Prespa

Great place to eat, drink and have a pleasant time. The food is super good and the price is good.

The staff here is friendly and helpful. The restaurant is lovely and very clean. Chick pea fries are delicious, but so is the pizza and rice balls. It has a friendly, neighborhood feeling and they always make me feel like an old friend when I come in, especially the fabulous Emma at the bar.

Come on guys! You can do better than this. Prespa is a decent looking eatery, with a great al fresco dining area out front. Our greeting was warm and the menu promised a good quality meal.
Everything started nicely, water was placed and refilled several times as we waited for our food. We continued to wait. After about 30mins bread with olives and oil was brought to the table. It was good, although the olives were VERY salty. We’d asked for all the food to be brought as and when ready. Hmmm! After about an hour we were getting hungry. How long does it take to make salad and pizza? Beyond the hour mark we received our salads and soup with a couple of apologises for the long wait time. The salads tasted and looked great, as to, the soup. Nicely warmed up, we were ready for our pizzeta and pasta.
We waited… and we waited. At least five times in a 45min period, we were told our food was coming out immediately. At the precipice of us throwing in the towel and asking for the bill after watching several tables who came in after us munching their mains, our dinner arrived. Laura N’s seafood pasta was cold and unpalatable. Lizzie G’s pizzeta bland like a cracker, whilst my Brooklyn pizzeta being the only enjoyable main course out of the three. The waiters having apologised so many times previously, clearly didn’t want to deal with us after they spied barely touched dinner plates. They eventually came over, removed the pasta on request and offered us free sambuca. Sorry guys, its too late, you’ve lost us.

We came to Prespa on a friends recommendtion to celebrate both my birthday and Valentines day. The décor is nice, clean and relaxing– the staff was on point with the service.
I read the reviews before coming and think the restaurant either got a bad rap from a few Unilocalers or there is a new chef.
We loved the ethereal vocal music which chilled me out almost immediately. The complimentary bread and olive oil is delish! We ordered lamb chops with mushroom risotto and pure chocoloate heaven for dessert.

They have wisely updated their menu since I visited. We went for lunch and there was nay a vegetarian dish on the menu; and, yes, I checked the menu before going but the veggie friendly menu posted outside was for dinner only. We might have left right then, but we had already eaten most of the bread and felt like we had to stay. I’ve «dealt» with this many many times before so I pulled my sweet coy little Asian girl act out and asked if they might possibly had anything for a vegetarian (explaining specifically I do not eat meat). The waiter looked like I had just spit in his mama’s face! He tried to push some fish dish (did I not just say no meat) then a butternut squash risotto with bacon (did I not just say no meat!!!). I asked if they could perhaps prepare the risotto without bacon and he disappeared to the kitchen — he retuned saying I could have some plain steamed vegetable (GROSS!)… After this stalemate he offered me the risotto without bacon as though I had not already asked for that.
These issues could have been fine if the food had been anywhere close to good (see my review of Brasserie 8 ½). The risotto was a bland starchy mess, and I don’t even remember what my friend ordered because it was so unremarkable. Our plates of lame «food,» rude service, and free water came to a whopping $ 18 each. Never again!

two words: chickpea fries. These were phenomenal. They look like french toast sticks (remember those from elementary school?), but they are lightly breaded and fried and DELICIOUS. There is some kind of yogurt sauce that is pretty good. I would go back solely for these and order 2 plates as well.
the bread is a fresh baked (or at least tasted like it) foccacia bread which was delish too, and came with hummus and olive oil. I ordered the black risotto with beets… this was mediocre (which is why I am giving it a 3 star rating). My friend ordered the tuna carpaccio and lamb and said those were very good.
The atmosphere was nice — it was quiet. This would be good for groups or for a date.
I will be back for the chickpea fries. I promise.

I recommend the chickpea fries, even though there are only 4 [fries]. I also like the homemade focaccia bread with hummus that comes for the table.
I tried a whole bunch of other stuff (black beety risotto, mussels, lobster, wasabi & beet tartar, a fat chunk of duck) but they were all trying too hard. The fries and bread, though, were humbly refreshing.
An old man at the bar kept smiling at me, in a creepy pedophilia kind of way. I’m sure that won’t happen to you. But I’m just saying.

Like Jess O. I had heard good things through other sites (not that I am cheating on Unilocal…) but they were so wrong. I had watched the place undergo a renovation (I believe due to a fire last year) and we went shortly after it reopened in the spring. It was pretty much empty when we arrived, but they sat us in a dark back corner initially, until we asked to move. The space itself is large and open and the Mediterranean décor is appealing but the food was awful. My duck was way overcooked and tough and the sides bland. The duck was supposed to come with sweet potato and leeks, but instead came with asparagus. The waiter did not mention this when I ordered an side of asparagus with my meal. So I got a double serving of asparagus. And the worst part was my side order was served near the end of the meal so I did not want it or eat it. I also sampled my dining companion’s seafood pasta and it was boring and mushy.
Our wine was decent but getting it was an epic battle. No wine list was in sight when we were seated and after I asked the waiter for one he went to the bar and produced a crumpled sheet of paper listing the wines — not an appealing presentation.
The meal was overpriced for the quality of the entrees and the service is very scattered and unfocused. Serious restaurant management training is needed here.

This was the worst dining experience I had in New York on my most recent trip there. My friends saw a write up on menu pages, and it had gotten good reviews. It was near our hotel and her work, so we thought we’d give it a try…
Let’s start with the positive. The food was pretty good. The place has a lot of different seating areas and can feel kinda cozy even though it is big — of course the fact that it was nearly empty on a Friday night created more of a cavernous than cozy feeling. And the wait staff seem to be nice people.
The negative — well although the waitstaff seem nice, they appear to have no clue as to what they are doing. We had to ask for the check multiple times before they understood what we wanted. When one person in the group said «no I’m fine, I don’t want another glass of wine,» they brought him another glass of wine — which we all agreed would be easier just to drink and pay for than to explain that he had said no. They also seemed confused about how to actually serve their food. For example, I ordered the whole fish (which was very yummy) and the brought it out and showed it to me and then went back and deboned it. Then they brought it back out to me and couldn’t decide what to do with it – he stood there with the plate trying to decide whether to scoop the fish on to the plate with the sides or to just give me both plates. It seemed as though perhaps no one had ordered this dish before.
Our biggest complaint was the time. Our group of 4 was one of the only tables in the restaurant and it took well over an hour before we saw any food. We had to ask for it several times — and then they brought one dish at a time — the lamb coming nearly 10 minutes after everyone else had been served. They did not apologize for this or think it seemed unusual. Our simple meal without appetizers or desserts took three hours. Now I love leisurely meals, but usually they involve actually eating…
They also had a terrible drink menu. There were no normal or standard drinks — only things that sounded like dessert. Oh and if you do go, we agreed that the kebabs was the best dish…
They get 2 stars because the food itself was flavorful and well prepared. They had only been open 6 months when we were there so maybe they are just having growing pains but with so many restaurants in the city, they better grow up quick if they wanna survive.

This is adorable!1 Like a little Palm Beach in the middle of the East side of Manhattan! I L-​O-​V-​E the décor, and the food was great! I had chicken with eggplant, fresh-​home made mozzarella and a light tomato sauce. It was divine! And they gave us adorable little chocolate cookies at the end. Definantley takin my mom here next time we are in nyc!