Reviews & Ratings for Cleopatra's Needle Restaurant & Live Jazz

01/05/12

Rudest Most Idiotic Management Ever

by Nyasha

Wost experience ever at a restaurant or so-called jazz club. I went in to patronize the place and see my friend at the open mic session on Wed night. I took a seat by the bar and ordered a Riesling wine as there was a cover. The bartender asked for payment, so I pulled out a $10 bill. The $10 bill turned out to be two bills stuck together. One fell in the bar area as I tried to pull the two bills apart. The bartender saw the bill fall in the bar area and proceeded to look for it for about 15 minutes. When he couldn't find it, he demanded that I pay again. I told him that the Riesling was not worth $20 and asked him to keep searching in his area. A bit later, in the middle of a performance, the manager came up to me (obviously called by the idiotic bartender) and said to me very aggressively "You did not pay for your drink." I explained the situation but the rude, obnoxious manager Mahen insisted that I pay again. Which I did, after complaining loudly to the other guests who did not seem to be surprised, and left the restaurant. I hope that when they find my $10 under the bar, they can use it to invest in some customer service training. Thanks but I don't need the money!

Rude, obnoxious, possibly racist, and unaware of Customer Service 101.

08/26/11

This is the best restaurant in America

by Alwahsh

I went to have dinner at this ausome restaurant with my family as one of my friends recommended it . They have great Live jazz with no cover charge and their food is great . The service is ausome and everything was OK . I don't think I'll go to any other restaurant after I knew this one but next time , I'll have to catch the happy hour .

05/29/11

NEVER AGAIN!

by Zazou

Never again! I have never written a food review before, but I have to share what has just happened at Cleopatra's Needle to warn unsuspecting potential patrons.

I moved around the corner about 6 months ago and was curious to try it, so I went in with my visiting mum and a friend of hers this evening.

When the time came to order, I made sure to specify I wanted the moussaka with meat. After the server brought our food and we started digging in, I quickly realized that the horribly over-cooked piece on my plate was the vegetarian version of it (with mushrooms and cabbage, which are not in the meat version, and no meat). I decided to stick with it, but I called our server to let him know of the situation and to ask him to charge me for the vegetarian moussaka only (about $3 cheaper).

Once I had finished my plate, he came back and told me that the chef had stated that today the meat moussaka had mushrooms in it and that the meat was under, which was complete bull. I can tell when I eat meat or not, and there was not a speck of it in the piece I got.

The rest of our meal was mediocre (chicken marsala was completely dry, the vegetables were straight from the freezer as was the cheesecake, which was as compact as a brick. And since when does béchamel sauce have tomato in it?!).

They still charged me for the meat moussaka, at which point I just paid for it and barely left a tip. Looking around, we eventually realized that there were way many more people drinking at the bar than eating at the tables, and now we know why.

The jazz was OK, but that's beside the point. The food was a total disaster, the service non-existent and the attitude when confronted with their mistake despicable. There are enough very good restaurants on the UWS to be able to say to Cleopatra's Needle: Never again.

09/26/10

Food is good, drinks are great.

by johnrod7

Nice place to spend an evening listening to great jazz

11/16/09

Best atmosphere, music, Martinis, value.

by marstodd

Great BeBop at times. The atmosphere is perfect for a NYC village type establishment you might recall from the 1970's. Very relaxing so don't be uptight. If you are prudish or very fussy it might irritate you with it's homey feel. Place is nicely clean and all staff is very friendly. They might try to brush you off if you're mean but they are not servants just restaurant workers in a cozy location. Good selection of Martinis and Wine. Sit in the window and watch the street in the snow. Wonderful experience and nice decor too. I am a sometimes regular customer only.

• Pros: great live music and NYC atmosphere
• Cons: Musicians sometimes are a bit amateur but no problem

08/25/09

Food is ok, live music

by justpassingby123

The musicians are all over the place. Some are excellent. Some are so-so but try really hard. Some obviously have rich parents behind them and don't impress. Heck you can barely hear any emotion in them. They probably bored Columbia Students doing the musician impression to tell the parents paying the bill they do have a gig.

• Pros: live music
• Cons: some of the musicians have the rich musician syndrome

08/23/09

bad attitude from manger maher

by tigerk

i called to make a reservation for me and my family and had a friend that wanted to try the open mike,

as i ask that idiot MAHER about the open mike and to see if they served all arabic food he says i got go and hangs up the phone in my face.

that was on the phone i wounder how he will treat his customers in person.

maybe the owners want to teach this idiot how to talk to custmoers, before they make a guy that sounds like he does'nt want to be there to become a manger.

• Pros: i did not even have to go there
• Cons: no respect for customers

07/07/09

Good jazz, but that's about it.

by eb118

I go here to watch my friend play jazz and appreciate that they give space to musicians.

But other than that, it's just an overpriced (i.e. $8 bottled beers) bar with underwhelming service and mediocre middle eastern style food. The service is grumpy and inattentive.

I also don't understand why a jazz venue needs to have a gigantic TV set competing with the live music. On our last visit, the Simpsons was on with the volume off. Come on.

• Pros: live jazz
• Cons: extremely overpriced, lousy service

08/10/08

an... interesting experience

by lucypeanut

Didn't really know what to expect when we went to this place, but I definitely didn't expect the jazz to be so loud an ongoing as it was. I've been to many other jazz dinner shows where sound was controlled better, but I guess since the space is small the acoustics just make the music pound off the walls and create a very loud, booming experience. Anyway, the food was very good, we had a seafood platter special, which we liked. Our waiter was a little weird and bumbling, but that was no big deal. One annoying thing was that we brought our own wine and since the bottle was large than a normal wine bottle (our group was 8 people), the corkage fee was doubled for like $25 to $50. I thought maybe they would up it to 30 or 40 bucks, but $50? We talked the owner/manager down a little since that was unexpected, and I think he charged us like $40 or $45 after all, but it was still a whammy.

• Pros: good seafood special
• Cons: weirdness

04/14/08

Nice place for a couple or with friends or family

by Angelsmessenger

Me and my boyfriend went here yesterday. For some reason i though this place would be bigger, seems small but maybe because it was a little crowded. That didn't matter though, the music is lovely, with great service and a pleasant atmosphere! We had a great time--the food is tasty too.