The philosophy at Sofreh is simple – to serve delicious food that is authentic, well crafted and made with pure love. And that is exactly what you’ll get when you dine here. The owner, Nasim Alikhani has long had a dream of opening her own restaurant, but her early career took her in a different direction – law school. Twenty-five years later her dream has become a reality with Sofreh.
The ambiance is a combination of romantic, modern, simple and classy and has been rated as one of the 10 Best NYC Restaurants by The New York Times in 2018. Reservations are a must if you want to secure a table as the space is not large and its very popular.
The menu is divided into 6 sections: Starters, Greens & Grains, Persian Rice, Main, Sides and Dessert. We recommend indulging in at least one dish from each section. We had 5 people in our party when we dined there. We started our meal with a few appetizers. The Eggplant and Whey Dip has roasted eggplant, crispy onions, cured whey yogurt, and mint oil and is great when eaten with their homemade bread. The Kofteh dish has 3 large meatballs which are made with beef, tarragon and split peas. They are served in a tomato saffron broth and topped with yogurt. This kofteh literally melts in your mouth. Our server recommended we also order the Shallots & Yogurt as she already knew we were planning to order the Lamb Shank for an entree and said it would be great as an appetizer and we could accompany the leftovers with the entree.
Next, Greens & Grains. The Tahini & Date Salad is a must have. Served with baby red gem lettuce, Mejdool dates, radishes, tahini & honey dressing, and toasted sesame seeds. I’m not even a salad person and I would order seconds of this delicious salad!
After salads came the Persian Rice, of which we ordered both the Saffron Rice and the Herb Rice. Both were great accompaniments to our entrees and I honestly can’t recommend one over the other. There is an option of a Mejdool Dates & Lentil Rice, which your server will highly recommend be ordered separately and not as a side dish to your entree as it is not meant to be paired with any of the entrees.
For the main dish, we ordered the Lamb Shank and the Pomegranate Beef Ribeye. Both were fantastic and with all of the starters we had earlier, it was plenty of food for 5 people to share.
Our only complaint about the meal and experience at Sofreh was the Tahdig, which is a Persian crispy rice dish. We ordered one as an appetizer and when it arrived, there were two small triangles of the crispy rice on the plate. So we tried to order another one and we were told they limit it to one order per table. We were surprised and disappointed by this as the limit is not specified on their menu and our server did not mention the limit when we originally ordered it.
I understand that making this dish is labor intensive and it’s a popular choice. And if we were a table of 2 people, I could get behind the limit as each person could enjoy one whole piece of the crispy rice that was served. But we had 5 people and we had to divide the two triangles of crispy rice that were served amongst us, which was disappointing, especially when we could not order more.
But that hiccup in the meal would not stop me from returning to Sofreh in the future. The food was fantastic, the service was exceptional, and the ambiance was magical. If you’re in the Brooklyn area, do yourself a favor and book reservations here. You will be very glad you did.
Sofreh
75 St Marks Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11217
(646) 798-1690
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