cafe istanbul

oh my goodness. i was in lamb heaven tonight. the food was wonderful and the service was fantastic. we will gobackand bring friends.

we liked it but,. had dinner at the new shops of legacy location last night. the outside dining is really great and we loved the cozy inside of the place. it wasn't very busy so our service was really good.
the fresh pita was amazing but screaming for some type of dipping sauce which it did not come with. it should. we ended up ordering tzaziki for $4.00 which was really nice with it.
our food took quite sometime to get out. i realize everything is from scratch so i get that no big deal. we waited about 40 min, for our food.

when the food arrived my daughter ordered the lamb/ bef sandwich. it was very good. she didn't care for the onion and tomato salad so they brougt her an order of fries at no charge. that was very nice. i had the braised lamb shank. it was a bit tough and probably needed to braise another hour or so. the flavor was good and it was big.the tomato sauce it was served in was very flat an had no flavor. it left me feeling very unsatisfied. it was served with big onions and a turkish pepper that we're not raw and not cooked. i didn't care for the al dente veggies. they needed to be one or the other. then it had an eggplant sort of stewed in which was good except the tough skin was still on and the texture was very unpleasant. my husband had the lamb k-bob and it was very good. tender and cooked to perfection. i will gobackand try it again. the menu was large and there are a lot of things i would like to taste.

i went on a sun night. i will never gobackagain. staff was good, prices too high for the (non) value. water- terrible taste, even with plenty of lemon it had an aftertaste. the drinks we ordered ( can't remember the names) were bad as well- one was basically a cold ice mocca, the other too sweet. food was unimpressive - i ordered adana kebob. i liked the bread and the hummus. turkish coffee was good but in a tiny shot even if you could safely consume it in a regular cup- was aromatic but not that strong. for half of the money i had a much better experience and food right across the street. one star out of five because i liked the bread and the yoghurt dip.

very nice in all ways. my wife and i went here for valentines day in 2009, right after they opened (someone, cough, cough) forgot to get a reservation for the big day and since they had recently opened we were able to get in. i was a bit tentative because i don't have extensive experience with this kind of food, but the service and the food was great. i have beenbacka couple of times and have had a good time on each occasion. we were also surprised by the quality of the cocktails from the very small bar, but they were excellent. (don't get me started on the perfect martini.) this place is worth a try, especially when it is warm enough to sit outside.