Mavi Lounge

We went to Mavi on a whim, because it was on <a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Frestaurant.com&s=c5fe485af4df376130bee54f875814d79c4d7913e1258123b1206d2bdbf4873b" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://restaurant.com</a>.

This review is only for the restaurant; we didn't go there to fist-pump.

Admittedly, it was a Saturday night at 9PM during a prime Jersey shore weekend, but the restaurant was empty. We were the only table being served. This is no bad thing; the service was stellar.

The key word here is incongruity; it's a modern, well-designed lounge/bar/restaurant..grafted on siamese-style to a La Quinta Inn.

You can imagine our hilarity at watching the numerous 40-50-year old hotel guests strutting around the place to the sound of Kelly Clarkson white label remixes, hiphop, and even a dropped-in snippet of Faitheless' Insomnia. Incongruous to say the least.

On to the food; it was all high-quality, well-made, modern Greek / middle eastern cuisine - not exactly what I would have thought after eyeballing the wallpaper with a giant abstract Thai Buddha head  It was also dirt-cheap, which is a rarity in Essex county; 2 appetizers, a drink, and 2 entrees was under 50 bucks.

More incongruousness; amidst grape leaves and other middle-eastern starters, we found guacamole listed. A strange bit of fusion, this.

Our - extremely attentive - waiter dropped off an amuse bouche of grilled pitas, hummus, and feta. This was more than we anticipated - especially after eyeballing the $10 entrees on the menu. The homemade - according to the menu - hummus was quite good.

We had the stuffed grape leaves and grilled artichoke hearts to start; both were excellent.

For entrees, we had the grilled salmon, and the stuffed cabbage (which was amusingly listed under vegetarian entrees despite the traditional beef stuffing.) Again, both were excellent. The quasi-tzatziki (sans cucumber,) on the cabbage was extremely tasty.

Overall, club clientèle notwithstanding (middle-aged out-of-towners, or The Situation types, according to the previous review,) the restaurant was excellent, and we would happily go back, especially since (with the $25 <a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Frestaurant.com&s=c5fe485af4df376130bee54f875814d79c4d7913e1258123b1206d2bdbf4873b" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://restaurant.com</a> certificate,) my out of pocket with tip was somewhere around $35.

We ran into the owner on the way out the door, who did tell us that the menu was just changed a few days ago. Don't go by the menu on the website; it's all wrong.

Is Mavi the Italian word for "guido"?  Because this place was INUNDATED with them!  And every douchebag in there is looking to start a fight.

The only reason for 2 stars and not 1 is it's actually a really nice setup.  It's a big place with room to move.

Too bad the clientele sucks.  I'd rather step into an oncoming train than EVER set foot here again.