Zaytinya

Mediterranean mezze dining in New York operates along a broad spectrum, from fast-casual falafel counters in Astoria to white-tablecloth Levantine kitchens in Midtown. The more interesting middle ground belongs to restaurants that apply serious culinary discipline to a shareable, sociable format without migrating into fine dining pricing or pretension. Zaytinya, at 1185 Broadway in the NoMad district, occupies that middle ground and does so with enough consistency to earn recognition from Opinionated About Dining's 2025 Casual in North America list, a guide that rewards sustained quality over headline moments.

A Format That Demands Team Discipline

The mezze format is harder to execute well than it appears. Dishes arrive in waves rather than courses; the pacing depends on a front-of-house team reading the table rather than following a fixed script. At a restaurant like Zaytinya, where Chef Michael Costa leads the kitchen, that rhythm requires close coordination between the kitchen, the floor, and whoever is managing the beverage program. When the format works, a meal feels like a conversation rather than a sequence. When it breaks down, dishes pile up, timing collapses, and the social premise of the format evaporates.

The OAD casual recognition signals that the coordination holds. That guide weighs diner experience reports heavily and tends to reward places where the operational intelligence, how tables are read, how dishes are sequenced, how staff communicate across departments, matches the food quality. For a mezze-format restaurant serving a mixed NoMad crowd of hotel guests, office workers, and destination diners, sustaining that consistency across lunch and dinner services is a genuine operational achievement.

NoMad and the Mediterranean Tradition in New York

NoMad's dining character has shifted considerably over the past decade. The neighborhood once orbited around the NoMad Hotel's Danny Meyer-adjacent fine dining, but the surrounding blocks have filled in with a more varied set of mid-market operators. Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cooking has been particularly well represented in Manhattan since the broader American interest in Levantine cuisine accelerated in the 2010s, driven partly by José Andrés's expansion of the Zaytinya concept from its original Washington D.C. location.

That expansion context matters for how to read the New York outpost. Zaytinya is not a chef-driven independent built around a single creative vision; it is a concept with documented staying power across markets, now in the hands of a kitchen team responsible for translating that vision into a new competitive environment. New York's Mediterranean dining scene includes serious competition at multiple price points, from the Michelin-recognized Levantine kitchens to the neighborhood-level hummus and mezze spots that have deepened over the past fifteen years. Zaytinya positions itself above casual and below fine dining, a tier where execution and consistency determine whether a restaurant holds its audience.

For readers tracking the broader New York dining scene, our full New York City restaurants guide maps the competitive set across cuisine types and price tiers.

Comparing Formats: Casual vs. Fine Dining in the Same City

It is worth placing Zaytinya in the context of what surrounds it. New York's most decorated restaurants operate at a different register entirely. Le Bernardin, Per Se, Eleven Madison Park, Atomix, and Masa all operate in the multi-hundred-dollar-per-head, multi-hour tasting format tier. Those meals are structured, controlled experiences designed for full attention. Zaytinya offers something structurally different: a meal built for conversation, sharing, and flexibility. The OAD Casual recognition places it in a separate competitive category from the Michelin fine dining tier, not a lesser one, but a different one with its own standards of success.

That distinction is increasingly meaningful as New York diners have become more selective about when they want formal structure and when they want something more fluid. The casual-but-serious tier, which Zaytinya occupies alongside a handful of other OAD-recognized restaurants, has grown in credibility partly because guides like OAD have given it critical attention.

Mediterranean concepts in other American cities provide useful comparison points. Apolonia in Chicago operates in a similar register, while internationally, Balear in Madrid demonstrates how the Mediterranean tradition translates across its home markets. Domestically, the serious-casual format has been executed at restaurants like Lazy Bear in San Francisco and Emeril's in New Orleans, each with their own approach to format discipline.

The Beverage Dimension

Eastern Mediterranean cuisine has a natural affinity for wine traditions that American dining rooms have been slow to stock seriously: Greek Assyrtiko, Lebanese Ksara, Turkish Öküzgözü. A mezze-format restaurant that invests in the beverage program can meaningfully enhance the meal, since the small-plate structure allows for more pairing flexibility than a traditional two-course format. How thoroughly Zaytinya develops this dimension is a signal worth watching for any diner who treats the wine list as part of the meal's architecture rather than an afterthought.

Restaurants that score in the 4.5-plus range at that volume typically have a loyal following built around standout dishes or transformative experiences. A 4.3 at scale suggests a restaurant that delivers reliably on its promise without generating the kind of evangelical response that drives scores higher. In the context of a casual mezze concept in a competitive neighborhood, that profile is commercially sensible: Zaytinya appears to be a restaurant that handles volume without losing the thread of quality, which is exactly what the OAD Casual designation rewards.

Planning a Visit

Zaytinya is located at 1185 Broadway, ground floor, in the NoMad district of Manhattan. The neighborhood is served by multiple subway lines and sits within easy reach of several of the city's most-trafficked hotel corridors. For accommodation options nearby, the New York City hotels guide covers the full range. Those building a broader evening itinerary can consult the New York City bars guide for pre- or post-dinner options, and the experiences guide for what else the city's current programming offers. Wine-focused visitors can also reference the New York City wineries guide.

For those whose interest in serious American restaurants extends beyond New York, comparable levels of craft and critical recognition can be found at Alinea in Chicago, The French Laundry in Napa, Single Thread Farm in Healdsburg, and Providence in Los Angeles.