Neolokal, Istanbul
The restaurant is literally opposite to my hotel. It is on the first floor inside a modern art gallery in a historical building. Unfortunately, it was too late to visit the gallery, however the ground floor and the restaurant side was very fun, a modern decoration inside a stone building, at least it looked like a stone building.
The menu was printed in a very nice paper. Interestingly there was a sorbet between two main dishes. The rest plates were seen as what one might expected from a Michelin-starred restaurant.
Menu
The Erişte, Turkish pasta, was very simple but impressive. The plate was extremely clear, only the pasta with a sheet on top. There was barely a sign of sauce even in the first glance. However, it turned out a dish packed with strong flavour. The pasta itself was coated with light lemon oil. I mostly tasted the nice flavour of flour from the pasta, which was cooked in a ‘al dente’ way, namely firm and a bit raw. The main flavour came from the pepper skin and sauce beneath, a very strong salty and sweet shrimp flavour.
It was very impressive as the chef did not put commonly strong sauces, for example, tomato, cream or olive oil, however just a little lemon oil. This emphasised the pasta and shrimp. This also challenged the chef’s skill to cook the pasta.
Erişte with red shrimp
The seasonal fish of the night was Sea bass paired with a handful of rice wrapped in a leaf. It was an interesting combination. The sea bass was presented skin up. The skin was not heavily fried and had no unpleasant fishy flavour or taste, so I liked it. It was fully cooked rather than half raw, yet still tender and juicy.
The side rice is a surprise. The wrapping leave had strong bitter but fresh flavour. The rice absorbed the light and liquid sauce however still had the joy from the chewing the relatively solid rice.
I have to say, it was a bit unusual and even strange when I combined the rice with the sea bass. Yet it got better and more interesting when I had more bites. I would conclude that I enjoyed it a lot in the end.
Seasonal fish - sea bass
The second main dish, lamb, followed similar style as the sea bass—this time was lamb paired with Üveyik wheat, a wheat used in Turkey. Although the presentation was extremely simple, I would say unimpressive. The lamb was perfectly cooked compared the previous lamb dish from Mikla. It was slow cooked for around 12 hours but still in a great shape. The muscle fibre was still firm and could hold the sauce very well.
The wheat to left of the plate was tasted similar to buckwheat, however, was slightly larger and chewier. It had very light sweet taste, which is common in wheat. Yet I found it was nice as the sauce is very strong and wheat added a different texture and flavour.
The main dish was paired with a lamb mince to the right, and a small lamb wrap to the left. The mince was milder but warm, while the wrap contains some chilli so slightly sharper. They all gave different layers of flavours over the ultra-rich flavour from the main dish but worked together to show off the chef’s ability to cook lamb.
Lamb shoulder
This was a great fun! The service was great and the food was also great. However, I might argue that I want to see more dishes in Turkish style rather than too European style. Of course, this is an expectation for me as a tourist, while for the local they might want to see the European style food.
🐼 Score: 3/5
