A friend told my best friend that he had the best Mediterranean/Turkish food at Istanbul Grill. After he raved about it to her, all she kept saying was "I want to go there!!", so off we went, this past weekend.
Istanbul Grill is tucked away on the west side of Cleveland. I must say- I really like how the restaurants are tucked away on the west side..you almost feel like you're in a neighborhood, and bam, here are all these unique to Cleveland restaurants along side streets.
We were seated right away. I got my turkish coffee- not spiced to my liking, but still, pretty good.
For appetizers, we started off with Sigara Borek and some baba ganush. The sigara borek was pretty good- flaky rolls of goat cheese filled in them. The baba ganush was pretty flavorful as well.
We split two entrees- the iskender kebap and the stuffed eggplant. The iskender kebap was really good- I was a little unsure about it at first (really? pita on the bottom?) but the overall flavors and just the entire dish was really, quite flavorful. The stuffed eggplant dish was okay- although the meat was plentiful and the tomato sauce was good, I..kind of wanted more eggplant. But then again, I just really like eggplant.
Overall, pretty good. The meal ended great as well, as there were tvs along the bar, showing the umich vs. illinois game. Umich went into triple overtime...and won. Score. A great lunch and a game that put umich into a bowl game? Priceless.