Pera Mediterranean Brasserie

This is a flawless restaurant. Not only it’s good for lunch and dinner but also great for after work appetizers and drinks. Good wine list also.

overpriced dinner, with rushed service and unpleasant welcome staff.
right after entrée i ordered tea, which never arrived, but the invoice was rushed to the table, though i did not request it. when i noted the tea was ordered but not served, they suggested i drink it on the way out, at the bar. really… not going back there.

How could I not have known about this place? So conveniently located just steps from Grand Central Station. I met an old friend here for drinks and dinner. Gin and tonics and vodka tonics. The drinks were strong. The whole staff was amazingly friendly. I felt welcome immediately and the décor is comfortable chic. We dined on appetizers and caught up on the past 5 years. Having lived in Japan I have eaten octopus many times. This grilled octopus with beans and a light dressing was Devine. The best octopus I have ever eaten! We throughly enjoyed lamb tacos which were seasoned to perfection and served in mini soft taco shells. Hummus that somehow was transformed into a food of the gods! I want more already. We also devoured an eggplant dish and pita bread, I am sooooo glad my friend chose this place and I will be bringing my family back soon!

Went here this evening for the restaurant week menu; the place is very pretty with a nice décor and the customer service was excellent. Kind faces and helpful comments all around. The food however… not so great. Maybe it was just the pre fixe menu? We weren’t fans of the 3 dip appetizer, the calamari was decent. But the true disappointment were the lamb chops. For an extra fee we hoped they’d be delicious but they were doused in (insert unknown spice name) and we just really did not enjoy them. I will say they the mediterranean fries were delicious and the dessert was alright. Don’t think I’d come back for pre fixe, maybe for their regular items.

We went for our wedding anniversary dinner this past saturday night and had a great experience. I loved the food so much that i can say this is by far the best mediterranenan food i ever had in nyc. The lamb adanna was outstanding, bursting with flavors. Chicken shashlik was tender, well seasoned and grilled to perfection. I relished the bulgar pilaf that cane with it. The only dish I didn’t enjoy as much was the catch of the day as I could get past the idea of shrimp cooked in tomato soup/​broth. Overall, great for romantic dinner with you loved one

Exceptional food, start to finish!
This location is ideal for us as we come in from CT and want to be close to GCT at the end of the day. However, the stars are for the food. Three of us did there last night. The warm hummus appetizer was way above average; the Tunisian chicken out of this world, and the chocolate ice cream the most chocolatey I have ever had. Likewise, the waitstaff deserves five stars. I most appreciated the personal tipoff that the harissa was very hot! My companions had the lamb chops and the lamb shank special, both reported delicious.

Nice restaurant around Grand Central Station. Interior has an elegant and warm atmosphere. Service is impeccable and attentive. Pera is one of those restaurants where you feel that the host and waiter care about your entire dining experience. I highly recommend the Chef’s Meze Sampler, which has 9 samples of hummus, baba ganoush, brussel sprouts, stuffed grape leaves, olives, sardines etc. We stayed for almost 3 hours and they didn’t rush us one bit.

This is one of the nicer Mediterranean restaurants I have been to. Nice/​classy environment, but not over-​the-​top
I had the mixed platter which was pretty good although it was heavy on the lamb and not the leanest cut of meat. I have to say it would be nice if they had a few more dishes other than lamb. Three dip appetizer was good. Rice was just okay.
Unfortunately our waiter was a grouch. I’m not sure why he was so angry, but he just seemed really mad like he didn’t want to be there. Or maybe it’s because we didn’t order any wine.
Overall, place is decent.

I went to lunch with my boss here to celebrate a big settlement a few weeks back. We made reservations and literally did not have to wait one second to be seated as soon as we walked in. First off, let me say that the space is gorgeous. It’s spacious and so well decorated, the décor gives off a very bohemian vibe. I love the fact that it’s an open kitchen. You can literally see everything. The staff is also very kind, attentive, and accommodating. They were on their «A» game.
The food: for starters we got the phyllo rolls. They were delicious, which was expected. She recommended them since she’d been there before. For my meal I had the french fries and lamb and steak strips. SO GOOD. I definitely recommend that plate to anyone who wants to play the safe side.
Overall, I’d go back.

We went to Pera last weekend and unfortunately we were disappointed. Since I am originally from Turkey, I really wanted them to be successful but based on my one dinner experience, I don’t think that they would survive unless they change their management.
The restaurant had only 2 other tables when we arrived!
The food was OK, but not so good. We ordered one Adana, one lamp chops, and one shahslik kebap (or something like that). The last one was cold. The sides of the first one arrived 5 minutes later than the Adana kebap.
We also ordered Kunefe and Turkish coffee afterwards. Kunefe was not even warm! Turkish coffee had too much coffee ground.

I have come here on 2 occasions both times for lunch with colleagues. The bill can get pretty steep when you add some wine, which is ridiculously over priced. For what I paid for the lunch size wine, I could have spent on a whole bottle of white wine at the liquor store. The first time I was here, I had hummus and pita as an appetizer and the salmon for lunch. Both were very delicious no complaints. The 2^nd time I came I had the Pera style tomato and onion salad. So fresh but not very filling as it’s only tomatoes and onions, no lettuce or protein. Was definitely more of an appetizer than a meal.

First off, the waitstaff was absolutely wonderful and very accommodating.
I tried the hummus appetizers which were good (coming from someone who does not like hummus for the most part).
For my entrée, I enjoyed the scallops dish which was cooked to perfection and very flavorful. Most restaurants serve «seared scallops» which I’ve had bad experiences with (food poisoning), but these were well done.
I also tried my friend’s lamb chops which were also cooked to a flavorful perfection at medium rare.
Loved the ambience overall although it was full of corporate workers from the surrounding area.
Would love to return to try the rest of their menu.

Recently, I was asked to plan a party in honor of a very senior person at the firm I work for. She had received a major promotion and is an absolutely lovely person, so I was delighted to put something together for her.
Knowing that there would be ~18 attendees total (all partners) and that Mediterranean is the guest of honor’s favorite cuisine, I wracked my brain for the perfect venue, and came up with two options. Pera was the winner as it not only has a private dining room that we could use with a mere minimum spend of $ 1200, but an excellent menu for private events, reasonable open bar packages, and Vivian, the responsive events manager who worked alongside me, fielding all of my emails and calls fueled by my Type-​A tendencies, to put together a flawless celebration.
While I did not personally attend the event, I had been to Pera before and felt I could trust Vivian to coordinate everything on the day-​of. As soon as the guests walked out of the restaurant, I began receiving emails of praise! I was told that I «picked such a fun restaurant,» that the «food was perfect,» and that they can’t wait for future parties that I may plan.
Many thanks to Vivian for her professionalism and making things happen even though I was not on-​site, and to Pera overall for providing the ideal overall experience and setting.

Don’t get the lamb burger — I did because I saw it another table and it looked really good, but didn’t taste as good as it looked. Not sure if it’s because I don’t like the taste of lamb, or because the burger was so watery that when you bit into it, you had water drip from the bottom of your burger. It got so messy that my hands were soaked, not the kind of thing you want to have on a business lunch. Plus, our waiter was kind of snooty. I did like the wine and the half glasses they offer. I was not wowed by anything I had here. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you absolutely need a nicer-​looking place to take clients for a business lunch.

Don’t miss free live jazz in Friday evening!
# Good for group dining, for date night, or just for quick drinks with small plates at the bar
I often walk across Madison avenue as my office is located nearby, but I haven’t realized that there is such a nice, cozy turkish restaurant in the area. I finally tried for Friday dinner with my friend. Food was not something that blows my mind, but I liked the place for the fact that it’s not super loud and that food quality/​price seem reasonable. Cocktail was pretty good too. We also had mediterranean trio dip, lamb chop and chicken tender cubes — all of which were good, but not remarkably outstanding.
Probably might come back, just walk-​in when I want to catch up with friends after work over cocktails with some small bites.

I went to the Pera Soho location a couple of years ago, and I will say that this one is my fave (go midtown)!!
This place is super pretty, and our party of 4 came here for brunch. It’s $ 19 for their unlimited brunch cocktails (you choose from 4 – 5 fruity drinks, from the peach margaritas to the sour cherry mimosas). Our server was super quick with refilling drinks, so everyone totally got their drink on within the two hours that we were there!
As for the food, we started off with the soujouk (a type of sausage) lollipops, which were really tasty! I also had the pera-​style french toast with brandied strawberries, pistachio jam and feta cheese as my main entrée, and that was really good as well. I liked how they divided the french toast into three pieces, too.
Overall, it was good, pretty food, as well as amazing service!

Good for a quite night out on the town! Here on a Saturday night with coworkers and it wasn’t busy at all! Elegant décor with a floral scent filling the restaurant.
For appetizers Id suggest, (a must for cheese lovers) Crispy phyllo rolls or the roasted halloumi cheese with eggplant jam and baby arugula. Delicious! I personally liked the halloumi cheese more, it was fresh and roasted perfectly! Another favorite was the Portuguese calamari, it was drizzled with a sauce that was mouthwatering!
Main course, I had the baby lamp chops which were delicious. Nothing out of the ordinary or different, jus cooked to perfection!
As far as drinks go the bartender was excellent! Don’t remember the actual name but I started off with a cucumber gin drink which was mixed well. My coworker had an burbon with infused fig mixed drink. That was delicious and different!!!
Dessert I had the flourless chocolate cake. Yummy! However the pear sorbet was hit at our table. I’m not usually a fan of sorbet yet it was delicious!
Enjoy, and check your coat!

I went to Pera for a late lunch with a couple of colleagues and a had a pleasant experience. We were choosing between Pera and the Italian place next door and trusted Unilocal’s reviews with our decision. When we got inside it was completely empty — only one table was occupied by a couple of employees, and even though that’s usually not a very good sign, we asked to be seated. They told us that there was only bar seating available (for some reason) but asked to be seated on one of the booth tables at the window.
They were really great with helping us with the wine list, and they didn’t have the wine that we wanted, so we finally chose a Cava which was their recommendation. When they brought the wine to us, it was very warm, which was pretty disappointing. We got a bunch of small plates to share, including the lamb wraps, hummus, eggplant, Brussels sprouts, and fried octopus with the white bean salad. One of my friends is a vegetarian, so we asked to get the hummus without the meat on top.
The food was pretty good but not overwhelmingly so. I would have definitely liked it if they gave us some bread or pita for the side of the appetizers — the hummus was amazing, and they only had some dry chips to eat it with, so I wasn’t that impressed with the presentation. The eggplant was decent, but it didn’t have too much flavor. My favorite dish was the Brussels sprouts — very filling and very well-​dressed. I’d recommend getting that along with the lamb wraps and hummus. Everything else was kind of so-​so.
Finally we shared the chocolate cake with pistachio ice cream for dessert, and it was amazing! I don’t know if it’s worth the price, but I definitely enjoyed it.
Overall, pretty decent experience — I don’t know if I would go back however.

It’s ok. I didn’t love it. The dishes were ok. It seemed like they were confused about one of our dishes and gave us another one that we didn’t order. Wine was decent, but inexpensive bottles are few and far between. The stuffed grape leaves had a weird taste to them, so if you’re looking for the typical interior, it’s got a strange, cumin-​type spice to it.
Mixed grill was pretty good, but nothing earth-​shattering. Can’t say that any dish was standout or that I’d rush to return here.

Came here yesterday for lunch with a colleague and enjoyed the food. Pera has nice, open décor. It was simple and well-​lit. The hostess, however, was a bit snarky and condescending. She didn’t even give us the choice to check our coats even though my colleague had bunch of stuff. She put her stuff down and then went back and stood at the front with her coat, trying to get the attention of someone to help her check it. Shouldn’t be that difficult considering there were ²⁄₃ people standing at the front next to the coat check.
On the other hand, our waiter was friendly. We decided to share some small plates and our waiter recommended the dishes we were already planning on getting, score! He then said he would be back with our bread… no bread ever made it to us. From the other reviews, it sounds like the bread is good so I’m a bit disappointed we didn’t get to try it.
Luckily, we had plenty of food. We shared the Char-​grilled Spanish Octopus, Homemade Grape Leaves, Mediterranean Dip Trio with Lavash Chips, and Pastirma Wrapped Feta-​Stuffed Dates. Aside from the grape leaves, which were mediocre, the rest of the food was great. Loved the octopus with the white bean salad, was light and the right amount of chewy. The dip trio was also fantastic, really liked the baba ganoush and tomato dips. I wasn’t a fan of the dried meat around the date (I guess that’s what the Pastirma is), but the dates had a nice flavor and the feta worked well. While the dining experience itself wasn’t great, Pera does have some great tasting tapas and I would love to try a few more items on their menu.

Pera est un magnifique restaurant d’inspiration méditerranéenne pour aller boire un verre au bar en dégustant des mezze absolument hallucinants.
Après la découverte autour d’un verre avec des amis en afterwork, j’y suis retourné pour diner pour avoir les proportions «normales» qui sont en fait énormes.
Mon conseil: En entrée (à partager) Grilled Spanish Octopus Grapefruit and avocado salad: Salade de poulpe avec pamplemousse et avocat, tomates multicolores, mache, oignons, radis rouges et amandes grillées.
En plat: le plat signature de Pera: l’agneau «ADANA» · haché à la main tous les jours et mariné avec des épices de la Méditerranée orientale. Sur des airs de kefta, c’est absolument extraordinaire.
Allez-​y pour la localisation très centrale, le cadre, la nourriture exceptionnelle et pour les vins.