We'll take Manhattan!
...at The Blue Mezze by Onur Safak!
Frank Sinatra may have sung that Chicago is his kind of town, but obviously if you can make it in New York you can make it anywhere! The Upper East Side if you know us at all is most definitely our kind of town and we are absolutely delighted to tell you about a new hit to us by a restaurateur new to us: Onur Safak. Onur has been the owner since October 7, 2022 and we wish we visited sooner! He has got a hit with The Blue Mezze and we started aptly with a MANHATTAN.
Not a lot of restaurants earn their own color but this one did, and we hope they continue to shine bright.
When we go to a restaurant, we always want water with no ice and lemon wedges.
Perfect here!
It might be blue in name but dinner is totally in the PINK when you start with the Pink Sultana. Oooh it reminds us of HALLAK PINK (and we hope you saw the Hallak van in SUCCESSION). The Pink Sultana looks like dessert but instead it is a creamy amalgamation of mashed beets, garlic and dill, strikingly rich and absolutely delicious. This is the cold mezze to get.
We count four salads on the menu now and we opted to go Greek with the Greek salad! Lettuce, tomatoes, pepper, onion, olives, feta cheese and parsley all teamed up to wow us with their freshness in every bite, and they listened and put the dressing on the side for Ms. Pretty Picky. We were impressed with the skills and personality of server Katalina Torres and think more restaurant owners should hire more women servers.
Though often Peachy gravitates towards a strong red wine, this dinner she chose a Manhattan because she was in the mood. They nailed it and it was perfect:
You should not walk but rather RUN to order the Scallops under Hot Mezze. It was among the biggest hits here and the arrangement was attractive and for someone that usually likes the intrinsic flavor of an item, Peachy really adored the sauce this dish had going on! Red and Green Peppers added panache to the party and the 3 pan seared scallops waltz in rosemary, corn on the cob and butter sauce to-die-for. Sign up for this!
In fact, we would like to see this promoted to an entree with even more scallops.
Right now it is an appetizer. (Mezze)
We absolutely loved the cheeseburger and they hit it out of the park.
The world series is about to start in America (thanks to our readers all over the world!) but if you want the world series in your stomach and home runs to happen, order this.
This is no ordinary burger.
Since when have we ever liked ordinary?
Never.
The Truffle Theory Burger is a rich 8 oz beef patty with Swiss Cheese, sauteed mushrooms, avocado, caramelized onions, green leaf and white truffle mayonnaise and to say it is delicious is an understatement.
Of course there are Truffle Mediterranean Fries too.
If you want to be healthier than Peachy, both the Grilled Mediterranean Chicken and the Grilled Shrimp are amazing too! Above is the chicken and below is the shrimp, each celebrating the lighter side of fine dining in Manhattan.
Grilled Mediterranean Chicken is marinated and luxuriates on a creamy, smoky eggplant mozzarella puree while the Grilled Mediterranean Shrimp teams up with grilled asparagus and vegetables including carrots, tomatoes and broccoli.
Note we never edit pictures, ever.
It really looks this smashing in real life because Onur Safak did great work.
Peachy the Burger Monster (akin to the Cookie Monster) also tried the Fresh Salmon Burger, another amazing choice. We see a lot of Salmon Entrees with one tiny single slice of salmon on many menus and find this quite boring and wimpy and frankly, we are still hungry after eating such an "entree." However, at The Blue Mezze, this Salmon Burger reigns supreme.
It really is fresh and perhaps a healthier option than the cheeseburger, and you won't even miss the cheese because the arugula, caramelized onion, avocado and fig balsamic vinaigrette is terrific to complement the poisson!
Finally, no one can ignore pasta and Peachy has a close relationship with it! The Seafood Pasta here is a winner with linguine, shrimp, calamari, arugula, garlic (and we might even add more garlic!), cherry tomato, basil, thyme and tomato sauce.
There's a lot of restaurants on Second Avenue, but only one Blue Mezze.
The Blue Mezze was excellent and we will be keeping an eye on their progress and hope they keep up the great work!
