A friend recommended this place, and it did not disappoint! Probably the best shawarma I've had…read moresince coming to America. Everything was fresh, flavorful, and delicious. Highly recommend!

The shawarma is delectable and plentiful. The desserts were lackluster despite the marketing by the…read morecashier; she tried her best to convince us which items to get and even gave us a fork in case we wanted to dig into it while we wait 20 minutes for the kebab. On that note, I wish they had given us a warning that it'll be at least 15-20 minutes for the kebab. Had we known that, we would have ordered another shawarma and left. The kebab was cooked through and spices were all there, can't complain on that front Space is bright and clean. It was not crowded when we stepped in but it definitely picked up quickly soon after. It can get rowdy depending on the time of day. One issue to bring up is they DO NOT give any coin change back. If your total comes out to $17.50 and you hand over a $20 bill, the register will only give you $2 as the change. Not sure if this is the same policy at their other location but that is plain weird. No sign up regarding that either. That doesn't stop us from throwing a few bucks into the tip jar though.

Cafe G is wonderful. The ambiance is cozy and inviting and the food is fantastic! The service is…read morefriendly and you never feel rushed. It's a spot where you can have long conversations with friends over a great meal. The archaruli khachapuri was warm and gooey from the cheese and egg over a good crust bread boat. The chakapuli (veal stew) was good but on the salty side. The khinkali qalaquri was my favorite dish here as it was fragrant and spiced really well.

Great ambiance. Perfect for date night. The food is on the salty side. Hard to find good Georgian…read morefood. But the Adjaruli Khachapuri is my favorite dish.

First time here, won't be the last. Got the pork shaurma. 8 inches of goodness. Just under 2 inches…read morethick; that's after being in the sandwich press. I just wish the vegetables were more evenly distributed and the shaurma rolled more evenly, but you can see how much meat they put in. I normally go to the place that starts with a 'G' one block over, but somehow only just found out about this place even though I live literally one block away. One big difference is the wait/prep time; 'G' keeps the meet on a gyro wheel. The meat is cut as you order then rolled into the shaurma. Shaurma Factory has the meat already cut and kept warm so it cuts down on prep time. The wait time at 'G' is 10 minutes plus vs maybe 5 here. I always go around the same time (12:30-1:30). 'G' is always busy during lunch. There were 2 other customers while I was here, but I still got my order quickly. Both places include a free can of Coke w/shaurma. The price at 'G' fluctuates ($12-14), but has been $12 for some time now. I paid $12 here. I haven't been here enough to note price changes, but I'll definitely be back here to try the chicken shaurma and khachapuri.

Wow, new little Georgian place with food ready made to go! Halfway between the two Q stations. They…read morehave "draft" tarragon and other sodas, as well as refrigerated bottles. For vegetarians, there are various spreads including spinach pkhali, and breads including with cheese and beans. Meat eaters can order something to be made, or take the ready made shashlik in a wrap, or try the chicken potato side. Friendly servers, and you can speak Georgian, Russian or English.

Djerdan's bureks were recently recommended to me when I was talking about the great Turkish boreks…read moreI had recently eaten in Brighton Beach at The Nut House. Bureks from the Montenegro side of the Balkans are a bit lighter than their Turkish cousins and just a flavorful. Djerdan is a very small shop located on 23rd Ave near 65th Street with only a couple of tables and a limited menu but if you are coming for their cheese, ground beef or spinach bureks, you are all set! The woman working at Djerdan spoke limited English but she was friendly and heated up my slice of spinach burek ($5.50). While the slice could have been heated up a bit more, I will definitely be back to try the ground beef and cheese ones.

Yes, this place might have some problems with service and freshness of pies, but it's probably…read morereflective of the area this location is in and how much money they are making or not making. The first time I was here, the lady at the counter left me confused because she couldn't explain properly what kind of pies and other similar items they had. However, she wasn't rude or anything. This is a quiet clean place and I love that they sell yoghurt drinks for a more authentic combo. The pies I get to be eaten later are just fine to me, reheated or not.

I've only been to Brick Oven Bread once, and I was Bricking it, because I used to be in the Uzbeki…read moreMafia, and the Georgian Mafia (who run this store) are, let's just say, not too friendly with the Uzbeks. In fact I think we killed several of their 27 children while I was second in command, and they probably killed a few of my boss' kids too, although not the ones she liked best so it was no biggie. Of course once the Kazakh and Latvian Mafia got involved and the majority of our elders had to flee to Moldova, that was the end for me. I got out while I was ahead (sort of) and fled to the United States of Former Soviet Mafia People and never looked back. Okay I did sort of look back a few times but only to make sure I wasn't being followed by former-KGB hit squads. What to get: Khachapuri. What else: Don't go if you're Uzbeki. You will be shot on sight. Unless you're me and know how to dress up like a Moldovan. Brick Oven Bread is a hidden gem in Brighton Beach, way down near Coney Island and all that good stuff. The trouble is that you probably venture down here more often in the summer, and this isn't really summer food, it's winter food. The kind that will fill that little almost-non-existent Hipster tummy of yours in ways that you've never been filled before. What you should order, as I said, is the Khacahapuri which is the Georgian Bread. It's dirt cheap (although dirt is becoming more expensive these days - but not in Georgia), it's enormous (and so am I), and it's indescribably delicious. Which means I'm not even going to start describing it because I wouldn't be able to do it justice. It manages to be charred and doughy and crusty and even a little moist all at the same time. It's big enough for 2 or 3 people to share and the price is shockingly low. I'll be back to try other things one of these days. It's hard when you live 380 miles away from Brighton Beach. If you've never had Georgian food, especially Georgian bread, make the trip down here to Brighton Beach and put some of this in your mouth. Don't worry about the Georgian Mafia. If you come here for their bread, all you've done to wrong Georgian people in your life will be forgiven. So come and break bread with them. But if you Break it: you buy it.

"It's very good", the owner tried to re-assure me as I pointed towards a box of cookies/pastries…read morethat resembled small croissants. She was struggling with the Georgian name (which I later googled as "Baddam Buri") but offered me the descriptor: "pastry with walnut... good with tea". I'm pretty sure if the cardamom had been accentuated more, and the texture had been either crisp or soft (as opposed to neither, perhaps a victim of slow turnover?), it would have been an excellent pastry. But, instead the block of cake that I first pointed at instinctively (Smetannik: sour cream and walnut) turned out to be well worth the $5 price tag (and likely 5,000 calories from the 7 layers of cream!). Located on a residential block in Brighton Beach, hard-to-find, Brick Oven Bread, is perhaps my favorite of the Georgian bakeries in the city -despite the disappointing (with both less crunch and char than at Georgian Bread) long bread (Shotis Puri) and the smaller Khachapuri (that I didn't understand at all - a cross between a Khachapuri Imereli and Penovani - but with no star turn from the vehicle containing the cheese). Beyond the selection of affordable sweets with quality that bests that at other Georgian bakeries (with the possible exception of Taste of Georgia), I really like the warm, Imeruli Khachapuri. Their version of soft white bread contains mozzarella and feta cheeses (again, not the traditional: Sulguni ) but they are blended together in a way not to remind one of the expected taste of either. They too carry a large selection of dips, and salads - Pkhali (spinach) and Lobio (kidney beans) are excellent choices. There's also a lot more to discover here in terms of the selection of sweets. On my next visit, I tried the chocolate cream layer cake - another 12/14 layer cake that seems to be their forte. I really liked the chocolate, which gave a homemade feel to the experience, but unfortunately the succeeding layers of cake were not as soft and moist as I would have preferred. That said, I did have a 5 star experience with the cookie: Nushis Namtskhvari (nut cake) which is made with almonds, and when warm (it was feshly baked on the tray) is the perfect balance of crisp exterior and chewy interior). I will likely be back and hopefully round them up from the current 4.5 stars. Unhappily, the Georgian bread and cheese binge is likely to ensure that I show up at nearby Brighton Beach wearing an exotic outfit in the warm summer months... the male version of a Burqa!!!

I saw pictures of their fruit cake and it looked so good that I went to grab myself a slice. I…read morewasn't aware it's by weight and ended up paying $13 for a slice of cake that was so dense. On top of that, the cake was bland, dry and it was so hard to eat. Maybe I got a bad batch, but I don't think I will be getting any cakes from here again.

The food is always fresh and delicious! The meat pastries are amazing -- always flavorful and…read moreperfectly baked. I just had a Kubdari, and it was so tasty and juicy! Everything here is made with high-quality ingredients, and the service is excellent. Highly recommend!

This place used to be decent, but recently I went there and got khinkali and "Trubochki" sweet…read morepastry with cream and it was TERRIBLE! Meat inside was old and not fresh, pastry was literally with spoiled cream inside. I advise you to avoid this place until they get it right. The prices they charge for food should be impeccable.

Sadly the most disappointing shawarma I tried in Brooklyn. Lots of meat, but all of it extremely…read moredry, very little sauce too. So off balanced.

I could make this restaurant a weekly habit. The employees provide excellent customer attention…read more The small footprint of Bayridge Turkish Cafe doesn't compromise cleanliness or comfort. Our minimal menu exploration was adequately rewarding. This restaurant delivers well.

Have you ever seen the misadventures of Nedim Sahin, the guy who went viral with videos at his…read moreBaruthane Pilavcisi restaurants? He claimed to taste the first spoonful of each new batch of food to ensure that it meets his mom's standards. There is a well-known Turkish proverb he quotes from - "pilavdan dönenin kaşığı kırılsın". In literal translation it's "break the cooking spoon of the pilaf maker who falters in its task". It's understood as either "see it though come hell or high water" or "bring your A-game or don't bother showing up". Eh, I wonder if the guy who served me this kofte platter at BayRidge Turkish cafe has ever heard the quote? When it came to Turkish food, certain items are universally loved, like çorba (soup) and kofte (meatballs). Çorba has such an elevated status that a commander of the Ottoman elite military corps (Janassary) is known as a çorbaci (soup man). Even today, the term is used in modern Turkish slang as "boss". There's an old saying in Turkish that the best kofte is made by your mom, but the best çorba is from the local kebab joint. What makes for good Turkish kofte? It's supposed to be fluffy juicy pillows of meat the size of say, a mini Snickers bar, made with ground beef and sometimes lamb, with some diced lamb tail fat whipped into the mixture, seasoned with sweet and savory spices like cumin, mint, coriander, mace and such, then grilled over coals. In Turkey the usual service is with a bowl of buttery Turkish lentil soup (often accompanied by their bread), ice cold Ayran, piyaz (navy bean salad), then kofte fresh off the grill, and maybe some rice pilaf (buttery rice with bits of toasted orzo within) on the side. Who does a good version in Brooklyn? Kofte Piyaz in Sunset Park - it ain't cheap, though. So what is up with this 15 dollar kofte platter I got at Bayridge cafe? Well, the size of the kofte is odd, like breakfast sausages (my wife is much less charitable on the comparison and said it looked like something from a kitty litter box). It tasted dry and shriveled up, with no flavor at all, like it was air fried once too many. The iceberg lettuce and tomato salad that came on the side just bleeds off the mediocrity. The rice is just white rice and not pilaf. The inexplicable part is when they serve up lentil soup and gave us slices of American white bread. Not toasted, not buttered, and certainly not Turkish bread. Me and my wife bursted out laughing. The soup is...serviceable, but it certainly won't make any Ottoman Sultan dance for joy or fuel warriors into battle - it tasted flat (the version that I make has tomato and pepper paste, onions, garlic and dried mint...which this didn't have) and we didn't see the usual shaker of aleppo (pul) peppers for sprinkling onto the soup to give it a kick. The bean stew that we ordered (Kuru Fasulye) was watery and without much distinctive flavors. So, eh, is this place bad per-se? Not really. Despite the disappointing kofte, it comes with a small bit of eggplant salad that was honestly not too bad. The Turkish tea was on-point (well, they used Caykur Tomurcuk, which is a Turkish Earl Grey grade) and they used a double boiler to do the tea, which means that it's legitly brewed in the Turkish fashion with the right flavors. The Tulumba wasn't nearly as good as, say...Safa in Istanbul, but it isn't a disappointingly soggy mess like the ones at Djerdan Borek or coyingly sweet with salad oil stench like the ones at Artion bakery in Astoria. It was like how you imagine a good churro would be - warm, not too oily, sweet but not too much so. Crisp exterior, honeyed interior, goes well with a cup of hot tonic Turkish tea, served strong and fragrant. So yeah, it's not hopeless. But geez, guys, save your wonderbread for the American sandwiches and toss pitas or Turkish bread with your Turkish fares, and talk to your mom about serving up proper kofte. I can excuse the soup but that kofte is a travesty. Köftedan dönenin isgaralar kırılsın - either make something worthwhile or don't bother at all.