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Shalel

65 W. 70th St., New York, NY, 10023
nr. Columbus Ave.
212-873-2300

Avg. Rating

"Not Recommended"

Average Reader Rating on a Scale of 10.

33% would go back.

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Displaying 1-3 of 3

Not worth it

By nyny1980 on 4/22/2011

Overall Rating: 1
No, I would not go back!

Be advised... Do not go here. The staff is rude. Drinks are dull and tasteless. My friends and I have tried going a few times but its futile. We always get turned away by the hostess b/c rooms are reserved (and ironically always empty). Its just a waste of time. This is not meant for groups or single women - trust me. If you want to get hit on by 10 swirly guys go ahead. I've been here before with girlfriends and it's no picnic.

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26 out of 51 people found this review helpful.

Food = pretty good. Drinks = overpriced. Decor = resourceful. Service = plain weird.

By foodfighternyc on 3/30/2011

Overall Rating: 1
No, I would not go back!

This place has so much going for it design-wise. But, the service is just damn weird. When our party of 3 came for dinner on a Tuesday evening, the place was quiet. No one was at the front to seat us, but a server who happened by instructed us to seat ourselves--just not at a table with a "reserved" sign on it. Reasonable enough, except that all the tables equipped to seat more than 2 were "reserved," i.e. kept empty in hopes that a group of pimps fanning themselves with Benjamins would walk in. Faced with a futile task, I asked the server if she would please be charitable enough to allow us to sit at one of the many open tables. She said no, that we would have to pay $100/hour to sit at one of those tables--which is ironically what we had in mind, with 3 of us eating and drinking. So, I asked her if she could please trouble herself to seat us SOMEWHERE. She directed us to a very small bench at the front of the lounge. We asked for a stool to sit on to round out the seating arrangement and she pointed (yes, pointed) to an upside-down basket behind the hostess stand with a utility bucket sitting on it. One of us tried to bite the bullet and sit on the basket, but ended up really biting it, when she fell to the ground, because the basket was broken. By now, dinner at Shalel had become just plain farcical, so we cancelled our food order and left. All in all, Shalel is too frustrating to enjoy--even if they did manage to turn their leaky basement pipes into a "waterfall."

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23 out of 54 people found this review helpful.