Restaurant Project: I

[ladysprite]

So, in spite of our slow progress, the Restaurant Project proceeds apace. We had finally worked our way up to I - and, given that it was less than a mile from our house, and that it sounded different from anything we had tried before, and we had a $10 coupon, and that we were looking for somewhere interesting to go for umbran's birthday, we decided to go to Istanbul'lu.

Given that it's right in Teele Square, which is smack between our house and the nearest T station, I have walked past this restaurant more times than I can count. And I have never bothered to stop in there until now, mostly because it is a tiny little hole in the wall that looks to be smaller than my dining room. And, while that is not an inaccurate assessment, I now deeply regret never having eaten here before, because the food is truly, epically amazing.

As I said, the restaurant is tiny. Like, maybe 8-10 tables tiny. But it was warm, and friendly, and just felt welcoming in a way I can't quite describe. Neither umbran nor I had ever eaten Turkish food before, so, while the menu was intellectually interesting, we honestly had no idea of what to expect or what to order, and wound up picking a handful of items that sounded interesting - while we couldn't anticipate the flavors or seasonings, at least the descriptions were vivid.

While we were waiting for our food, the waitress brought out fresh bread with roasted red pepper dip - I would go back to the restaurant again only for that. The bread was rich and warm and buttery, and the dip was smooth and tangy and lemony and delicious; I had to bite my tongue to keep from asking for the recipe.

We started out with a couple of appetizers - Patates Kofte and Mercimek Kofta. The patates kofte reminded me of an alternately spiced knish - spicy and tangy and savory, filled with potatoes and meat that had an amazingly smooth texture, wasn't fatty at all, and went amazingly well with the yogurt sauce they served on top. The mercimek kofta was a kind of lentil patty, that wound up being much spicier and more peppery - it reminded me a bit of the spice profile at Addis Red Sea, with a faster and stronger burn. But the texture was good, and the ever-present yogurt sauce balanced the spice enough that I still enjoyed it.

For dinner, I ordered the Beyti Kebab, and umbran ordered the Tas Kebab. And, like everything else, they were both mouth-wateringly delicious. The beyti kebab was made of spiced ground lamb wrapped in lavash, topped with a tomato sauce that was almost a little sweet, with a coarse texture, as well as the yogurt sauce, and it was served with a salad of minced tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, feta, and vinegar. The kebab itself was juicy and savory and just spicy enough, and both of the sauces blended better than I could have imagined, and the salad was the perfect complement. It was an interesting blend of sweet and tangy; there was something in it that almost tasted like watermelon, but it wasn't enough to seem jarring in contrast to the rest of the meal.

The tas kebab was, in fact, a lamb stew with roasted peppers and tomatoes, served over buttered rice, and it was amazing in its simplicity. It was less spicy than most of the other dishes, but in a way that let the flavors of each ingredient shine. The meat was tender, the vegetables kept their structure and their flavor, and everything came together surprisingly well.

Since this was a birthday dinner we had cake waiting at home, and hadn't intended to order dessert, but when the waitress informed us that they had baklava, we decided to change our minds - baklava is one of my favorite things. And, once again, I'm incredibly glad that we did. The baklava was served warm, which was a new experience for me, and it was quite possibly the most perfect piece of such dessert that I've ever had. There wasn't too much rosewater (a common problem, in my experience), the nuts and the honey were integrated well and not too grainy, and the richness and the flakiness and the sweetness all were... well, perfect.

So. New favorite restaurant, again. If everything else we find winds up continuing in this vein, we will be lucky people indeed.

And now, recommendations for J?

Comments

[jducoeur]

And for a little more detail, here is Kate's review, from when we went:

Journeyman - I've been to the underground restaurant, so I had an idea what to expect, but this was still different than that. First, harder to find than I expected, although pleasant inside. They were very nice about a substitution for me (one of the dishes was Egg, mushroom, turnip and I don't like egg or mushroom, so they gave me charcuterie instead), and a conversation with Meg told me that beverage pairings wasn't going to work for me so I had a very nice white instead. Service was good, if a little confusing sometimes, although that could be that I had met 2 of the 3 servers socially, so there was an odd line between socializing and service.

For food, we both had the 5 course (omnivore for me and veggie for him) with the second course substituted for charcuterie for me. The start was yellow tomato and curry soup with cheese puffs (don't remember exactly what the puffs were). The soup was better than the puffs, but both were good. Then the "salad" course which was art plates of scattered vegetables and smears (both slightly different) which was fun and tasty. I didn't love the bread (it was fine, just not omg), but jducoeur enjoyed it. jducoeur also enjoyed his egg mushroom turnip (although he said later it was his least favorite course, being nothing special), but my charcuterie plate was awesome. It was duck liverwurst, beef heart, something mousse (liver mousse of some kind I think), and veal terrine. The veal terrine was mostly texture, and the mousse was standard liver mousse, but the other two and the accompaniments (curried veggies for the terrine and a spicy yuzu chutney(?) for the heart) were incredible. It was also huge.

Third course was my least favorite, being Sea Bass oyster dashi, which I expected to love, but I don't love dashi, and the whole thing was a little salty. The agnolotti with ricotta/chorizo were good, but didn't seem to go with the dish, but I did like the oysters (and I generally don't). J's veggie version (heavier on agnolotti done with eggplant and veggie oil with an eggplant foam and some other stuff including mushrooms) worked much better as a dish. Fourth course was ricotta and stuff for J and Lamb for me. Mine was braised lamb which I ate with stewed little plums, and roast lamb with a pistachio smear. mmmm By now I was almost stuffed, but the palate cleanser of cucumber, G&T and mint was good, and the dessert was omg. Caramel cake with some sort of really really yummy ice cream (caramel and something, didn't catch it but had great bite to it), and I was too full for caramel walnuts and meringues. Then some followers (rose panna cotta that I wasn't a fan of but j was, some great little cookies, and then black pepper marshmallows yum). All in all, I was stuffed and done by the time we finished, and J was already talking about coming back. A lovely end to the weekend.