restaurant review: bospherous

My men's small group officially welcomed me tonight. Even though I've been a part of the group for a little more than 4 months, it was nice of them to take me out to dinner.

We went to Bospherous on N. Beverwyck in Lake Hiawatha. It's a Turkish place and I wasn't exactly sure what to expect from it.

Their specialty was Kebab's. Think, shish kebab's. The appetizers were really interesting, very flavorful. It was hard to say if it was good, but I really liked the humus. I didn't think I would, but using it as a dip for the toasted pita bread they served was really good. There were some other things, like fried eggplant covered in yogurt and this other thing that I had no idea. There were these little eggroll like things, but instead of using rice paper, they used some sort of leaf to wrap it. The flavor was just too strong for me so I didn't particularly like it.

We also ordered this salad that was very good. When you think salad, you usually think: lettuce. This salad had none. It was all tomatoes, cucumbers, and some other vegetables, but not lettuce. It was topped with grated fetta cheese. I'm not sure what kind of dressing was used, but it was this pleasant tart almost sour dressing that mixed well with the sweetness of the tomatoes.

The main entrees were really good. I ordered the Picnic Kebab, which was chicken, lamb, and meat balls. They came with a few grilled vegetables too on top of a bed of rice. The lamb was excellent, really tender and really juicy. The chicken wasn't too bad, it was good in terms of flavor, but I felt that it was a bit overcooked. The meat balls were okay, nothing spectacular. The grilled vegetables were amazing, there were green and red peppers, squash, eggplant, and hot peppers. The rice was very good too. It soaked up a lot of the juice and flavor from the meat that sat on top of it adding a lot of subtle flavor.

I was pleasantly surprised by the food. The atmosphere was quaint because the place was so small. There was only one guy, probably the owner, on the floor working all the tables. Most of the orders that came in were for take out.

Complimentary dessert was this pastry soaked in honey. It was good, but a little too rich for me. I could taste all the butter that was used to build it and felt as if a huge chunk of sugar was dragged down my throat. It was good, but just too much.

food: 14/30
decor: 11/30
service: 12/30
cost: $22

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