Ilili - NYC

So on Thursday night, one of my old college friends came down to New York to visit, all the way from Singapore. He's going back to get his masters in Music and he has been auditioning in Julliard, Eastman and some other great schools, so cheers to Jon! To celebrate his return, we went out to eat at Ilili. It was a Mediterranean restaurant. Lucky for us, it was New York's Restaurant week, where a ton of restaurants offer full course meals for a fixed price which is usually a lot more affordable than the regular prices. This, obviously is a gimmick to somehow increase the amount of resturant-goers in New York, and it helps business... of course.

Anyway, when I got there, I was a bit early so I hung out at the bar area until everyone showed up. It's a nice place, a long and narrow entryway, dark, a great place for a romantic dinner, or just a few friends to hang out. When I first got to the block where the Restaurant was, it was a little hard to find because the sign is completely hidden, and you need to REALLY look in order to find it.



Anyway, upon sitting, we had this waiter come up to us and offer us a free wine tasting. This week, the offered us some "Chateau Kefraya". (I honestly cannot tell you what exactly this wine is, but I can tell you it tasted like water to me...) For my appetizer, I ordered the Hommus (chickpea puree / lebanese tahini / lemon & olive oil) and Steamed Clams (harrisa butter / toasted pita baguette). It was SO delicious! The clams especially! The sauce that they cooked them in was perfect, light and tasty. The bread that they toasted along with it had some strange spicy taste to it, it was different but delicious. For my main meal, I had the Beef Kebab (marinated filet mignon / harissa pita / shishito peppers). Honestly, i was pretty disappointed in the main dish. The beef was overcooked and somewhat burnt, it tasted really hard and wasn't very tender to chew... but it wasn't that bad, since I was already well filled by the appetizers.

For dessert, I ordered the "Achta" (Traditional Lebanese Dessert, w/ Simple Syrup & Bananas) HONEST- it tasted SO BAD.... lol! I tried it and it was like, sweet cottage cheese with an extremely strange texture. I ended up stealing Jack's "AWAIMAT" (Lebanese Beignet w/ Orange Blossom Simple Syrup) *image above* - this was basically a glazed donut... in little circle balls...

My friend also ordered this: "Ilili burger" (basterma / kashkaval cheese / arugula / minted yogurt) It looked prettier than my kabob, so I took a picture of it:



Taste: 4.5/5
Atmosphere: 5/5
Cost: Range about $35-50 (during Restaurant week), probably a lot higher otherwise.