From the other (or one of the other, maybe) turquoise threads, here's a picture from one of my visits:

Last night's dinner wasn't enough, so today we used the efficient delivery service. Tonight's choice was the "Onion Kebap" and was hands down the best thing I've tasted in a Turkish or Middle Eastern restaurant, period. Succulent lamb in a pungeant, rich sauce that seemed to combine pomegranate with hearty juices from the pan in which I imagine the lamb was charred to perfection. On the side: roasted grape tomatoes bursting with flavor and caremelized shallots that tasted like candy. I am not normally one to wear my enthusiasm on my sleeve like this, but this place ROCKS!

Kennyz wrote: Tonight's choice was the "Onion Kebap" and was hands down the best thing I've tasted in a Turkish or Middle Eastern restaurant, period. ... I am not normally one to wear my enthusiasm on my sleeve like this, but this place ROCKS!

Kenny. I think maybe it's time for you to make your nomination here

I had the turkish breakfast this weekend at Turquoise, which I had tried once before for lunch. Quite a lot of food and a pretty nice price for it all, most everything was fairly tasty but after a while it was just too egg oriented (there was scrambled eggs w/scallions and feta, poached eggs in a spiced tomato sauce, fried eggs with sojouk, a kugelis of sorts with eggs and feta and herbs). We needed some meat and so ordered some onion kabab as well, I have not had some of the dishes mentioned off the dinner menu, but the onion kabab for me is the one dish that stands out at turquoise (most of the other items, such as lamacun, muzver, etc seem to me better at a number of other places around town). The onion kabab is melt-in -the mouth tender and served with roasted tomatoes, garlic cloves, raisins in a sauce that seems to me to demi-glace and pomegranate molasses - very very good.

I hope it's alright I bump this thread, I was searching for restaurants I've eaten at recently as I've just recently stumbled across this delight of a website.

I'd have to give this place a thumbs down. The service the night I was there was horrible!! Everyone was very harried to the point that one poor waitress dropped an entire tray of drinks. We were seated at one table, then asked if we could move to a different location, took forever to get someone to take our order. My entree was chicken with a gorgonzola sauce and peppers, very average. I will say the bread was pretty good when we finally got a basket halfway through our meal. I really can't imagine I'd ever return to this place and I'm surprised to hear so many people had an excellent meal and great service. I'm not doubting you--if you were there the night I was you'd understand my point!

PlayItGeorge wrote:I'm not doubting you--if you were there the night I was you'd understand my point!

Could be a downhill alert. I haven't been in about a year, probably. The last time I was there, Beth's favored dish, a potato pancake covered in sauteed mushrooms, had changed a bit for the worse. The pancake was still fantastic (truly a great PP), but the mushrooms weren't nearly as good.

There are better choices for turkish in the city (Turkish Cuisine, for example), but Turquoise was awfully nice and much more convenient.

Have any of the Roscoe Villagers been to Turquoise recently?

I was just there this evening, actually. My experience was fine, I guess, but nothing very special.

Before the meal, we had delicious warm bread served with a carrot salad (I don't know the name, it was grated carrots with yogurt and garlic- very tasty). We had the hummus as an appetizer and it was awful. Completely flavorless, like wallpaper paste.

For entrees (my friend and I are both vegetarians), we had the stuffed gnocchi in vodka sauce and the veggie prima-vera. The gnocchi is stuffed with ricotta and spinach. Flavor was solid, texture was good (on the light side of the gnocchi spectrum). Veggie prima-vera was described as mushroom-stuffed gnocchi with sauteed basil, veggies, garlic, pine nuts, and parmesan cheese. I would argue with their description, as what arrived bore more resemblance to traditional ravioli than stuffed gnocchi. Again, flavor and texture were good but not great.

Chocolate souffle for dessert was very forgettable. More like a warm brownie from a box- not that I'm opposed to warm brownies in any form they may arrive in front of me, of course, but really, in a restaurant, I expect more.

I do have to say that service was very good, but it was not remotely busy, so I'm not sure that was the best example. This was my first time eating at Turquoise Cafe, so I have no prior reference. I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to returning, since I live only a few blocks away, but I definitely would not rave about it, and there are other places I'd visit first.

I posted a rave review in this thread more than a year ago. Sadly, I haven't been back in several months due to what I considered an inexusable service issue. I ordered delivery, and was given a 45 minute expected wait time. An hour and 15 minutes later, I called to check on the order. "On the way - 5 minutes" I was told. 20 minutes later I called again. "Driver made a wrong turn -be right there." In another 20 minutes, I ordered a pizza.

Then, more than 2 hours after my order had been placed, the driver arrived. I buzzed him up, and he said "sorry I'm late: 35 dollars please." I told him I had ordered a pizza, but since he had made the trip out here I'd take the food, but only at a substantially discounted price." I suggested 15 dollars. He said "no way, can't do that." Now, I assumed that he meant that he didn't have the authority to make such a decision, so I asked him to wait while I called the restaurant again. I asked to speak to the manager, who had been so gracious on my visit to the restaurant, and he told me in a rather angry tone that I should just eat my pizza and forget about their restaurant. So, that's what I've done. Sad, because i really did like the food.

After waiting an unconscionably long time to get our act together, Lovely Dining Companion and I finally made our inaugural visit to Turquoise Cafe last evening. It was an uneven experience that left one of us eager to return (me) and one of us willing but not eager (LDC).

We made an early reservation for 6pm which turned out, in retrospect, to be quite fortunate. As we were welcomed, the genial gentleman who seemed to be more than a waiter but less than an owner (?), asked if we were apprised of the fact that we would have to vacate the premises by 7:30 for the private party that had rented the place for the evening. I had not been informed of that when I made the reservation, but 90 minutes seemed about right to have dinner and dessert and not be rushed. In the event, it was almost perfectly timed. It would have been nice to have been told on the phone but, as they say, no harm, no foul.

Both of the waitresses (there were only two) stopped by our table to inquire about drinks before the tall attractive blonde settled in to be our server. She was generally quite attentive and seemed genuinely concerned that we enjoy our food and the experience. The place, for those who have not yet been, is a long rectangular room, nicely appointed. Cloths on the tables, a more upscale dining experience than most Turkish places I've been to in Chicago (with the exception of a place down on Lincoln, years and years ago...whose name now escapes my recollection).

As has been noted in another post, they have two menus--a Western one and a Mediterranean (read: Turkish) one. (Their menus are available online at http://www.turquoisedining.com/menu.php) We chose almost exclusively from the Turkish offerings. To start, LDC had the char-grilled portabellas with roasted garlic and basil in a "creamy white vine sauce." Nt so Turkish, perhaps, but quite good. I opted for sogurme, described as "smoked eggplant, creamy yogurt, garlic, walnuts toasted in crushed red pepper." The smokiness of the eggplant was foremost, and the garlic also pronounced. But what was most intriguing--and which I attribute to the yogurt--was the "zing" of the dish. The only comparison that comes to mind at the moment, is the carbonation of any very young new wine. It had a similar sparkle on the tongue that intrigued me but LDC found offputting. Wonderful dish, but an appetizer portion was precisely right.

For dinner: LDC settled on kilic sis: "Medallion seasoned, skewered sword fish, char-grilled and served over spring green peas, caper, red onion, black olives, balsamic herb sauce." Here began the oddity: the waitress very carefully de-skewered the fish and made a beautiful presentation. But not only was the plentiful portion of vegetables cool, the fish itself was cool. I'm not talking lukewarm, I'm talking cool--no warmth left. This is a kebap, a grilled entree. And, I should add, one of the most expensive on the menu at nearly $20. We finally asked the waitress, who explained the the vegetable "base" is intended to be cool. But not the fish. How on earth can grilled swordfish go from kitchen to table and end up completely lacking warmth? Adding insult to injury, why did the green beans appear to be canned? If not canned, then they were cooked to death.

Notwithstanding these issues, LDC enjoyed the flavors and brought home the leftovers so that the whole dish could be served hot. But shouldn't the fish have come that way to begin with? The waitress was distressed to learn about the fish and offered to do whatever she could to make it right. But we must bear some responsibility here since we dithered over what to do until she was no longer hungry enough to finish the dish at the restaurant.

My "onion kebap" was intriguing. The description states: "Hand chopped lamb, caramelized shallot, garlic, rosemary, raisins, cherry tomatoes, braised in pomegranate sauce served with baked vegetables." I love lamb and this was fork tender, though I'm not sure it was chopped (though clearly tenderized in some fashion). The sauce was vigorously, bitingly sour. I enjoy sour. One might even say I love sour. And the sauce worked with the ingredients in very small doses. But it was too much: literally and figuratively. The pomegranate seeds had just enough sweetness to help and I didn't notice any raisins (whose sweetness would also have assisted). The single cherry tomato added little. I would love to try the other dishes, but won't rush back for this one. The dish was accompanied by a baby bok choy, split, and served perfectly steamed. On the side, a small parchment sack of assorted vegetables.

Perhaps someone can help us deconstruct our rice pilaf sides. We both ordered it. We both received a dish of what appeared to be steamed rice. Period. Very nicely flavored, but pure rice. Does Turkish pilaf differ from other ethnic/national pilafs so much as to be pure rice, unadulterated by additions of any sort? It was good...but it was rice. And we found it curious that neither of our dishes included any starch at all.

Dessert was simple: LDC chose figs and I chose pumpkin. In both cases, the item(s) were soaked in a very light syrup and served with a very firm, substantial dollop of heavy cream garnished with walnuts. Light, not particularly sweet in either case, and a nice way to end the meal.

As the waitress brought the swordfish leftovers, we asked if the package included the leftover portabella cap. Flurry of activity. Busboy (there was one) professed ignorance. Long story short, the kitchen prepared a fresh one for us to take home in the stead of the "lost" one. A nice touch and the right thing to do.

We had a restaurant.com coupon. Had we not, dinner with no drinks would have run about $65, including tax but not tip. The slip-up with the portabello can happen to anyone; we thought that they handled the issue correctly. So too the swordfish--although it completely escapes us how the fish can wait so long to arrive that it shows up and is cool to the touch.

I enjoyed the food, LDC less so; our return will depend upon Gypsy Boy's negotiating skills since LDC's willingness to return depends on finding ourselves in the neighborhood at dinnertime (an occasion so infrequent as to constitute an effective veto).

The wife, myself, and friends hit Turquoise for the first time last night.

My short review is, stick with the "Mediterranian" dishes and you'll have a quality meal.

They did not provide a complimentary eggplant dip as others seem to have experienced. Instead it was flatbread (very tasty) and a kind of red cabbage slaw.
For Apps we ordered, grilled calamari and the Sogurme. The calamari was nice, but no comparison to the amazingly tender and charred squid at TAC Quick. The Sorgurme consisted of smoked eggplant, yogurt, garlic, walnuts and chili oil. It was excellent and I hope to try and replicate it at home.

I inquired about the "RAMY" sauce that came with the seared tuna and was told it was a mushroom sauce. Well, a mushroom sauce with tuna sounded rather odd to me and the wife, so we passed but one of our friends was drawn to it. She found it kind of bland and it looked a little overcooked for being "seared".
Another friend ordered the Salt Crust Sea Bass. AFter letting it flame, the waitress removed the salt, then pulled off the flesh and put it onto a plate and handed to my friend. This eliminated his need to work for his food, but also resulted in a rather lame an unappeal presentation. The fish itself seemed overcooked, dry, and fishy, especially for seabass.

Now for the good stuff. I ordered the Onion Kebap described by others with seasoned minced lamb, and carmelized shallots and garlic in a flavorful and pleasantly tart pomegranite sauce (maybe a little balsamic?).
The parchment paper pouch of chopped baked veggies was bland and not worthy of stomach space, but the rest of the dish was excellent and not at all too "sour" in our opinion. In fact, I recommended to our Tuna eating friend that this pomegranite sauce would be a better match for her tuna than the mushroom sauce. We tried it and all agreed it was.

The wife ordered the Adana Kebap, seasoned minced lamb with rice, flat-bread, yogurt sauce and the same bland pouch of veggies. Other than the veggies, it was a very nice dish. The rice was very tasty and perfectly cooked. The seasoning in the lamb was different and more spicy than the Onion Kebap.

IF you like a good beer, try the Effe lager from Turkey. It was far better than I had expected from a country not known for great beer.

We'll likely return for the Eggplant dip, Onion Kebap, and to try some other lamb dishes.

Anyone been there? What do you think?

You must have missed the LTH Turquoise reviews.

Sorry, Should have done a quick search first.

Thanks.

I've never actually had dinner at Turquoise, but it is my favorite brunch spot. Ok, it's my only brunch spot (not much of a brunch person). They offer something the call a "Turkish breakfast" for $12.95 -- originally it was $19.95, but that was when they served you vast, towering mountains of food; now it's just small, rolling hills of food.

For breakfast, you get:
- a glass of champagne
- basket of warm bread with sesame seeds, served with a dish of butter and very good honey
- one large, eggy, perfectly browned crepe per person
- Turkish sausage slices fried with over-easy eggs
- creamy scrambled eggs with onions or leeks
- squares of some sort of noodle and egg casserole with cheese and spinach
- soft cooked potatoes with a tangy, tomato-based sauce
- fresh fruit plate
- coffee

It's marvelous. After indulging this past Sunday, I spent the afternoon napping and digesting, like a happy boa constrictor.

I'm actually writing for some advice.

I met a friend for dinner last night at Turquoise. The food was amazing; we did a simple assortment of small plates and a glass of wine, and the quality was just about perfect. Loved the homemade bread, smoky eggplant with red peppers, portobello mushroom in cream, and ridiculously generous seafood salad (gorgeous scallops, shrimp, and squid--with some greens and a lovely, fragrant viniagrette). It was a beautiful night and everything started very promisingly.

Problem was, about halfway through the meal, the place got slightly more crowded (maybe half full, between indoor and outdoor tables). The service went from strong to absent to downright abysmal. After no one checked on us for about 45 minutes, we asked a busser if we might order dessert. Our waiter finally came by and said, "I thought you'd left!" (?!)

"No," we explained. Still here. Then my friend asked about a pumpkin dessert and the waiter said, "It's just pumpkin. With some honey. Just pumpkin."

We'd noticed that all the other tables around us--including one who arrived after us (and had a different server)--received a complimentary chocolate souffle for dessert. So we asked our waiter about this, and he said, while racing off to check on another table, "No! Sometimes we give things away on a slow night, but not now! It's too busy!"

Annoyed, we decided to forego dessert and asked for our check. He put the check down and said, "If you can wait 10 minutes, I'll get you dessert."
No thanks.

Now I used to wait tables, and I vowed I'd never send a message through a tip. I know servers make substandard wages and tips are their primary means toward making a living. I could see this guy was harried, but really, there were two servers on staff and the place was far from full. There was no excuse for his rudeness, and it turned a pleasant dinner into something awkward and unpleasant.

So here's how we resolved it. . . we left $40 on a $36.90 tab, along with a note that read, "Service started strong but ended terribly. What happened?"

How do others handle this quandary? Again, the food was excellent, and the service was wonderful in the beginning but took a strange downturn. Yes, a server's job is tough, especially when things get busy, but if you can't take the heat . . .

I'd be interested in others' feedback (forgive me if there's an existing thread on this subject; I didn't find one in my search).

thanks.

It sounds more like a panic attack than deliberate rudeness-- but you shouldn't have to experience either one of those things, and in either case the important thing is you communicated that they blew it. Another $5 or not is the least important aspect of it all. Now they can either fix the underlying problems, or not.

ChristyP wrote:Our waiter finally came by and said, "I thought you'd left!" (?!)

That's over the top.

ChristyP wrote:So here's how we resolved it. . . we left $40 on a $36.90 tab, along with a note that read, "Service started strong but ended terribly. What happened?"

How do others handle this quandary? Again, the food was excellent, and the service was wonderful in the beginning but took a strange downturn. Yes, a server's job is tough, especially when things get busy, but if you can't take the heat . . .

I'd be interested in others' feedback

On the rare occasions when I leave a substandard tip for poor service, I make a point of asking for the manager on my way out and explaining why. (In one or two instances when the service was really egregious, I didn't leave but asked the waiter to bring the manager to the table.)

Leaving a note lets the waiter know you aren't just a cheapskate, but doesn't necessarily tell management to do something about a problem.

Has anyone tried this place? What were your impressions?

Here is an ongoing thread full of reviews

Best,
Michael

That is funny, I did a search for "Turquoise Restaurant" and it didnt give me any results. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!!

HI,

If you kept your search only to 'Turquoise,' then you would have found it. I quickly saw they call themselves Turquoise Cafe.

I've always wanted to go to their Sunday brunch.

Regards,

We went tonight and enjoyed it thoroughly. Good food, good service, pleasant room. It was not very busy - Tuesday night and bad weather. We ordered the non-walnut eggplant spread appetizer, the yogurt kebab and onion kebab. The yogurt kebab came with very overcooked, very thinly sliced lamb and the chopped lamb. The chopped was better We had some sort of rice pudding-ish dessert. When serving wine, they brought the bottles to the table, let us taste, poured a very big pour. We intend to go back, and if they deliver to our area, yay, a new-to-us takeout place!

BF and I had the best mussels on the northside here about 2 weeks ago! Huge, plump, perfectly cooked. I'm dreaming about them!

Papered over and "Closed for Renovation". I better have another shot at the finest chicken kebabs around.

I'm not sure when this place re-opened. I can confirm that last night's dinner was top notch.

We each had lentil soup. My nephew and I had the Adana Kebab. My wife had the Colorado Lamb Shank. She didn't offer me a taste and there were no leftovers. I assume that's a good thing.

Friendly service. Easy street parking. I was a happy camper.