Nicole, Istanbul
It was a last-minute restaurant booking for my Istanbul trip. I requested via the website the day before and managed to get a small table for myself. The restaurant is located opposite the Italy embassy/consulate inside a very high-end hotel, which is a great sign. However I had to walk across a very quiet street from the main shopping area, which made me feel slightly unsafe especially during the evening. I got a seat with a great view of a very large terrace outside the restaurant, the Italian flag and the further mountain view.
View
The menu was well explained on individual dishes and divided by small lines for canapés, appetiser, mains and desserts. I also like the list of all the chefs' and probably waiters' name at the back of the menu, which is a very cute idea.
Menu
The chef provided an extra warm soup. I could not remember the ingredients. It tasted salty and creamy which was a great start for me for the wintertime. Then I had the table bread. Specifically, it was a brioche with chocolate to the right and a plain hard bread to the left, paired with a spreadable cheese dipped in olive oil to the right and butter to the left. They are all very nice, but I found the bread board was annoying because it was difficult to put the bread on all the pointed stone bulge.
Extra starting soup and bread
The actual first dish from the menu was snow pea. It was a cold plate, which immediately woke me up. The snow pea was very crunchy, which was probably cooked very quickly to preserve the texture and colour. The cream with pistachio and relatively liquid apple sauce added flavour of nut and sweetness; they contrasted well with snow pea. Those cream and sauce also provided some warm feeling to the frozen cold snow pea.
In general, I was very impressed by the simple start. It was light and fresh, which was a great choice as the very first appetiser.
Snow pea, cream with pistachio and sour apple syrup
The catch of the day was haddock, (luckily it was no longer sea bass which I had for days). The entire plate was very tender: haddock was soft and tender, and artichoke was slightly crunch but still tender. The artichoke was a great choice here which add freshness and a different texture over all the soft ingredients. It also provided strong umami flavour as expected. The sauce was very light and liquid, however easily absorbed into the fish. There was something slight lying sweet, which I guessed to be the rose petals.
Haddock, artichoke and rose petals
The next dish was a small bite of quail paired with a separate small quail patty. First of all, it was interesting to see all the quail, either in the plate or inside the patty were fully cooked, while it was very common medium rare in other restaurants. Although it tasted less juicy and more just a cooked meat, however, it was still a great quail soaked in the rich sauce, which enhanced the overall flavour. The sweet and lightly sour red dot, namely cranberry marmalade, balanced well with the quail. Additionally, the grey chestnut dot topped with truffle, provided a completely different earthen flavour and crunch texture.
The small patty was mostly dough. It cleared up my palate and also neutralised the heavy flavour from quail. I found it a great and balanced organisation on food.
Quail, chestnut, cranberry marmalade and quail patty
The main dish, like many restaurants I tried in Istanbul, was lamb. This certainly put me in a great position to compare. I would say, lamb here was certainly the best amongst others. The lamb itself was very fresh, without any unpleasant odour. In fact, it has a unique sweet taste purely from the lamb meat. The pairing peanut sauce was very impressive; I never thought of using peanut sauce, while commonly mint sauce. The peanut sauce did not have the heavy nut taste but more the sweet taste with yogurt-ish texture. It works very well with the lamb and the bitter-based vegetable in the middle.
The side small ‘triangle’ had the characteristic kabab flavour: a punch of meat, spicy and grilled flavour. It in fact had much stronger taste than the lamb in main dish. I found the seasoning of the side plate fun that reminded me the Istanbul street food, in a nice way.
Lamb, quince and peanut
This was a great restaurant and I like it! Although all dishes are presented and probably heavily influenced by European style, we are in the European side of Istanbul anyway. The chef was very good at using local ingredients, and various nuts. I also found many dishes contain light sweetness. One might argue it was part of Istanbul culture given how sweet their desserts are. Interestingly, the two desserts here were not very sweet but more refreshing.
The location was also a plus to me, a peaceful view outside. The giant terrace certainly attracted other customers a lot; many of them went out for many pictures.
🐼 Score: 4/5
