Cafe Brama

Great quick food! Cheap and comforting. Excellent!

Tried to go there for Sunday brunch and it’s closed, looks like for good! Just the latest NY eatery to bite the dust. :(

café Brama — RIP. I“ll miss your avocado sesame omelette and your waitresses with electronic order takers.

This restaurant has closed. :(

Saturday late afternoon brunch in a group of 8, didn’t have any problem getting seated. I ordered a chicken crêpe with mozzarella and red peppers which was very yummy; the order actually comes with two crepes, and is very filling, so can easily be shared by two people. My friend’s poached eggs were even better.
For $ 4, your table gets a bread basket with several spreads to choose from, including Nutella, jam, and cream cheese. (You’ll have to ask for butter though.)
Brama’s cheap prices ($ 10 for the crepes dish; $ 2 coffee; $ 3 mimosas) make it a great option in that neighborhood.

Pleh. Acceptable for an inexpensive brunch. Maybe I set the goalposts a little too high from the rave reviews here, but seriously… I have cooked a better omelette– which is saying a lot as turning on the stove is the culmination of my culinary expertise. We got a «custom» omelette, with chicken, red peppers, and feta, as well as the spanish tortilla omelette… however, there was no actual tortilla involved?
Bread basket is ok– the challah bread is by far the best! there’s also some wheat toast, white bread… rather ordinary.
The drinks are kind of silly, but you can’t really complain because they’re only $ 2. Juice is decent (tried the mango and pear juices)– if you like the syrupy stuff that comes from a carton.
The venue is pretty bare bones; small wooden tables and chairs crammed next to eachother, but this adds to its charm, I suppose (you sit. you eat. and you LEAVE. they have no qualms about letting you know that you’re taking up valuable real estate by cleaning your table with a rag as soon as they give you the check). There are paintings on the wall by local artists, which is sort of a 2-birds:1-stone thing, as the decoration is also merchandise.
Decent for EV standards… should I find myself here again (unlikely), I would try the challah french toast.

Awesome and cheap! On a weekend trip to New York, I figured my last splurge would be Sunday brunch. I was shocked to find that the prices were more than reasonable, I would say cheap by not just NYC standards, but by any standards. $ 9.95 for most entrees with fairly large portions, and $ 2 cocktails. I was looking for an all-​you-​can-​drink, but at $ 2 a pop you’d have to drink a lot of these things to make all-​you-​can-​drink worth it!
I had the Brama Toast: french toast with manchego and eggs on top. At first my eggs came out overcooked (I ordered over easy, and the yolks were near solid), so I asked if they would do sunnyside up instead. The waitress was extremely polite and didn’t seem to be annoyed at all by my request, which I admit was a bit nitpicky. The second time around, my plate was perfect. I had a hard time deciding what to order because everything sounded so good. Much more creative menu than your typical cheap breakfast joints, and super down-​to-​earth.

Great place for brunch. One of my favorite places in the city.
There is one thing that pisses me off about this place. They used to give you a great bread basket before you got your meal. Now, they charge $ 3.95 for it. I guess they are trying to save/​make money so I don’t really blame them.
For brunch, everything on the menu is fantastic. Spanish style eggs, salad, French toast, pancakes and tortilla… all great. Can’t go wrong here.

My new fave brunch spot in the EV. I mean, how can you beat $ 9.95 for some of the most delicious crepes, eggs, and sandwiches this side of 5^th Ave? Seriously. Throw in $ 1.50 iced coffees, $ 2 mimosas/​bellinis/​marys and a $ 2.95 bread basket that features nutella, and I might be here every Saturday and Sunday.
Highlights from my visit — crepes with mixed berries. Hands down amazing. Omelettes were also good. Oh, and can’t go without trying the tomato soup. May be better than Cafeteria’s.
Extra star for the hospitality and great service.

sunday dinner, 7 pm, 3 friends
food — their new menu of small plates is delicious and affordable. Lots of vegetarian options as well. the food is solid, that’s about all I can say about his place. Eggplant dip is a must.
would i go back — yes

Fast and friendly service. I came here to get brunch to go and the owner was especially helpful in recommending me dishes. While I waited, I sat by the bar area and he gave me a glass of water and biscotti. Extra star there* I had the spanish tortilla with chicken omelette and it came with tea and juice. I had the english breakfast tea and mango juice with it. Brunch also comes with a salad. The mango juice tasted fresh and flavorful. Everything was wrapped neatly and properly and the food was delightful. Definitely coming back for crepes or french toast. They deserve 6 stars.

50% off food is what attracted me to this place. It was my first time seeing paper wrapped around lights to create a dim atmosphere.
The food was decent, but I don’t think I would pay full price for the dishes we got. The skirt steak with fries were pretty good, and worth your 50% off fare. The fish entrée was a bit small, but had enough flavor.
What blew me away was definitely the apple tart that was lit on fire for dessert. Now THAT will be what I will be going back for.

Café Brama is a hidden gem. I stopped in on a Monday night because everything on the menu was half off. Weird for a restaurant, but I happily obliged. The staff was very nice and hospitable, not giving me any flack for asking for a specific kind of mixed drink. And the food was good, too. At the end of the meal, I realized how long it’d been since I’d cleared my plate at a restaurant — Brama was worth breaking the trend. I had a crêpe with chicken, mozzarella cheese and peppers. It was delicious!
I am a big fan of Café Brama. I will return soon to try some of the pastas (friend had penne with chicken in a curried cream sauce… looked awesome) and some of the more traditional Greek food.

50% off food? YES WAY!!!
Some sort of promotion they are doing this month ^_​^
The décor is clean and open, also equipped with WIFI!
My friend and I had appetizers here… Mediterranean-​esque dishes which were fresh and well presented!
Not a bad place to grab a bite before heading out, catching up with some work, or just getting a drink.

Café Brama is one of my East Village brunch defaults, with large portions, fairly healthy, creative, and fresh menu items, and orange juice and coffee included in the price. The salads and sandwiches are also tasty and fresh, albeit a few dollars more than I’d usually like to pay for such items. Dinner is inoffensive but unremarkable — you’re much better off coming here earlier in the day. Service, though friendly and polite, is often slow, but for a leisurely meal (or an hour taking advantage of free wifi in one of the comfy leather chairs in the back), that’s not much of a problem. There’s rarely a wait, making this a nice Plan B when the lines at your usual St Mark’s brunch cafes are unbearable.
For brunch, the «health brunch» (a platter of fruit — fresh pineapple and berries, no bruised bananas or fruit cocktail here — yogurt, honey, granola, toast and about 4000 different spreads, like nutella and all kinds of jam) is by far my favourite, and for lunch, their salads always seem super-​fresh, and the french fries are delicious and not greasy at all.

This is the best value for brunch in this area. Comes with entrée, juice or wine and coffee/​latte/​capuccino. And their portions are actually a good size. I should know, because I eat A LOT.
It’s a very cute space and they have outdoor seating. The staff is super attentive and polite. The owner tries his best to make everyone happy. And I like being happy. Um, yea.

Delightful little European café on Second Ave. A friend was raving about their chicken crepes. We finally met up for dinner and shared that and the moussaka. I was pleasantly surprised to see the smörgåsbord of European cuisine served in a hearty portion. Service was excellent. The place wasn’t packed. The check didn’t come until we asked for it, after hours of just sitting and talking. Come hungry or be prepared to take home leftovers. The café is open during the day as well and wifi is free. The atmosphere is really chill/​relaxed and the outdoor seating is great for people watching. I’ll have to return for brunch since most of the reviews here are for brunch…

This is my band’s official neighborhood hang-​out. In the time since they’ve opened, we’ve become fast friends with Kostas, Christos, and the rest of the gang here. What’s crazy is that my wife used to hang out in their café back in high school IN WARSAW. No joke.
Now that I’ve gotten full disclosure out of the way, here is why we call this place our living room:
1) The bread is piping hot and highly addictive
2) The only place in the East Village to get decent Greek food that is not crazy $$$.
3) The Moussaka, Bifteki, and Mozzerella & Avocado sandwich are all spectacular.
4) Everyone who works their is a sweetheart. Their babies are pretty cute too.
5) After some time in the mountains of Western Greece I developed a certain weakness for Retsina– white wine made with pine resin. Other people say it tastes like lighter fluid and vinegar, which I agree with. I really love the taste– it’s incredibly unique, and also it reminds me of passing out drunk under a 2200 year-​old-​column. Anyway, they got it.
The live music ain’t bad either… but I’m a little biased. :)

the waiter guilted us into eating there. He walked over with two menus in hand and started speaking his lovely euro tongue. He also promised that the food was great, and i hate a liar. This guy was not a liar, no sir. I ordered a skirt steak which came with fries and a very fresh simple salad. The fries were delicious and perfect with the steak. The steak had pepercorn and other sauces poured on but was perfectly cooked and seasoned. So far, the best restaurant I’ve tried in NY. I definitely want to try their other items.
They also have live music, very soothing romantic jazz music, and good ambience. The waiting service was a little too slow once it got busy.

Greek Salad, Souvlaki, Moussaka, Bifteki = yum. They also have a nice brunch and a surprisingly good wine selection. Great spot to chill with friends. Good coffee and $ 5 Stella Artois keep me coming back.
The super nice waiter with the dark hair is actually the owner. His cute little daughter is often visiting and toddling around, though not in the way. The owner is invested in making his place inviting and introduced a big leather couch at one point to make it more homey. That didn’t last too long. Took up too much table space! Dang. I liked that couch.