is the sidewalk shed along the building they are in that makes them hard to see from the street, especially given how small their storefront is. I hope they make it.
Bustan’s menu is on MenuPages at: https://www.menupages.com/restaurants/bustan/menu