{"id":575,"date":"2010-07-27T11:54:05","date_gmt":"2010-07-27T16:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/?p=575"},"modified":"2010-07-29T14:53:52","modified_gmt":"2010-07-29T19:53:52","slug":"istanbul-restaurant-in-little-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/general\/istanbul-restaurant-in-little-rock\/","title":{"rendered":"Istanbul Restaurant in Little Rock"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Todd Barron @ FoodieCuisine.com<\/h4>\n
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Istanbul in Little Rock<\/p><\/div>\n

I had the chance to eat at Istanbul<\/a>, a self-proclaimed Mediterranean restaurant in Little Rock, over the weekend.\u00a0 My wife and I joined two of our friends for dinner there and went without reservations on a Friday night.\u00a0 The restaurant is located in West Little Rock by The Fresh Market and CheeBurger CheeBurger and we arrived at around 7:15pm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The place was full (a good sign normally) and we had to wait for about 20 minutes to be seated.\u00a0 This must be a rare occurance as the\u00a0wait staff didnt seem to know\u00a0what to do with us.\u00a0 There is not a\u00a0waiting area; therefore, we stood at the front door while we waited.\u00a0 It\u00a0was quite humorous to watch\u00a0one of the waitresses try and figure out how to combine to 2-seaters into a 4-seater but it never quite worked out.\u00a0 This may clue you in on the fact that we could have been seated right away if the patrons in the restaurant had been seated at tables appropriate for their party size (2 people in a 2-seater, 4 in a 4-seater, etc.)\u00a0 As I said before though, they probably don\u2019t have the overcrowded problem often; hence, the wait.<\/p>\n

We were seated in a booth and promptly requested to have the air-conditioning turned up.\u00a0 It was quite stuffy in the restaurant and my wife looked like she was ready to pass out from the heat.\u00a0 They complied and turned on the air after taking our drink orders.\u00a0 The first thing I noticed about the menus were the pictures.\u00a0 I have a saying about menus that have pictures on them and it\u2019s not flattering.\u00a0 I mean, if you need pictures, why are you in business?\u00a0 Is a lamb kabob really that strange of an item that you need a picture to explain it?\u00a0<\/p>\n

The menu had the \u201cstandard\u201d offerings I would expect from a Mediterranean restaurant with appetizers such as Hummus ($5), Babaganouj ($5),\u00a0Falafal ($4.50), and Dolmas ($5).\u00a0 In the entree side I was suprised to see the Turkish specific item\u00a0of Iskender Kebap<\/a>\u00a0($13.50).\u00a0 The menu had it mis-labeled as Iskender Kebab but it is the tomato braised beef dish famous in Turkey and not a kebab.<\/p>\n

They have many Doner dishes on the menu which they describe as: \u201cDoner is a blend of ground lamb and beef carefully mixed with select Turkish spices and then vertically slow-roasted to crispy, juicy perfection. This tantalizing Mediterranean favorite is served sliced and dipped in sweet cream butter and roasting juices.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>They also have several kebabs and sandwiches made from Doner, Chicken, and Lamb.<\/p>\n

We ordered several appetizers to start with including the Trio Appetizer (Hummus, Babaganouj,\u00a0Dolmas for $10.50), Spinach Pastry ($4.50), Cigar Pastry ($5), and a full order of Dolmas ($5).\u00a0 We\u00a0had\u00a0ordered quite a few appetizers but wanted to try everything they had to offer.\u00a0 The appetizers arrived in about 10 minutes and we dug in.<\/p>\n

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Trio Appetizer<\/p><\/div>\n

The first thing I tried was the Trio Appetizer with the dips and dolmas.\u00a0 The dish came with a good amount of pita bread nicely sliced and ready to go.\u00a0 The Hummus and Babaganouj both had almost zero flavor and had the texture of what I imagine a mushy sand paper to feel like in your mouth.\u00a0 The dolmas had a good flavor but were not firm enough for my tastes.\u00a0 I promptly moved on to the Cigar Pasty and didn\u2019t bother to grab another bite of the dips.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Dolma, Cigar Pastry, Spinach Pastry<\/p><\/div>\n

The Cigar Pastry had a nice sharp cheese in it that was a bit on the sour side (which was good.)\u00a0 I really enjoyed the pastry but a side of yogurt sauce would have knocked it out of the park on the goodness scale.\u00a0 Next up was the Spinach Pastry which looked good but had almost zero flavor.\u00a0 I could feel the fried pastry, spinach, and cheese, but it had zero flavor.\u00a0 We ended up with almost all of the dips on the table and a spinach pastry left but the cigar pastries and dolmas were all gone.<\/p>\n

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Lamb Shish Kabab<\/p><\/div>\n

For the entree I ordered the Lamb Shish Kebab ($15.50.)\u00a0 My wife had the same thing with a side order of Tomato Soup ($3).\u00a0 One of our dinner companions had the Falafel Sandwich ($7.50.)\u00a0 I didn\u2019t try the dish of our other companion so I won\u2019t go into it here.<\/p>\n

The Lamb Shish Kabab had a good amount of flavor.\u00a0 The lamb was also cooked properly and was tender.\u00a0 I actually had expected it to be tough but that was not the case.\u00a0 Out of everything the entree was the best item and is something I could see myself ordering again.\u00a0 The dish was served with a nutty rice and slices of pita bread that had been seared.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Falafel was overfried but had a decent enough flavor.\u00a0 It was on the dry side due to the frying though and a bit too dense for my tastes.\u00a0 I did not try the tomato soup but my wife seemed to enjoy it.<\/p>\n

We opted to skip dessert as everyone was full from the variety of appetizers and the entrees.\u00a0 We left at around 9pm and were satisfied with the meal.\u00a0 Would I go back?\u00a0 Most likely not.\u00a0 I only have so many calories I can consume a week and prefer to spend them on food I enjoy more.\u00a0 If you are looking for a good Hummus or Babaganouj I recommend The Terrace on the Green<\/a>.\u00a0 Their food is much better.<\/p>\n

\"Istanbul<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Todd Barron @ FoodieCuisine.com I had the chance to eat at Istanbul, a self-proclaimed Mediterranean restaurant in Little Rock, over the weekend.\u00a0 My wife and I joined two of our friends for dinner there and went without reservations on a Friday night.\u00a0 The restaurant is located in West Little Rock by The Fresh Market […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,205],"tags":[203,112,204,72,131],"class_list":["post-575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-reviews","tag-istanbul","tag-little","tag-mediterranean","tag-restaurant","tag-rock"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":614,"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575\/revisions\/614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}