Nerai

Summary

For New Year’s Eve, we were fortunate to book this restaurant in Midtown East at the very last minute. This was always on our list since outdoor dining was a thing as the pictures of its settings looked quite appealing. Most tables have their own electric heater that sat directly above the table, so it wasn’t too cold compared to other places. For what it’s worth, it was in the high 30s with some wind chills. We did dress warmer just in case though.

Please bare with the pictures as they needed their white balance heavily adjusted. The area actually looked very orangey red, but post process, it caused the backgrounds to look green.

The left was persephone which had sparkling wine, st germain, and pomegranate. This tasted just okay. I wished the pomegranate was more prominent as it could’ve added some differerent sweetness to it.

The right was calypso which had white rum, spiced rum, passion fruit, cinnamon demerara, and ouzo. All of these ingredients sounded much better than it was. I was hoping that the passion fruit blended well with the rum, but it just didn’t as much until the ice started melting.

The traditional trio spreads came with grilled pita, tzatziki, hummus, and spicy feta. The pita was super soft, and all the spreads were good. My preference from best to last was tzatziki, spicy feta (surprisingly), and then the hummus.

The grilled octopus appetizer came with santorini fava, caramelized onions, roasted red peppers, and capers. The octopus as expected had a nice char to it and was cooked perfectly. The yellowish sauce had some light mustard flavors and surprisingly complemented the octopus. I don’t think I’ve ever had mustard with octopus before.

The chicken lemonato came with grilled chicken breast, slow braised thigh meat, sat on top of lemon potato gnocchi, and doused with crispy shallots on top. This was one of the few chicken dishes at a NYC restaurant that I was interested in ordering. The chicken breast was cooked perfectly and was very juicy. The sauce was delicious and was aromatic with chicken broth. There were some parts that had some salt pockets though. The gnocchi was quite delicious and fluffy.

The filet mignon was 8 oz, served a perfect medium rare, and came with feta mashed potatoes, mushrooms, and a mavrodaphne jus. The steak was quite large and was very tender. As usual, I avoided the mushrooms, but my partner thoroughly enjoyed this dish. The jus was a very nice complement.

The service here was nothing short of fantastic. The employees were all very attentive and made sure they kept our cups filled. Even though they had a 1.5 hour limit, we didn’t feel rushed at all.

Final Verdict

Nerai is an excellent Midtown seafood mediterranean restaurant. It’s a little more upscale, but the food was quite delicious. The atmosphere especially in the evening make it an excellent date location.

Yelp Jabs

Cons: 1) food is so so. Greek salad was tasteless and wasn’t fresh. Chicken was ok but nothing special. 2) waiters is not friendly and not welcoming; 3) expensive for such a bad quality of food

This elitist from Florida looked like she ordered some lunch items. The salad in their picture looked fine, but I wonder if they were expecting ranch dressing instead of a light vinaigrette.

If I could give this place a zero I would give below. I just gave birth as a celebratory dinner and brought my sister and her fiancé out. after me breast feeding and my husband working a long day … they decided to call us out and come to our table and tell my husband that he is too drunk to be served

Although this review seems suspiciously fake, it’s interesting that this Yelper wanted to share their familial experiences. I think most restaurants would prefer to not ask your party to leave if you were not outlandishly rude, but it feels that this Yelper was trying to justify their husband’s actions. Remember that being loudly rude also affects the other tables around you, and no business wants to risk a negative experience to the rest of their customers from just 1 party.