We dithered at the edge of this street, drawn in by the white glow of the lanterns but unable to decide between Amedros Cafe and Faros Restaurant. One of the heckling wait staff, whose job it is to get as many bodies seated as quickly as possible through any available means, tried an unusual tactic with us: "It's all the same restaurant," he said. "Same food. Same prices." We laughed, moved on and ended up at Anatolian House, next door to Amedros.
Except he was actually being honest. It is one restaurant: Faros, Amedros, Anatolian House and the other two on this block where Yelp wouldn't let me check in. Yep: our food came from one kitchen; we were escorted to the same restroom; all night we watched as servers tapped out the same dramatic rhythm on clay pots to break them and set the steaming contents in front of delighted diners.
So, that was a little off-putting. However, the two stars are still deserved on the basis of food and service. The food was pretty substandard for Istanbul. For appetizers we ordered hummus and shrimp with butter sauce: the hummus was grainy and instead of being properly seasoned with salt and paprika, it was drizzled with overly-sweet balsamic vinegar and nearly-clear oil. The shrimp tasted thawed and the mushrooms canned, while there was little butter to speak of.
Meanwhile, my friend ordered a Long Island Iced Tea. This would have been a bold move in this part of the world, except that it was listed on the menu, the five ingredients corresponding to the ones we knew at home. They brought a Collins glass, no ice, that looked suspiciously fruity. It was. My friend pointed them back to the menu and asked for another one, made properly. This time they got it right, but after that he switched to beer. Their raki was good, too, though it's pretty hard to get wrong!
For some reason we decided to stay a little longer and ordered their mixed meze plate. There was more hummus; some very nice yogurt with dill; two different preparations of eggplant, both delicious; a so-so red pepper tapenade; and a "Russian Salad" that was basically mixed vegetables in mayonnaise. It was arranged very nicely on a plate with sliced vegetables, and served with some nice bread (chewy outside, fluffy within.)
The fun part came when we got the bill. My friend had ordered a double brandy and they had brought him a single (a shot glass' worth in a snifter.) He figured they didn't know what "double" meant and simply ordered another. Later we found out they had charged us for 2 doubles at a total of $76 TL. At that point we couldn't do anything but pay the tab, but we were pretty miffed. So, 2 drinks and 3 appetizers for 4 people came to . . . 275 TL. Way too high for this quality.
Bottom line: you could do so much better in this city. We're kicking ourselves for getting drawn in by the bright lights! read more