Don't Waste Your Time And Money
TLDR: Port Sa’id wants to be a club, but is a restaurant. The mismatch unfortunately ruins the experience as either, since you don’t have room to dance but you also can’t hear anyone you came with.
Image credit: nytimes.com
What is the purpose of going out to eat? Is it to try delicious foods? To spend quality time with friends or family? Or just to get out of the house? Well, you may or may not like Port Sa’id depending on your answer.
There’s no doubt that the food from Israeli celebrity chef Eyal Shani, who runs Port Sa’id as well as a handful of other NYC restaurants, is good. It’s classically fresh Israeli food, bursting with flavor you only get from letting your ingredients do the talking. In fact, it might be great food. But I couldn’t focus on that, because I was steadily losing every hearing cell while I ate.
Much like its sister restaurant, HaSalon, Port Sa’id is a bit of a party. There’s a live DJ mixing pop with Miami beats surrounded by a concert-grade speaker setup. People will be grooving in their seats to wedding hits like “Sir Duke” played at a volume you might expect on a dance floor. But unlike HaSalon, no one is about to get up on their table and start dancing. The lights are definitely too bright to get your freak on and the tables are so close together, you wouldn’t really have the room to start busting a move if you wanted to.
Personally, Port Sa’id is just no man's land for me. Too loud to enjoy the company of others, too bright and crowded to enjoy the music. Perhaps if you manage to snag the optimal seat away from the DJ booth or you go early in the evening before they really pump up the volume you might find the goldilocks experience, but I don’t think it’s worth it to try. If you’re looking to pre-party, HaSalon or even Thai Diner would be a better choice. If you’re craving fresh Israeli food, you can certainly find it elsewhere without blowing your eardrums out.
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