Post by chris on Feb 14, 2004 15:16:08 GMT -5
These reviews are excerpts from a recent San Francisco Chronicle article, "A roundup of new Turkish spots in the Bay Area" by staff writer Bill Daley. New Kapadokia is close to my office, and I can't wait to have lunch there!
A la Turka
A basket of sliced flat bread serves as a greeting at this informal restaurant that opened last August. Use the bread to swab up the restaurant's combination platter ($12.25), which tastes as impressive as it looks.
The assortment, designed for two but easily shareable by larger parties, is colorful, with ruddy spoonfuls of ezme, a coarsely chopped paste of roasted bell pepper, tomato, onions and walnuts; tightly wound stuffed grape leaves; smoky baba ghanoush; olive-colored eggplant salad; and boiled brown beans -- barbunya pilaki -- cooked with diced potatoes and carrots in a dark tomato sauce.
The platter could be a meal in itself, but save room for one of the homey entrees like adana kebab ($9.50), a long ribbon of highly seasoned minced lamb served atop plump kernels of steamed rice and garnished with a dressed green salad; or a frequent special, izmir kofte ($8), small, football-shaped meatballs made with finely ground meat and baked with potatoes in a light tomato sauce.
Served on rice, the dish has the homey comfort and heft of Mom's meat loaf.
A la Turka, 869 Geary St. (near Larkin), San Francisco; (415) 345-1011. Open 11 a.m.-11 p.m. daily.
Bosphorus
Given that Turkey, like San Francisco, is surrounded by water on three sides, you'd think Bay Area Turkish restaurants would have more fish dishes. Strangely, not so. That's why the taramasalata ($3.90), a carp roe mousse with a fluffy texture and bracingly briny flavor, and grilled salmon ($9.90) at Berkeley's Bosphorus is so welcome amid all the lamb, beef and chicken.
I'm not dissing the red meat; it's just nice to have some alternatives. Certainly, there is nothing to complain about with the karisik izgara -- mixed meat platter ($9.90). This is a carnivore's dream, with kasarli kofte, which look like small cheese-stuffed burgers; a long sausagelike kebab of ground beef and lamb; and grilled beef and chicken cubes served with rice and grilled vegetables.
There's a wide array of hot and cold appetizers, including a spread of finely shredded chicken worked into walnut paste ($4.90).
Thin, smoky slices of pastrami ($4.90) provide a deep counterpoint to the other starters.
Desserts range from a multi-layered chocolate cake ($3.70) with white frosting, to baklava ($2.90) made with walnuts and glazed with syrup, to revani ($2.50), a semolina cake.
Open since July, Bosphorus offers an a la carte menu and lunch and dinner buffets in an elegant dining room.
Bosphorus, 1025 University Ave. (near San Pablo), Berkeley; (510) 549- 9997. Open daily for lunch 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. and dinner 5:30-10 p.m.
Bursa
This West Portal restaurant opened in October, with fresh, zestful renditions of Turkish faves.
Order the combination platter ($11.99) to sample a medley of purees and pastes and salads scooped up with slices of warm flat bread. The stuffed grape leaves have a definite lemony tang without overwhelming the rice filling, and baba ghanoush has the requisite smokiness.
Lamb shish kebab ($7.99 lunch, $18.99 dinner) is presented on skinny slices of toasted bread. The lamb is grilled well, with just enough browning to give the meat an extra flavor kick without rendering it tough as shoe leather. Slices of red pepper and onion sandwiched between the lamb cubes add a bit of color and sweetness to the kebab. A hearty slab of eggplant ($7.99 lunch, $10.99 dinner) is stuffed with onions, tomato and pine nuts then baked.
Wrap sandwiches ($5.99) brim with lamb, thinly sliced beef, chunks of grilled chicken, falafel or kofte -- small grilled meatballs -- dabbed with tahini sauce and paired with tomatoes, cucumbers and onions.
Bursa, 60 West Portal Ave., (near Vicente), San Francisco; (415) 564-4006. Open 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday.
Cafe de Pera
Ziggy Stardust meets Zorba the Greek at this informal, casually hip bistro at the corner of Clement Street and Fifth Avenue. Open since last August, and serving from early in the morning until well after midnight, the cafe is colorful, with original art on the walls and rock on the stereo. (David Bowie was featured on a recent Saturday.)
Owned by three Turks, two of them brothers, Cafe de Pera sells an assortment of kebab, sandwiches, salads, appetizers and crepes. Zorba the Greek ($7.50) combines feta cheese, olives, onions, tomato, mushrooms, spinach and artichokes anointed with pesto sauce and rolled in a buttery pancake. The flavors emerge distinct and bright. It's easy to be drawn to the affordably priced ($3.50-$4) cold appetizers like hummus, baba ghanoush, ezme and a sturdy, parsley-flecked tabbouleh, don't ignore the hot appetizers. Cafe de Pera does a neat "cigar pie" or borek ($4.50) fried phyllo wrapped around feta cheese and parsley. Egg dishes, omelets and scrambles predominate at weekend brunch.
Cafe de Pera, 349 Clement St. (at Fifth Avenue), San Francisco; (415) 666- 3839. Open 8 a.m.-2 a.m. Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-2 a.m. Friday, 9 a.m.-2 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Ephesus Kebab Lounge
Traditional Turkish starters are offered as small plates at this Walnut Creek restaurant. Circassian chicken ($5.95) is a respectful take on the classic, with moist shreds of chicken breast topped with a coarse walnut paste. Cracked bulgur wheat ($5.95) is subtly seasoned and toothsome, with picture- perfect romaine lettuce leaves subbing for pita bread as the edible scoops. Fried zucchini cakes ($6.75) get a salty spark from a mix of feta and Parmesan cheeses worked into the patties.
Kebabs are marinated for eight hours in a Turkish spice medley, the restaurant boasts, but the thought flickers through my mind that it might have been too long for the lamb in a wrap sandwich ($13.75); the medium-rare meat was tender, but slightly grainy. Still, the wrap is satisfying, with the meat, tomato, cucumber and onion sandwiched between griddled pita bread.
Ephesus Kebab Lounge, 1321 Locust St. (near Mt. Diablo Blvd.), Walnut Creek; (925) 945-8082. Open 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, until 11 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 4:30-10 p.m. Sunday.
Gyro King
There's not much to look at and the style is modified self-serve, but the small dining room of Gyro King is packed at lunch with people chowing down on wraps, gyro, stuffed pastries and shish kebab. This tiny restaurant, which opened two years ago in San Francisco's Civic Center neighborhood, serves halal products, which are foods prepared according to Islamic dietary requirements.
The appetizer combo plate ($7.95) is a great way to start, with a sturdy array of creamy hummus, an eggplant salad tangy with good vinegar, baba ghanoush, stuffed grape leaves, tabbouleh and cacik, a thick homemade yogurt flecked with diced cucumbers, oregano, dill and garlic.
The sandwiches are imposing -- long, foil-wrapped cylinders of crisped lavash or flat bread with tomatoes and cucumber and tahini sauce paired with the featured filling. Falafel wrap ($4.95) is studded with green patties of coarsely-ground chickpeas. Lamb gyro ($5.50) is made up of plenty of thin- sliced pieces of meat, but the lamb was well-done and dry. Some yogurt-based dipping sauce on the side might have helped.
Desserts include very respectable renditions of baklava, with either pistachios ($2.50) or walnuts ($2.25), and kadayif ($2.50) a circular pastry wrapped with shredded phyllo. Both desserts can be drizzled with honey syrup for added sweetness.
Gyro King, 25 Grove St. (near Market and Hyde), San Francisco; (415) 621- 8313. Open 7:30 a.m.-10 p.m. daily.
New Kapadokia
Appetizers aren't included on the dining room menu at New Kapadokia, which opened about six months ago in Redwood City in the same space as a previous Turkish restaurant. Servers bring out a tray of selections and explain each one. I like the one-on-one approach, but wish the food was not displayed wrapped in plastic film. Most versions of stuffed grape leaves ($4. 95) tend to be bracingly lemony and bright, but these go in a deeper, sweeter direction, with pine nuts and currants mixed with the rice. The hummus ($4.95), firmer than most versions, has lots of garlic, olive oil and lemon juice. The cigar-shaped borek ($4.95) are filled with feta cheese, potato and parsley and fried golden and crisp.
Dinner platters come with a choice of salad or soup. The salad ($5.95 a la carte) is unremarkable, but the house red lentil soup ($2.95 a la carte), a Turkish favorite, is much more interesting. It is a thick, warming porridge with plenty of peppery spice.
Chicken shish kebab ($8.95 lunch, $14.95 dinner) offers juicy chunks of marinated chicken with pieces of grilled peppers and onions on top of a tinted rice pilaf. The five rib lamb chops ($17.95) are available as a dinner entree only and are served medium-rare with rice pilaf. Manti is described as Turkish ravioli but remind me more of small dumplings or tortellini. The filling is a smooth, seasoned paste of ground beef. The cooked pasta is topped with a tangy yogurt sauce mixed with butter.
Desserts include a very dense baklava ($2.95) and a warmed kadayif ($2. 95), shredded phyllo dough wrapped around a core of sweet mozzarella-like cheese and topped with honey syrup and crushed pistachios.
New Kapadokia, 2399 Broadway, Redwood City; (650) 368-5500. Open 11 a.m.- 9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, until 10 p.m. Friday-Saturday.
A la Turka
A basket of sliced flat bread serves as a greeting at this informal restaurant that opened last August. Use the bread to swab up the restaurant's combination platter ($12.25), which tastes as impressive as it looks.
The assortment, designed for two but easily shareable by larger parties, is colorful, with ruddy spoonfuls of ezme, a coarsely chopped paste of roasted bell pepper, tomato, onions and walnuts; tightly wound stuffed grape leaves; smoky baba ghanoush; olive-colored eggplant salad; and boiled brown beans -- barbunya pilaki -- cooked with diced potatoes and carrots in a dark tomato sauce.
The platter could be a meal in itself, but save room for one of the homey entrees like adana kebab ($9.50), a long ribbon of highly seasoned minced lamb served atop plump kernels of steamed rice and garnished with a dressed green salad; or a frequent special, izmir kofte ($8), small, football-shaped meatballs made with finely ground meat and baked with potatoes in a light tomato sauce.
Served on rice, the dish has the homey comfort and heft of Mom's meat loaf.
A la Turka, 869 Geary St. (near Larkin), San Francisco; (415) 345-1011. Open 11 a.m.-11 p.m. daily.
Bosphorus
Given that Turkey, like San Francisco, is surrounded by water on three sides, you'd think Bay Area Turkish restaurants would have more fish dishes. Strangely, not so. That's why the taramasalata ($3.90), a carp roe mousse with a fluffy texture and bracingly briny flavor, and grilled salmon ($9.90) at Berkeley's Bosphorus is so welcome amid all the lamb, beef and chicken.
I'm not dissing the red meat; it's just nice to have some alternatives. Certainly, there is nothing to complain about with the karisik izgara -- mixed meat platter ($9.90). This is a carnivore's dream, with kasarli kofte, which look like small cheese-stuffed burgers; a long sausagelike kebab of ground beef and lamb; and grilled beef and chicken cubes served with rice and grilled vegetables.
There's a wide array of hot and cold appetizers, including a spread of finely shredded chicken worked into walnut paste ($4.90).
Thin, smoky slices of pastrami ($4.90) provide a deep counterpoint to the other starters.
Desserts range from a multi-layered chocolate cake ($3.70) with white frosting, to baklava ($2.90) made with walnuts and glazed with syrup, to revani ($2.50), a semolina cake.
Open since July, Bosphorus offers an a la carte menu and lunch and dinner buffets in an elegant dining room.
Bosphorus, 1025 University Ave. (near San Pablo), Berkeley; (510) 549- 9997. Open daily for lunch 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. and dinner 5:30-10 p.m.
Bursa
This West Portal restaurant opened in October, with fresh, zestful renditions of Turkish faves.
Order the combination platter ($11.99) to sample a medley of purees and pastes and salads scooped up with slices of warm flat bread. The stuffed grape leaves have a definite lemony tang without overwhelming the rice filling, and baba ghanoush has the requisite smokiness.
Lamb shish kebab ($7.99 lunch, $18.99 dinner) is presented on skinny slices of toasted bread. The lamb is grilled well, with just enough browning to give the meat an extra flavor kick without rendering it tough as shoe leather. Slices of red pepper and onion sandwiched between the lamb cubes add a bit of color and sweetness to the kebab. A hearty slab of eggplant ($7.99 lunch, $10.99 dinner) is stuffed with onions, tomato and pine nuts then baked.
Wrap sandwiches ($5.99) brim with lamb, thinly sliced beef, chunks of grilled chicken, falafel or kofte -- small grilled meatballs -- dabbed with tahini sauce and paired with tomatoes, cucumbers and onions.
Bursa, 60 West Portal Ave., (near Vicente), San Francisco; (415) 564-4006. Open 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday.
Cafe de Pera
Ziggy Stardust meets Zorba the Greek at this informal, casually hip bistro at the corner of Clement Street and Fifth Avenue. Open since last August, and serving from early in the morning until well after midnight, the cafe is colorful, with original art on the walls and rock on the stereo. (David Bowie was featured on a recent Saturday.)
Owned by three Turks, two of them brothers, Cafe de Pera sells an assortment of kebab, sandwiches, salads, appetizers and crepes. Zorba the Greek ($7.50) combines feta cheese, olives, onions, tomato, mushrooms, spinach and artichokes anointed with pesto sauce and rolled in a buttery pancake. The flavors emerge distinct and bright. It's easy to be drawn to the affordably priced ($3.50-$4) cold appetizers like hummus, baba ghanoush, ezme and a sturdy, parsley-flecked tabbouleh, don't ignore the hot appetizers. Cafe de Pera does a neat "cigar pie" or borek ($4.50) fried phyllo wrapped around feta cheese and parsley. Egg dishes, omelets and scrambles predominate at weekend brunch.
Cafe de Pera, 349 Clement St. (at Fifth Avenue), San Francisco; (415) 666- 3839. Open 8 a.m.-2 a.m. Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-2 a.m. Friday, 9 a.m.-2 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Ephesus Kebab Lounge
Traditional Turkish starters are offered as small plates at this Walnut Creek restaurant. Circassian chicken ($5.95) is a respectful take on the classic, with moist shreds of chicken breast topped with a coarse walnut paste. Cracked bulgur wheat ($5.95) is subtly seasoned and toothsome, with picture- perfect romaine lettuce leaves subbing for pita bread as the edible scoops. Fried zucchini cakes ($6.75) get a salty spark from a mix of feta and Parmesan cheeses worked into the patties.
Kebabs are marinated for eight hours in a Turkish spice medley, the restaurant boasts, but the thought flickers through my mind that it might have been too long for the lamb in a wrap sandwich ($13.75); the medium-rare meat was tender, but slightly grainy. Still, the wrap is satisfying, with the meat, tomato, cucumber and onion sandwiched between griddled pita bread.
Ephesus Kebab Lounge, 1321 Locust St. (near Mt. Diablo Blvd.), Walnut Creek; (925) 945-8082. Open 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, until 11 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 4:30-10 p.m. Sunday.
Gyro King
There's not much to look at and the style is modified self-serve, but the small dining room of Gyro King is packed at lunch with people chowing down on wraps, gyro, stuffed pastries and shish kebab. This tiny restaurant, which opened two years ago in San Francisco's Civic Center neighborhood, serves halal products, which are foods prepared according to Islamic dietary requirements.
The appetizer combo plate ($7.95) is a great way to start, with a sturdy array of creamy hummus, an eggplant salad tangy with good vinegar, baba ghanoush, stuffed grape leaves, tabbouleh and cacik, a thick homemade yogurt flecked with diced cucumbers, oregano, dill and garlic.
The sandwiches are imposing -- long, foil-wrapped cylinders of crisped lavash or flat bread with tomatoes and cucumber and tahini sauce paired with the featured filling. Falafel wrap ($4.95) is studded with green patties of coarsely-ground chickpeas. Lamb gyro ($5.50) is made up of plenty of thin- sliced pieces of meat, but the lamb was well-done and dry. Some yogurt-based dipping sauce on the side might have helped.
Desserts include very respectable renditions of baklava, with either pistachios ($2.50) or walnuts ($2.25), and kadayif ($2.50) a circular pastry wrapped with shredded phyllo. Both desserts can be drizzled with honey syrup for added sweetness.
Gyro King, 25 Grove St. (near Market and Hyde), San Francisco; (415) 621- 8313. Open 7:30 a.m.-10 p.m. daily.
New Kapadokia
Appetizers aren't included on the dining room menu at New Kapadokia, which opened about six months ago in Redwood City in the same space as a previous Turkish restaurant. Servers bring out a tray of selections and explain each one. I like the one-on-one approach, but wish the food was not displayed wrapped in plastic film. Most versions of stuffed grape leaves ($4. 95) tend to be bracingly lemony and bright, but these go in a deeper, sweeter direction, with pine nuts and currants mixed with the rice. The hummus ($4.95), firmer than most versions, has lots of garlic, olive oil and lemon juice. The cigar-shaped borek ($4.95) are filled with feta cheese, potato and parsley and fried golden and crisp.
Dinner platters come with a choice of salad or soup. The salad ($5.95 a la carte) is unremarkable, but the house red lentil soup ($2.95 a la carte), a Turkish favorite, is much more interesting. It is a thick, warming porridge with plenty of peppery spice.
Chicken shish kebab ($8.95 lunch, $14.95 dinner) offers juicy chunks of marinated chicken with pieces of grilled peppers and onions on top of a tinted rice pilaf. The five rib lamb chops ($17.95) are available as a dinner entree only and are served medium-rare with rice pilaf. Manti is described as Turkish ravioli but remind me more of small dumplings or tortellini. The filling is a smooth, seasoned paste of ground beef. The cooked pasta is topped with a tangy yogurt sauce mixed with butter.
Desserts include a very dense baklava ($2.95) and a warmed kadayif ($2. 95), shredded phyllo dough wrapped around a core of sweet mozzarella-like cheese and topped with honey syrup and crushed pistachios.
New Kapadokia, 2399 Broadway, Redwood City; (650) 368-5500. Open 11 a.m.- 9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, until 10 p.m. Friday-Saturday.