Let me describe a night at Talias…My client (a titled Italian) and I arrive. Now, it was brutally cold out, so we didn’t notice the inside temperature, as we were defrosting. No one at the door to show us to our seats and there were few people in the place. I try to get him to keep his back to the TV that is blasting ESPN. (Tacky folks!) After 3-5 minutes of waiting, we grab a table ourselves. I’m wondering why the heat isn’t kicking in, but figured it eventually would. We sit at the table shaking from the cold as a trashy dressed Israeli girl comes over and snaps, “I didn’t sit you here! You can’t sit here!” I smiled and said, “Oh, no one was at the door, so we just sat here…I know you don’t mind.” She huffs and rolls her eyes and throws a couple of filthy menus down on the table, encrusted with food bits. My client opens his and out comes a half eaten roll. He chuckled, I got nervous. Then 2 of the wait staff were confused as to whose section we fell into and they began arguing over it–loudly. Finally an annoyed, unprofessional guy with a shaved head comes over and takes our order, “What can I get you guys?” We order and We are just FReeeeeeeeeZing! The Israeli girl from before struts by and I said, “It is really cold in here, do you mind turning up the…” “The heat is out. Put your coat on or move over there!” I just couldn’t believe it. Now, in a goyishe restaurant the door person would warn you that the heat is down, but drinks are on the house…something like that. NOPE! Not here! Finally, we are too cold and move to the other table, we never warm up and sit through dinner shaking with our heavy coats on. The staff was disinterested and appeared bored and annoyed. The food wass blech… At one point they turned down the TV and put on some decent music, I forget what, but it was the only redeeming thing about the evening.

This isn’t an isolated incident, it is typical of most kosher restaurants…I highlight it because the Italian stills mentions it jokingly in emails and phone calls, “Oh, it was no problem, really. It was great to have a true NY Jew experience!” Grrrrreat… So, it isn’t just about the food and the service, it is also people’s business and it can be a chillul Hashem. Something to think about. These aren’t judgements, just observations…

Using the new Advanced Search, users can search for restaurants by name, cuisine, neighborhood, zipcode or review text.

There are also three new features on the Advanced Search page. The first is a search for Restaurants that are Open on Saturday Night. The second is a search for Restaurants that are Open During Passover. And the third, is a Hashgachah Filtering Feature. This allows you, the user, to filter by which Hashgachot you want to search, as well as enable Kosher-NY to remember your preferences for your next visit to the site!

We hope this will make your use of Kosher-NY all the more useful and easy.

Thanks!

The Kosher-NY Team.