New York City / Mediterranean
Best Mediterranean
Restaurants in NYC
Israeli, Turkish, Palestinian, Moroccan and coastal — plus the four happy hours that make this the best-value cuisine in the city.
Four of these run a real happy hour — Barbounia from 3pm, Pera Soho from 4:30, Meduza and Amali from 5.
- 18 verified rooms
- 4 real happy hours
- mezze from $10
- a meal from $10.80
The short version
- Best happy hourPera Soho — everything $10, food included, Mon–Fri 4:30–6:30pm.
- Longest windowBarbounia — four hours, 3–7pm weekdays, $10 mezze and $12 wine at the bar.
- Best mealLaser Wolf — $52 shishlik that includes the whole salatim spread, on The Hoxton roof.
- Best valueTaim’s $10.80 lavash wrap and Miznon’s $15 whole cauliflower.
- Worth the tripTanoreen in Bay Ridge — a Bib Gourmand every year since 2011.
The best Mediterranean restaurants in NYC right now are Laser Wolf in Williamsburg, Tanoreen in Bay Ridge, Shukette in Chelsea, Pera Soho for the best happy hour in the category, and Miznon for the $15 cauliflower that beats most $40 entrees in this city. Here is the useful thing nobody says out loud: “Mediterranean” on a New York menu means one of five specific things — Israeli and Levantine, Turkish, North African, coastal Spanish or Italian, or Greek — and knowing which one you are walking into is most of the decision. So we have grouped this guide that way, put the four verified happy hours up top because tapas-style mezze at $10 is the best-value drinking food in New York, and kept Greek deliberately light because it has its own guide. Every price came off the restaurant’s own menu in August 2026.
At a glance
What to order and when the deal runs. Tap a number on the map to place it.
| Restaurant | The move | Days | Window | $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pera Soho | Everything $10 — food and drink | Mon–Fri | 4:30–6:30pm | $$$ |
| Barbounia | $10 mezze, $12 wine, $14 cocktails | Mon–Fri | 3–7pm | $$$ |
| Meduza Mediterrania | $9 cocktails, bites from $5 | Mon–Thu | 5–6:30pm | $$$ |
| Amali | $10–12 spritzes and Negronis (drinks only) | Mon–Fri | 5–7pm | $$$ |
| Laser Wolf | $52 shishlik includes the whole salatim spread | Daily | dinner | $$$ |
| Shukette | $10 bread service off the taboon | Mon–Sat | dinner only | $$$ |
| Balaboosta | Fried olives $15; hummus $17 | Tue–Sun | from 5:30pm | $$$ |
| Miss Ada | Hummus masabaha $18–20; entrees $26–32 | Tue–Sun | from 5pm | $$$ |
| Tanoreen | Warm apps $8–22; entrees $26–34 | Tue–Sun | dinner | $$$ |
| Dagon | Hummus $12 dinner / $16 lunch; mezze board $27–31 | Daily | lunch and dinner | $$$ |
| Cafe Mogador | Tagines and couscous; vegetable tagine $17 | Daily | all day | $$$ |
| Taci’s Beyti | Charcoal kebab and pide | Daily | 12–11pm | $$$ |
| Kabab Cafe | Baba ghanoush, eggeh; mains around $12 | Tue–Sun | 12–11pm | $$$ |
| La Vara | Andalusian small plates | Daily | 5–9pm | $$$ |
| Nisi Estiatorio | Grilled octopus $29; all-day service | Daily | 12–10pm/11pm | $$$ |
| Miznon | Whole roasted cauliflower $15; pitas $18–24 | Daily | 11am–9pm/10pm | $$$ |
| Taim Mediterranean Kitchen | Lavash wrap $10.80; falafel pita $15 | Daily | counter | $$$ |
| Mamoun’s Falafel | Falafel sandwich; open till 4am Fri–Sat | Daily | 11am–2/4am | $$$ |
Map: where these 18 spots are
Manhattan carries the happy hours; Brooklyn and Astoria carry the cooking. Several outer-borough rooms beat their Manhattan equivalents outright.
Pins are numbered to match the table above – tap any pin for the detail and directions.
Mediterranean happy hours worth planning around
Four verified windows, all confirmed on the restaurants’ own sites. Mezze at $10 is the best-value drinking food in the city — see also best cocktail bars in NYC.
Pera Soho On now
The best Mediterranean happy hour in New York, and it is not close. Ten dollars covers everything during the window — any mezze, signature cocktails, wines by the glass, draft beers, mocktails, one flat price. Most bars advertising an all-$10 happy hour quietly exclude the food. This one does not. The honest caveat: bar and lounge only, and it ends at 6:30pm, which is early even by New York standards. The local move: be there by 5:15 with three people, order six mezze and a bottle’s worth of glasses, and you will spend less than you would on two cocktails four blocks north.
pera-soho.com · See our SoHo happy hours
Barbounia On now
Four hours. Three to seven, Monday to Friday — the longest verified Mediterranean happy hour window in the city. Fire-roasted eggplant, hummus, labneh, beet hummus and spicy feta are all $10, the five-mezze board is $38, grilled Portuguese octopus is $21, house wine $12, seven cocktails at $14, bottled beer $6. The honest caveat: bar only, and the Flatiron office crowd lands from about 5:30 and does not leave. The local move: arrive at 4 or 4:30. A mezze board and a $12 glass in a room with ceilings that high is one of the best-value early evenings in Manhattan.
Meduza Mediterrania On now
A nine-dollar cocktail on Hudson Street at five in the evening is close to unheard of, and that alone justifies the trip. Bites start at $5. The menu runs the whole coast rather than one country — mezze, a raw bar, robata, pasta, steak and seafood, with real vegan options rather than a token. The honest caveat: ninety minutes, Monday to Thursday, bar-top only, walk-ins only. You cannot reserve into it. The local move: the bar runs far later than the kitchen — to 1:30am on Fridays and Saturdays — so this also works as a late West Village stop long after the happy hour is gone.
meduza33.com · See our West Village happy hours
Amali On now
The east side is thin on this category and Amali is the grown-up answer: seasonal Mediterranean, small-farm sourcing, a wine list someone clearly cares about. The honest caveat, and it is the whole shape of the deal: the happy hour is drinks only. Spritzes and Negroni variations run $10 to $12 at the bar, weekdays 5 to 7pm, and the food stays at full price — mezze dips $14, Spanish octopus $33, swordfish $43. The local move: drink here, eat afterwards, or accept that you are paying for the food and treating the cocktails as the discount. It also runs a real private dining programme, which makes it one of the few genuine group options above 57th Street.
amalinyc.com · See our best wine bars in NYC
Israeli, Palestinian and Levantine
The deepest section, and the one New York does best. More vegetable cooking here than anywhere: see best vegetarian restaurants in NYC.
Laser Wolf
From the Philadelphia Zahav team, and the format matters: a shipudiya, a skewer house, cooked over live coals on the roof of The Hoxton with the Manhattan skyline across the river. The price is the whole meal — chicken shishlik $52, steak $59, spicy lamb kofta $56, and every one arrives with the salatim spread, hummus and pita first and brown-sugar soft serve after. The honest caveat: getting a table is the hard part. This is a Resy-drop restaurant, not a walk-in, and $52 to $59 a head is still a three-figure dinner once wine lands. In summer it opens early at 3pm on Fridays, which is the least-contested slot.
Shukette
Order the bread service first and treat it as the point rather than the preamble: $10 for laffa and pita straight off the taboon, built to drag through everything else you order. Chef Ayesha Nurdjaja is a James Beard finalist for Best Chef in New York State and it shows in the small plates. The local move: the counter facing the open kitchen can be reserved on Resy and is the best seat in the house for two. The honest caveat: the bill climbs faster than the menu implies because the format pushes you toward six small things. Walk in expecting a $38 dinner and you will leave having spent $70. Dinner only — there is no lunch.
shukettenyc.com · See our Chelsea happy hours
Balaboosta
The fried olives at $15 — labneh, harissa oil — are the dish that made this restaurant and they are still the correct first order. Einat Admony’s flagship, and the vegetables are headline acts rather than obligations: whipped feta $18, cauliflower $19, Yemenite soup dumplings $19. The honest caveat: closed Mondays, dinner-only on weekdays, and a $42 branzino is real money in a room this size. The local move: come for the mezze, not the mains. Four or five small plates and a glass of wine is the version of this restaurant worth having, and it is a completely different check.
balaboostanyc.com · See our best vegetarian restaurants in NYC
Miss Ada
The garden is the restaurant. A sun-trap backyard with herbs grown for the kitchen and the cocktails, a sidewalk cafe, and a fully covered back patio that keeps working in October. Chef-owner Tomer Blechman built the menu around hummus masabaha at $18 to $20, with mezze from $5 to $14 and entrees $26 to $32 — hanger steak $32, za’atar-crusted salmon $30. The honest caveat: closed Mondays, and if you get seated inside on a July night you are getting a lesser version of the place. The local move: ask for the garden when you book, and take the 11am brunch slot at weekends before it fills.
missadanyc.com · See our Fort Greene happy hours
Tanoreen
Rawia Bishara opened this with her mother in 1998 and it has held a Michelin Bib Gourmand every year since 2011, which in this category is close to unheard of. Order the fried cauliflower steak with tahini, then the brussels sprout and cauliflower salads at $14 to $18 that the regulars get every single time. Entrees $26 to $34 — lamb baked eggplant $32, baked kibbeh $32, stuffed cabbage $28. The honest caveat: it is Bay Ridge. That is the R to 77th Street and then a walk, so budget the travel. And the room is comfortable-neighbourhood, not scene. You go for the cooking, full stop.
Dagon
The Upper West Side is thin on this category and Dagon is the answer, running southern Italy through north Africa rather than sticking to one country. Here is the odd, useful detail: the lunch menu prices some items above dinner — hummus is $12 at dinner and $16 at lunch. So the value version of this restaurant is the evening, not the afternoon, which is the opposite of almost everywhere else on this page. Build a meal from the mezze board at $27 to $31 for three dips or $47 to $51 for six. The honest caveat: there is a bar but no happy hour, so the drinks are full freight.
dagonnyc.com · See our Upper West Side happy hours
Turkish, Moroccan and Egyptian
Charcoal, tagines and one cash-only room that does not print a menu. Overlaps with our best halal restaurants guide.
Cafe Mogador
This is the North African corner of New York Mediterranean — tagines and couscous rather than mezze and skewers — and it has been on St Marks Place since 1983, which makes it one of the longest-running restaurants of any kind in the East Village. Order the Couscous Royal: couscous under lemon chicken, merguez and lamb shank in an aromatic broth. Vegetable tagine $17, blackened za’atar chicken $19. The honest caveat: the weekend brunch line is genuinely long and the room is small. The local move: come on a weeknight for dinner. It is a completely different and much better restaurant when you are not queueing for the Moroccan Benedict.
Taci’s Beyti
A proper charcoal grill house: shish kebab, lamb chops, grilled shrimp, swordfish, whole grilled trout, and a pide section serious enough to order from on its own — get the pastirmali, the flatbread with cured beef. Open noon to 11pm, seven days, which is unusually wide hours for a destination Turkish room. The honest caveat: no prices are published anywhere the restaurant controls; the menu and pricing live on its third-party ordering platform, so check there before you commit. And this is deep Brooklyn — Coney Island Avenue in Gravesend, well past the Cobble Hill dining belt. Worth the trip for the grill, not for a spontaneous Tuesday.
tacisbeyti.com · See our best halal restaurants in NYC
Kabab Cafe
The most rewarding and least predictable meal on this page. Ali El Sayed has cooked on Steinway Street for decades, greets the room himself, and frequently works without a written menu — he tells you what he has. Order the baba ghanoush studded with apple for the sweet edge, and the eggeh, the golden egg fritters. Mains land around $12. It is the anchor of Astoria’s Little Egypt stretch. The honest caveat, and take it seriously: cash only, a handful of tables, no card option, and the chef sets the pace. If you need a predictable dinner at a predictable time for a predictable price, go somewhere else on this page.
See our Astoria happy hours
Coastal: Spanish-Moorish and Greek
Where the Mediterranean crosses into itself. Greek gets its own full guide at best Greek restaurants in NYC.
La Vara
The most interesting idea on this page: Andalusian cooking read through its Moorish and Sephardic Jewish influences, which is the actual historical point where the Mediterranean crosses over into itself. Michelin-listed, 4.6 across nearly 800 reviews, in a small Clinton Street room. The honest caveat, twice: the official site says 5pm to 9pm daily while OpenTable claims later — the restaurant’s own hours win, so call before you plan a 9:30 table. And it publishes no menu prices, so the small-plates format can run away from you. Budget like a tasting menu, not like tapas.
lavarany.com · See our Cobble Hill happy hours
Nisi Estiatorio
The grilled octopus with caramelised onions and feta at $29 is the dish that tells you whether an Astoria Greek kitchen is serious, and this one is. It also runs all-day service, noon to 10pm and 11pm at weekends, which very few Greek rooms in Astoria do — so it solves the 4pm-hungry problem that most of this neighbourhood cannot. The honest caveat: Astoria has a dozen Greek restaurants within ten blocks and this sits at the pricier end. Lamb chops are $52, ribeye $55, lobster pasta $57 — Manhattan money in Queens. Go for the octopus and the hours. For the full Greek picture, we have a whole guide.
nisiastoria.com · See our best Greek restaurants in NYC
Counter service, and the best value in the category
Ten to fifteen dollars, eaten standing up, and better than plenty of sit-down dinners. More in best cheap eats in NYC.
Miznon
Order the cauliflower and nothing else and you will have got this right. Fifteen dollars for a whole head, boiled then charred, served on a board with salt and olive oil and no further explanation. It is the best fifteen dollars in this entire category. The pitas — ratatouille $19, lamb kebab $24, melting chickpeas $18 — are good, but the honest caveat is that $19 for something you eat standing at a stool in a food hall is restaurant money for counter service. The local move: cauliflower, a bag of green beans at $7, and get out. Five NYC locations are trading; Chelsea Market is the one to use.
Taim Mediterranean Kitchen
Same chef as Balaboosta, running the fast-casual half of the operation, and the falafel genuinely deserves its reputation. The value play is the lavash wrap, not the pita: falafel or chicken lavash at $10.80 against $15 for the O.G. falafel pita. That is the cheapest real meal anywhere in this guide. Eight falafel with tahini on the side is $4.80. The honest caveat: the prices above come from the delivery listing, which typically runs a couple of dollars above the counter price — so expect to pay slightly less in person, not more. The original Waverly Place shop is closed; Nolita is the flagship now.
taimkitchen.com · See our best cheap eats in NYC
Mamoun’s Falafel
The reference point every other falafel in New York gets measured against, and the reason it is an institution rather than just a good sandwich shop is the clock: open until 4am on Friday and Saturday, the latest-closing venue on this entire page. Counter service, a tiny room, mostly takeaway. The hot sauce is the house signature and you should say yes to it. The honest caveat: there is essentially nowhere to sit and the 1am Saturday line is real. This is a falafel sandwich eaten standing on MacDougal Street at an unreasonable hour, which is exactly what it is for. Do not book a date around it.
Mediterranean food in NYC: FAQ
Which NYC Mediterranean restaurants have a happy hour?
Four are verified on the restaurants’ own sites. Pera Soho in SoHo runs everything at $10 – mezze, wine, cocktails and draft beer – Monday to Friday 4:30 to 6:30pm, bar and lounge only. Barbounia on Park Avenue South does $10 mezze, $12 house wine, $14 cocktails and $6 bottled beer, Monday to Friday 3 to 7pm at the bar. Meduza Mediterrania in the West Village does $9 cocktails and $5 bites, Monday to Thursday 5 to 6:30pm, bar-top and walk-ins only. Amali on the Upper East Side does $10 to $12 spritzes and Negronis, weekdays 5 to 7pm, drinks only.
What does Mediterranean food mean on a New York menu?
In practice, one of five things: Israeli and Levantine (hummus, salatim, laffa, charcoal skewers), Turkish (kebab, pide, mezze), North African and Moroccan (tagine, couscous), coastal Spanish or Italian (seafood, olive oil, small plates), or Greek. Knowing which one a restaurant actually cooks is most of the decision, which is why this guide is grouped that way rather than alphabetically.
Where is the best value Mediterranean food in NYC?
The counter-service end, and it is not close. Taim’s falafel lavash wrap is $10.80 and Miznon’s whole roasted baby cauliflower is $15, both official-menu prices, against $52 to $59 a head at Laser Wolf and $42 for a branzino at Balaboosta. During happy hour, Pera Soho’s flat $10 covers food as well as drink, which most all-$10 happy hours quietly do not.
Which Mediterranean restaurants in NYC need a reservation?
Laser Wolf and Shukette both need booking well ahead – Laser Wolf runs on Resy drops and books out fast. Miznon, Taim, Mamoun’s and Kabab Cafe take no reservations at all; they are counter or walk-in only. Miss Ada, Balaboosta and Cafe Mogador are all closed Mondays.
Are any NYC Mediterranean restaurants cash only?
Kabab Cafe on Steinway Street in Astoria is cash only, has a handful of tables and often no written menu – the chef tells you what he has that day. It is the most rewarding and least predictable meal in this guide. Everywhere else listed here takes cards.
Last updated: August 2026. Prices and hours change – confirm with the venue before you go. Spot something out of date? Let us know.
