Zilli

I’ve had great times, and not so… which is why it’s a-​ok. So I’ll stick to the positive, the barista made a fresh fantastic hummus for us. We had well made martinis, although my chocolate one was a bit too sweet even for me. It can get packed and the décor is warm and seductive. The seating area in the back has tables as well as sofas. Food is average to pretty good for turkish cuisine. What gets to me is that there’s a ‘hanging out policy’, which last I saw was printed in their menus. In order to sit in the back area, you must order at least some amount of food or drink or else. get to steppin. Maybe it’s changed? but I wouldn’t know since I only go for drinks now. That’s the positive, for real.

The food is really excellent. I came here for dinner and brunch but have only tried the appetizers. The Domatesli Patlican is delicious… eggplant and onions in tomato sauce. The Shephard salad is also very good. I love the outdoor seating and the hookah. Our hookah was not hitting and the waitress was very attentive. She had it fixed for us. The hookah is kind of expensive though. My one other complaint is that the drinks are not strong enough at all. The New Earth specialty cocktail is so good.

I heart this place on a nice evening after work!
The sampler platter was DELISH and totally enough food for two of us, which is clearly awesome. Hookah in the backyard was stellar, and I always love to find a place in New York where they really, sincerely don’t care if you sit there for hours on end babbling about the mundane details of your life or bogus book ideas you’ve been cooking up and will never, ever write (thank god).
My favorite thing to do for a relaxing evening is head here with a friend, get a bottle of the Fat Bastard, order up some wondrous tobacco, and order the sampler plate. Goodbye, next few hours of my life… with zero regret.

You know, I’ve been coming to Brooklyn alot lately. So much, in fact, that I’m surprised that I haven’t received a W-​2 yet so I can pay taxes.
We came here after doing the majority of our drunken carousing at Bar Reis. Our friend chose this place because he knew the owner of the joint. And what a nice and jovial person the owner is. She gave us free Jolly Rancher shots and gave us free food. I do remember that it was lamb that she gave us. How do I remember that it was lamb? Because my friend, the hilarious huckster that she is, kept saying «baaaaa» every time I took a bite. Yes, she’s quite a sensitive person.
So yes, the lamb was quite good, not tough to chew at all. I loved that they have Harpoon on tap. The other drink I had, the Brain Wash (crème de menthe with Bailey’s) was very good too. And it’s just a nice place to hang for a few hours, with a few hookahs that I noticed. Not to mention that there is also a back patio to hang out as well.

I actually recall having pretty good service up until check time, that was definitely a «I’m going to go up and pay at the register» which, since I’m not in a hurry on a Saturday afternoon, is totally fine with me. Maybe when I’m older I’ll appreciate good service more, but with the staff smiling and so incredibly friendly 100 percent of the time, I couldn’t help myself but catch their happiness; it’s absolutely infectious.
There are a few things that really make this place something to come back to (the expensive beer notwithstanding). First off, hookah. I had been looking beyond Bay Ridge for some good hookah and now I can come back to this if I’m really in the mood to shell out slightly pricey (15) but no-​cheating hookah, aka lots of nice tobacco. The outdoor patio is clean and spacious, and there was a group of fellow twentysomethings, a jaded bookish hipster with her two much less rotten looking friends, and what seemed to be a couple and their baby with one of their brothers or something.
The food I’ll have to come back to snack on; the great thing is they prep stuff out in the open at the bar so it’s always great to see the process first hand, I think it really enlivens the experience. The inside is especially clean and with plenty of coffee tables and couches, I’m sure this would be a great place for small groups to participate in a good smoke.

hung out here on sunday with some friends. while it wasn’t fancy or too hip, zilli has a nice outdoor patio.
we enjoyed a pineapple hookah and worked through the sunday page 6 crossword… which made us feel really dumb considering we couldn’t finish it… what’s up with that? i mean some of the clues were pictures of celebrities…
moving on — i dont think i’d ever plan on going here again, but rather will find myself there again not really knowing how it happened.

It’s beyond me why the masses trolling along Park Slope’s Fifth Avenue continue to frequent the strip’s myriad mediocre spots, when a reliably warm and tasty gem like the Turkish/​Mediterranean Zilli remains virtually empty every time I go. No, it’s not a speedy meal, nor is it fancy, but it’s worth the wait and the easygoing vibe. The Mediterranean salad with cucumber, tomato and feta is addictive – the three kids in tow couldn’t get enough of it. The pizza’s are smoky and flavorful, although the ones with cheese can get a bit gooey and weigh down the light crust. Still, that bothered no one in my crowd. Borek’s satisfy kid and grown-​up tastes alike. Hummus and babaganoush are a bit pedestrian if passable – I’d stick to dishes you can’t easily find at your corner supermarket.
I’ve only been with my kids because it’s quiet and the food suits us all, but if more adults frequented the spot it’d also be a fun and sexy spot to hang out in.

I have to pronounce Zilli this week’s official winner of the Brooklyn Burger Bar Commemorative (Dirty) Cup for Exceptionally Lousy Service. Even getting our water refilled took something like 20 minutes, and our waitress walked by us multiple times even when we were calling out to her and waving and trying to get our attention — although I will give our server credit for not making any major mistakes on our (extremely simple) meal order.
The food we (eventually) ate was quite tasty — we each got a pide, the turkish «pizzas» that came with a side of «shephard’s salad» (standard middle eastern salad), plus we shared some (middling, slightly bland) hummus to start. It wasn’t a huge amount of food, but it was satisfying, and I will gladly admit was mostly delicious, especially when paired with a nice beer (which came in ½ liter glasses!).
Now… the service. After we seated ourselves (which is fine), it seemed to be going well — we got our menus, and after maybe 10 minutes the waitress came to take our order. So far, so good.
10 minutes later, she brought out our water, and a little while later, our hummus. Ok, excellent.
I don’t think we saw her again for over 30 minutes, and the hummus wasn’t *that* large. We had been hungry when we got to the restaurant, and after close to an hour with nothing but bread and hummus in our stomachs we were getting more than a little impatient.
Finally, our pides came out, and we proceeded to happily chow down — but she only brought one salad. We waited a few minutes, figuring she just didn’t have room on her tray for both, but after 15 minutes my friend got up and just asked for it since she ignored every attempt we made to get her attention. We finished up, and then tried to get the check.
Yeah, you can see where this is going, right? He had to get up again, yadda yadda, etc.
All in all, the food is affordable and tasty, but the service is friendly but just slightly faster than watching molasses run uphill.

I had a very unusual brunch experience at Zilli that made me super happy, as I love Turkish/​Mediterranean food. For somewhere around $ 11 you get three brunch choices which includes coffee or tea, a mimosa, and a meal. One of which is an appetizer sampler that had so many good choices — yogurt dill sauce, hummus, some tomato and bean salads, olives, etc. I had a spinach filled phyllo dough which was also super yum and came with veggies, feta cheese, and a heaping bowl of warm bread (as all the meals do). The atmosphere is also very cute — it’s set up to look like you’re sitting in someone’s living room with couches, arm chairs and eclectic tables and lamps all over the place. I left feeling full and satisfied :)

Hmmmm… hookah and some babaganoush and hummus on a lazy Saturday? Don’t mind if I do.
The bread is absolutely amazing here, it’s like a lovely toasted lavash, totally perfect for the delicious hummus. I wasn’t quite as nuts about the babaganoush. Strange taste to it, lack of mayo or something?
The service is… European, I’d say. Very very very European. Like 45 minutes to get the check European. But it’s an outdoor garden, there are liter beers, yummy foods, lovely hookah, and well, are you really in a rush on a Saturday afternoon?