Every gal in Constantinople
Lives in Istanbul, not Constantinople.
A contradiction! I felt the same way about Café Istanbul. A genuine Turkish restaurant is something you wouldn't expect to find at Newport on the Levee. That's just the first contradiction. There are others.
I wasn't prepared for my first visit to Café Istanbul. The décor is lovely, with good table linens and monogrammed plates. For a Muslim country where people don't drink, they brew a fabulous beer, Efes Pilsner. The menu items sounded familiar. Shish kebabs, I thought, were grilled skewers of meat and vegetables. Doner kebabs were kebabs made from unfortunate wintertime travelers. Well, maybe not, but you get the idea. I had a lot to learn.
Although Café Istanbul has humus, falafel and tabouli on the menu, these recognizable dishes are prepared in the Turkish manner, not the Greek. There's a difference. The seasoning in Turkish cuisine is much more subtle than in the more familiar (to me) Mediterran-ean cuisines. I was so surprised when the food wasn't redolent of garlic, lemon and parsley that I dismissed it as bland. I decided (or my editors decided for me!) that I ought to give it another try.
The Falafel ($4.95) at Café Istanbul was served with the best pita bread I've ever had. Thicker than grocery pita, it was crisp on the outside and had a nice soft interior. Imam Bayaldi ($5.95), a baked marinated baby eggplant, was topped with roasted red and green pepper and lovely pine nuts. It had a refined olive oil flavor, quite fresh. A far better choice was the Sigara Boregi ($4.50), five flaky pastry cigars filled with delicious feta cheese. They were light, savory and crisp. My husband enjoyed the fried eggplant, Soslu Patlican ($4.95), but I would have liked more spice in the tomato sauce.
On my first visit, I ordered the Iskender Kebab ($14.75), and was surprised by a large plate of thinly sliced meat that visually resembled gyros. It was served with tomato sauce and surrounded by yogurt. I thought that the yogurt sauce would be thick with cucumber and seasoned with lemon, like Greek tzatziki. Instead, it was quite simple. Not plain, but definitely understated. The tomato sauce was also very mild. The daunting quantity of meat was served over a tiny quantity of homemade croutons, a contradiction of proportion.
My companion had a Mixed Veggie Grill ($10.95), broiled onions, peppers, eggplant and squash served over white rice. She wasn't enthusiastic about the rice, but I liked its quiet, buttery taste. I did not like the green beans: On both visits they showed up tasting suspiciously canned. Like so many vegetable plates prepared by people who wonder why anyone eats vegetables to begin with, it wasn't memorable.
Again, we had much better luck on the second try. My husband adored the Chicken Adana Kebab ($12.95), bright and lemony, and vowed he'd be back to have it again. I tried the Lamb Shish Kebab and Adana Kebab ($13.75), a much more reasonable quantity of meat. Both were flavorful if a little chewy.
On both visits I ordered Turkish coffee ($1.75), sweet, hot, and dramatically served on a suspended brass tray. The pastries ($3.25-4.95) are lovely, flavored with honey and pistachio, including a unique cheese-filled pastry, Kunefe, that was so rich it was fit for a sultan.
On our first visit, after coffee and dessert, we were ready to go. Our waiter, who had been attentive and charming throughout the entire meal, suddenly stopped noticing us. We sat for an hour with no water, no coffee and no check. The restaurant had gotten busy and noisy, but still the delay seemed bizarre.
Café Istanbul is crowded with smiling, happy people who seem pleased with their dining experience. I think it's wonderful to have an authentic, exotic Turkish restaurant in town, and my well-traveled husband assured me that this is the real deal. So give Constantinople, errr, Istanbul the works. It's nobody's business but the Turks. ©
Go: Newport on the Levee
Call: 859-581-1777
Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday
Prices: Moderate
Payment: Major credit cards
Red Meat Alternatives: Mixed veggie grill, vegetarian vegetable stew and vegetarian okra stew
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