Cafe Nana

Café Nana is located in the Columbia Hillel building right off of 115^th. To get to the café, you take the stairs on your immediate left to the second floor.
The café is usually quiet enough to study in or do work in. Occasionally, they have a football game on in the back room. However, because there are thick glass doors, the noise doesn’t come through. Note that the café follows the Columbia university academic calendar. This means they are closed when the students are on break.
Avi is the man who runs this place and he does a great job. When I’m studying or have to run to class, I call my order in, and Avi always has it ready. Try the personal pizza pie. I believe it’s about ten inches in diameter. I ask him to cut it into eight small peices so I can enjoy it more. The pie fills me up every time. Ask for spicy mayo. For some reason this pizza tastes great with it.

Poor service, average quality, limited menu, not so clean. The only kosher place at Columbia, other than dining halls.

Delicious Shakshuka

There are new guys running this place now and they do a nice job. It’s all pretty good. I like their burekas.

Best kosher café near Columbia, with amazing service.

There’s a sandwich board out front, but a security guard inside. Just ignore the man behind the desk, Café Nana is open to the public and up the stairs on the second floor.
I like this place because it’s vegetarian, though the menu changed recently and the restaurant seems to change hands regularly. It’s also a kosher café, so they consider fish to be vegetarian, and at night some of the religious kids treat it like a dorm room and have shouted conversations across the café.
They have a little Bedouin tent area and is apparently the go-​to place for frum date night. This café is great for people watching, but you will be part of the people that get watched. Or gawked at. Especially if you dare walk in wearing a mini-​skirt.
The hummus and burekas are really tasty though, maybe a little greasy, but in a good way, and it’s never too crowded to get a table. Plus you can read a line by line translation of Song of Songs while you wait for your food.