Thursday, August 18, 2011

Eat Around the World - Turkey

While our summer kick-off event was trying Brazilian cuisine, our end of summer splurge was a Giant's game in San Francisco, followed by some Turkish food! (Unfortunately, the Giants got spanked by the Pirates, 2-9. Painful). Nonetheless, we still had a great time (I got to see the Giants play...and Jason got to see the Giants lose. Dodger fan...).

Since we were in the city for the day, we wanted to take advantage of the wide variety of cuisines offered in San Francisco. We took BART into the city, so we wanted to find something within walking distance from the park. We were originally thinking Russian food, but nothing was close by (we really want to color in Russia on our map - huge country!) We then thought maybe German, but we wanted to eat a sausage at the game, and we figured German food for dinner after would be overkill. After doing some research on Yelp, we found a review for a Turkish restaurant, and everyone said it was great. It was only about 2.5 miles from the park, so we figured we'd give it a go!

Conveniently, half-way there, we walked by Coffee Bean for 'happy hour' and then did some shopping around Union Square.

After our coffee and shopping fix, we made the trek up Geary into the Tenderlion area of San Francisco and arrived at A La Turca Restaurant (click here for Yelp review).

While it sure didn't look too promising from the outside, things got better upon entering. It was really cute inside, with a mural on one of the side walls and rock all along the back wall.

For an appetizer we ordered Ispanakli Borek. Say what? Basically it is pastry dough filled with spinach and feta cheese. The pastry dough was crispy and flaky - melted in your mouth.

For the main course, I ordered flat bread grilled and filled with chicken, feta, mozzarella, and bell peppers. (I am notorious for ordering the 'safest' item on the menu, and afterwards told Jason he needs to start ordering for me because I 'chicken' out every time and end up ordering something with chicken in it). It came out looking like a quesadilla. It was really good, but rich (which I am also notorious for ordering). Probably would order something different next time.

Jason always goes for the boldest item on the menu...with the most meat in it. Jason order the Combo Donor (donor is Turkish for gyro meat). It came with chicken, beef, and lamb gyro meat, salad, and rice. The meat was so flavorful, with tons of spices and seasoning. I wish I got something with more spunk to it since it tasted so good.

We were so full after our meal that we didn't have room for dessert. We decided to get something go to and were going to order their baklava, but our server talked us into getting kadayif, which is their shredded phyllo dough with pistachios.

They looked really yummy, but we were both a little disappointed when we went to eat them the next day. Both of us took one bit, looked at each other, and agreed that it wasn't worth eating the rest. We then resorted to our summer dessert...Open Nature's Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (found at Safeway...seriously, the best vanilla ice cream from the carton) with mashed up blackberries. We are loving this dessert...and eat it almost every night!

Overall, we gave A La Turca an 8 out of 10. Our appetizer was for sure a 10, along with Jason's meal, but I would rate mine a little lower, along with our disappointing dessert. If you're looking to try Turkish food, we recommend A La Turca.

1 comment:

mel @ the larson lingo said...

That meal looks yummy! And, your Giants shirt is super cute. I need a reminder to buy that vanilla ice cream...YUM.