Persepolis

Had the most delicious lunch! Excellent humus and koubideh, and I got a yummy bite of the saffron chicken. The environment was nice and service was top-​notch. I’m an out of town visitor but will definitely come back!

Bland food and really shitty rude staff. They charged double and then made a scene when I corrected their mistake. Will never go there again.

I absolutely love Mediterranean food, however, I wasn’t crazy about this place.
The location is great, the ambience is nice, the service was excellent, but the food was just not that good. I ordered stuffed grape leaves for an appetizer and they were hot! I’ve never had stuffed grape leaves that were hot and they made me gag. As my main course I had the beef stew. I’m not sure what was in it. I can’t actually say it was beef and it was greasy. Though it was tender. Also, the basmati rice that comes with it was dry. I did enjoy my glass of Merlot

The only decent Persian place in the entire city. Elegantly decorated with well-​trained and courteous staff. Their prix-​fixe lunch is a bargain. I’ve pretty tried pretty much tried everything on the menu and I’ve never left disappointed. Salad Olivieh and the Baba Mirza are perfect to start. If its a party of two, share a kabob plate and one of the stews.
You won’t regret eating at this place.

Nothing special. Slowish service, average dishes, average prices. Overall not impressed. I have had better middle eastern food

I love how the lunch menu ends so late on weekend. It really helps to narrow down what to order because everything on the menu sounds delicious. And at $ 17 for an appetizer and entrée, there’s not really much more to think about.
Okay, the restaurant might look a little cheesy with the colossal grey goose bottle in the entry way, but it’s eye-​catching, right? Regardless, food stands on it’s own here — there is no need for gimmicks because one bite of the food was enough to get me to come back again.

The kebab was great, but the restaurant is very very expensive, we are 3 guys paid more the 200 $ !!

I took my family to this vibrant place and had a such great time. We chosen our lunch from the set menu which has various selection.
This my third lunch in this lovely place and let me tell you that they are consistent in term of food quality and service.
I will try it one for a dinner.

OUCH: expensive and simply not fresh. When a restaurant has to add MSG to an appetizer (the trio with eggplant dips), you know there’s trouble. And when they don’t inform you of that additive and you find out the hard way (I’m highly allergic!), you can’t be happy.
Having been spoiled at the Los Angeles’ Persian restaurants (Westwood Blvd’s in particular), the meal was just plain bad. No cherry juice or yoghurt drink, the yoghurt trio was so overly garlicked that you couldn’t taste anything else, the eggplant trio — well the MSG got me early on — the Fesenjan with a light gray color was fit for the trash, not royalty (no walnuts in sight, no pomegranate molasses instead it tasted like vinegar (?!), lamb chops were over done, only the saffron chicken tasted good… And the rice? Where were the sour cherries, the orange peel or any of the other ingredients mentioned. After all that, it wasn’t surprising that the Baklava was soggy. $ 200 for 4 people without wine and a mediocre meal? Yikes!

Authentic and delicious, this was exactly what I needed on a cold winter night! And the wine suggestions were wonderful.

I was quite taken with this highly competent Persian restaurant, While I can’t say it’s the dining experience of the century, it certainly more than fulfilled my expectations. The Shandiz was quite good. That was basically rack of lamb with sauteed eggplant, all quite good. A friend dined on White Fish. Again, very good. Our appetizer Eggplant Mirza, which was fine.
A nice, quiet atmosphere.
Service was prompt. Can recommend without reservation.

Came here with several friends hoping to find authentic Persian food… Without going into detail the portions were not very large. Also I found it a little bland, my green rice just didn’t have flavor to it.
Again I feel the restaurant was more customer
To fit the patrons of the upper east side than to make a real super authentic full of flavor middle eastern food.
The service on the up side was excellent and place was very nice and clean.

As an Iranian I’m very satisfied with their food and their service.
I usually order and they deliver to my place in upper west side.
Very different from any other Persian restaurant,
Also there is no loud pop trashy music play in the restaurant.

we visited Persepolis for lunch. Tried the kebab over rice and saffron ice cream. Overall OK food, very small portion and I would say slightly over priced. But it is a decent food and service was pretty OK.

Went without reservation around 3pm, staff was extremely friendly, well educated and eager to assist us. We had yogurt with beets and the humus which were amazing (all made at the restaurant). For entrees we had lamb and the chicken kabab with couscous. Everything was perfect. We noticed the staff was very friendly to all customers

Super delicious food, nice interior, terrific service, and very reasonable prices. Would definitely come here again!

Persepolis is an absolute delight. I’m a huge fan of a Persian cuisine in general. And this restaurant has pretty good authentic dishes.
I am crazy about their Fesenjan chicken that goes well with dill and fava beans basmati rice. Basically, it’s shredded chicken cooked with walnuts and pomegranate. THE BEST COMBO EVER. The cherry rice is amazingly delicious too.
The Lamb Shank is so tender and soft that once you touch it with your fork, it falls apart and once you put it in your mouth, it melts. Baba is good and fresh as well. Don’t order Tabouleh though. It’ll ruin an actual tabouleh taste for you.
Dessert section: my favorite is the rose water ice cream one. It’s like sensation in your mouth and your brain cant comprehend all these amazing flavors, that’s why you become speechless for a few minutes when you try this dessert.
The staff is great, super friendly and pleasant people.

I really hope this is not the first Persian experience anyone has.
This bizarre, not at all cheap menu features more anglicized, non-​traditional dishes than any other Persian restaurant in NYC, but they don’t bill themselves as a fusion spot. I can only assume that the peculiar state of the menu was a choice made to assuage the UES neighborhood’s less «exotic» palate, but the real tragedy is that in making room for items like hummus, pineapple salad and lemon chicken, they left off many of the more tasty actual Iranian/​Persian specialties that we (The Iranian diaspora wandering the city who have actually tasted real food) come for. This food was so bad that I ended up going to eat somewhere else after paying $ 27 for a soltani plate that included the smallest portion of rice I’ve ever seen.
The service is inconsistent, hampered even more by the fact that requests for actual Persian items were met with blank stares by the very much not Persian waitstaff. All of this is yours to enjoy from one of those trademark New York awkwardly cramped tables where you’re dining 3 inches from strangers and they have to slide it out for the inside seat to be reached, even though this particular space is huge, but I suppose it’s really important to make most of the room available for the display of the gigantic promotional sized bottles of Belvedere and Voss water.

We came here for the price fixed $ 17 lunch per person. It includes the choice of an appetizer and main course. More than I would prefer to spend on lunch but not bad considering the amount of food you get, the quality, and how nice this place is inside.
We had the hummus to start which was extremely good hummus. The small spicy tomato salad with it was also fantastic.
Minus one star because I’ve had better Persian stew before a couple of times and I haven’t even been to that many Persian spots.

This restaurant is perfect in just about every way. It’s décor is pretty elegant. It’s a great spot for a date or for a family dinner. We started off with the grape leaves which were excellent and the complimentary whole wheat pita was good.
My wife was between the lamb shank and the rack of lamb but ultimately decided to have the lamb shank… More on this later. I went with the lamb and beef combo with the dill rice.
The waiter got confused and ended up putting her down with the rack of lamb… no big deal, because they were excellent. My combo was delicious as well. Their dessert menu was what you’d expect from this type of restaurant, but I really was hoping for something a little bit over the top after seeing how amazing their grill masters are.

My Persian uncle and wife were in town and invited me to this restaurant recommended by a good friend. Me being away from home momentarily doing an away rotation in NY and missing some good persian food couldnt resist!
This place is good… real good. I am extremely high standard when it comes to my persian food believing my dad to be an amazing chef that prepares kebab every sunday. I’m skeptical when eating out but this place satisfies. Appetizer for the table was Yogurt and Shallots w/​accompanying nan= Delicious!!! I’m not a big fan of yogurt but i may have to reconsider now. Great selection. My main course was the Saffron Chicken w/​polo sharin (basmati rice w/​almonds and orange). My only complaint was that there wasnt more after I finished. It truly is prepared well. I also had the apple martini and strawberry martini. Both were done delightfully and packed a good punch in a welcomed way *wink wink
Hats off to you guys for giving me a great meal. Would certainly recommend and bring friends here! Cheers!

Came here on a date, excellent! We had sultani and barga, both excellent with basmati rice and for dessert the baklava.

Good Persian fare, vegetarian and not, with good service and biggish portions.
Quiet today, but not many tables were occupied (Sat. lunch),

I’m still mad about this. But I’m trying to be level-​headed.
I’m a Persian who moved away from her persian family and became vegan. But you’d be surprised how often I can find delicious vegan persian food. Both in restaurants and in the homes of many of my relatives.
Persepolis was not one of those places. The only good thing was that the tah dig (ready around 3 – 4 pm daily but call ahead) was only $ 3 without stew and the portion was medium sized. But it was like rubber. Thin, still mostly white (no golden brown chunky crunchy layers here) and bland.
This meal had a consistent lack of salt. My uncles talk about this constantly: persian rice is seasoned (and salted) within an inch if it’s life. This was bland like I have never experienced. I had the dill rice and the dill was definitely not infused in the rice plus I got about 6 Fava bland beans total.
The ghormeh sabzi (vegetarian) was also lacking the rich depth of the dried lime. My father did tell me he’s been having trouble getting lemou omani but I had veg ghormeh in Boston not a month prior to this and it definitely had that exquisite flavor I was looking for in every bite.
The mirza ghasemi: this was the first time I have ever had a bad experience with this dish. Tomato and eggplant? How can you go wrong? But they did. It tasted more like bademjoon — underseasoned and lacking tomato so a little gummy in texture.
The shirazi salad had parsley in it. A ton of it. Um, that’s weird and not appealing.
The kabob tomatoes were normal. I did like them.
I’m used to paying a lot for persian food so the $ 45 didn’t phase me (I prefer the full meal not just the stew and rice, plus I can stretch it into two meals). But when I called to ask about delivery they told me it’d be $ 15 to grand central (30 blocks). Step back, jack. I’ll just get it myself, thanks. Or maybe I won’t get it.
I had never had bad persian food before this. So, thank you for giving me doubts about my favorite cuisine since childhood.
(Picked up takeout early august, Tuesday around 3:30 pm)

I was just telling a friend about my experience here and figured I’d better write about it on Unilocal to share with all of you!
One word: heavenly. I hadn’t had Persian food in months, so coming to Persepolis — one of the few Iranian restaurants in Manhattan — was a long-​awaited treat. Everything from the décor and ambiance (I love good, dim lighting) to the food (the koobideh!) was superb. We had such a lovely meal, with great wine to go with it. I will be back!
Recommendations: the kashk e badamjan, kabob koobideh, and yogurt with cucumber and mint (maast-​o khiar) I also love the fresh bread and sabzi plate that was served to us right away. Persian hospitality at its finest!

Wins my vote for the best Persian restaurant in NYC. It’s been around for a long time and that’s probably because of the consistency of their food. Loved the service here! I forgot his name, but there is a server who is German or American, but speaks Farsi (or at least he knows a couple of words and he tries and is very endearing) — loved having him as our server! The kashk appetizer was delicious. We requested a side of the gheimeh stew and he brought it poured over tadig (crunchy rice), which I loved. I ordered the sultani and my skewers of koubideh and barg were tender, juicy and delicious — I didn’t want to share, is that selfish of me? The rice was good too, with giant fava beans. I will definitely be back!

The overall restaurant is very simply decorated and has an overall casual feel to it. We came here as a group of 8 and were seated at a comfortable circle table in the center of the dining room. The wait staff was accommodating and attentive throughout our dining experience.
Getting to the food, we did the eggplant trio, yogurt trio and hummus to start that was accompanied by pita. Overall, I preferred the eggplant flavors here as the yogurt really didn’t have much going on in them and the hummus was nothing out of the ordinary. For my entrée, I tried the Soltani Lamb (half lamb and have ground meat) which was tender and excellent. It was accompanied with your choice of rice that I thought was standard and nothing overly exciting to talk about but good overall.
After a couple of bottles of wine and some drinks, with tax and tip our meals came out to about $ 70/​person. I thought this was a bit on the higher end for what we ordered, but overall a good meal.
Buon appetito.

Good ambience… authentic Iranian food
Day 2, yesterday we tried the various appetizers called the trio with varying combinations of egg plant.
Today I decided to go with the ash soup, the nice thing about Persian food is its not spicy nature, the way they use spinach and beans to make swell cooked dish
The lamb shank was divine, soft well cooked just well enough to bring out the flavor inside and out along with very tasty basmati rice with beans. Just the right amount of saffron to give it that flavor
To end this completed with traditional baclava, Persian tea with mint
I didn’t give it 5 because I have not been able to compare with anything similar as these restaurants are few and far!
But all in all an enjoyable dining experience

Although this place serves solid food in a pleasant setting, there is nothing too exciting going on here. It is your standard list of meats on the menu and they are all served with rice and a few veggies.
The chicken and lamb that were ordered were fine, but lacked significant flavor and were a bit tough. Also, the roasted tomato that comes on the plate was burnt on the outside and cold on the inside.
The falafel was decent but nothing special and I would say the same thing about the eggplant. Not bad place for a big group but there are better Mediterranean restaurants in the city.

The weekend $ 17 prix fixe lunch is great value. As an appetizer I had the lentil soup and then picked the vegetarian stew for the entrée. The waiters are attentive and nice. It was my first persian meal, it’s similar to lebanese and is worth giving it a try!