Istanbul Grill

What I’m rating one star is that the restaurant has closed. Reasons are kind of murky but there’s gossip it may reopen in the future either at this location or elsewhere. Very sorry to hear this. I already miss their baba ghanouj.

I waited to write my review until after my second visit, which was a mistake. I would have rated this place higher after the first visit.
I went last Saturday night for dinner with a friend — about 1 month after my first visit. It was packed, but we were seated in the bar immediately. Our waitress told us that ownership of the restaurant was changing and they were out of ‘everything’. They bar looked fairly bare and they had stopped giving out their cocktail menu, but they still had beer and wine as well as some mixed drinks. There were several key dishes that they were out of for the night too.
The waitress was very nice, but she did not remember to get us salads that we both ordered. My dish was pretty bland — it was a white bean stew with rice. I could have made it at home with more flavor.
It was one of those nights when everything just took forever. We were never offered more water, the food took a long time, and the waitress would disappear for long periods of time, ect.
This place was great last time I was there and I hope that the new ownership is able to get them back on track.

This is our first visit and am so impressed with everything. the waitress was really nice in explaining the food. I ordered a mixed cold appetizer and mixed grill meat. Love it. The meat is very well seasoned. I am also happy to see the meat are all halal. We finished with dessert and Turkish coffee.
The liver appetizer was really good. The seasoning on it was amazing.
Definitely will go back again and again.

Phenomenal! Authentic, delicious Turkish cuisine prepared with the highest quality ingredients. We stopped in at 7:00 pm on a Sunday night, and I was a bit wary, thinking the food might not be as fresh or well-​prepared right before closing. I was SO wrong. The entire dining experience was so enjoyable and the entrees were cooked to perfection. At our table, we ordered the Adana, Iskender, and mixed grill and each item reminded me of the food I had sampled while in Istanbul.

We’ve been meaning to check out Istanbul Grill in Tremont for a long time, and finally, thankfully did! From the tasty authentic Turkish cuisine, to the charming décor and friendly, accommodating service (thanks Andrew and Greta!), this will be a new regular spot for us.
The ambiance is cozy and inviting with lovely Turkish ornamentation throughout. A beautiful brick archway leads you to a raised up dining area, where all the tables feel very private and intimate. The patio out front would be the perfect people-​watching place for dessert and a cup of coffee.
We started at the bar with a couple of appetizers and wine during happy hour. We had Hummus (rich and creamy — yum!) and Ezme (a fresh tomato dip) with the most amazing, warm and delicious grilled pita bread. The Sigara Boric were really good — delicately deep fried phyllo rolls with house-​made feta cheese inside. We will probably order these on every visit!
For entrees, he had the Chef’s Chicken Burger which had great flavor and was served with a yoghurt dill sauce. Next time he would order the burger on the pita bread, because it was so amazing. The deliciously crispy fries tasted like they were battered in a little chick pea flour, giving them extra flavor and crispness.
I had the Kuru Fasulye Pilav (white bean stew with rice), which was mild in flavor but nice, and healthy-​tasting (in a good way!)There were tons of vegetarian and vegan options on the menu. It will take a while to work my way through it!
Note: If you check it out on the website, don’t let that mislead you. It does not do the setting or intimacy justice, and the food imagery on it looks sort of cafeteria-​like, when it is actually quite delicious.

On my return visit to Instanbul Grill, I’m so glad we had a Unilocaler with us who had actually traveled to Turkey and knew how to order. Hells yes, Unilocal Int’l Supper Club!
The 4 of us sat outside on their cute, quiet little patio and enjoyed a cold appetizer platter. You can order different sizes, but the smallest one (meant for 2 people) fed the 4 of us perfectly. Speaking of perfect, the apps and dips were phenom. The only one I didn’t like was the hummus, and I’ve mentioned before that I prefer way less tahini (it makes it a little bitter.) Everything else was to-​die-​for. The standouts were, again, the yogurt sauce, which did not have too much mint in it – thank god – and the baba ganoush. You could tell it was homemade and they used charred eggplant that gave it a smokey taste. SO. Good. Pair it all with their fresh, grilled pita and you’ll be stuffed before your meal arrives.
But you’ll still probably eat it because it’s delicious.
Listening to my very smart and seasoned Unilocaler friend, I ordered a combo plate of both their döner and lamb adana with rice. You could really tell everything was homemade in-​house and fresh. The rice was pretty average, so I just ordered an extra side of yogurt sauce for dipping. Oh yes, it was divine.
Lastly, I’m totally cool with the prices here, which are a steal for what you get. Even with drinks your bill will be friendly to your wallet and you’ll feel better for eating fresh, grilled noms, rather than a greasy, hot mess.
I’ll be back for sure, just not for that hummus.

A singular experience. This place is charming and surprisingly spacious inside. We sat outside, however, because the weather was perfect. Since it’s a bit «off the beaten path,» it’s quiet enough outside to hold a conversation, and you don’t have a ton of passers-​by gawking at your meal. And, trust me, there’s plenty to gawk at – the food looks amazing and tastes even better.
We started with the baba ganoush — which was creamy, thick, and tasty, but the pita that accompanied it was an experience in itself: warm, toasty, fresh… and plentiful! They give you a ton of pita and will gladly provide more. For my main course, I got the chicken kebab with yogurt. The chicken was perfectly cooked and the yogurt was rich and flavorful. My boyfriend got the lamb kebab with yogurt and loved it. As much as we would have liked to eat our whole plates in one sitting, the portions were large enough that we had left overs. Wish we hadn’t stuffed ourselves so we could have tried dessert!
We actually came to Tremont to try Bac, which got excellent reviews on Unilocal.However, we got there and, in the short period of time between us walking in and being greeted by a hostess, we deemed it «too hip.» It looked sleek and modern and some weird techno music was blasting — we would seriously have felt like a couple of posers hanging out there. Istanbul Grill is great because it’s simple. It’s not a restaurant trying to be a hip nightclub.

Lunch here this past weekend was a fluke, but I can’t tell you how glad I am it happened! I’m a fan of Turkish/​Mediterranean food and had never heard of this fab little restaurant before, but it’s now definitely a place I won’t forget.
The vibe is warm and cozy and the food is delicious! My bf and I were both starving after a morning of running around, but I swear my love of the food wasn’t because my stomach was screaming at me to feed it! We both ordered a lunch sandwich, which was awesome (I esp. the yogurt sauce the comes with it) and we ordered that with a soup — chicken and mushroom for me, red lentil for him — and they were AMAZING! I could have eaten an entire pot of the chicken soup — and I will tell you that it’s not just your average run of the mill chicken soup. It has such a great flavor and it’s got a slight creaminess to it — I’m telling you you have to try it!
For the sandwich, we both ordered the lamb adana sandwich. The flavor is awesome, the pita is perfectly soft — my mouth and my stomach couldn’t have been happier.
For dessert, it was drinks. Turkish beer for my beau and an adja for me — vodka, champagne and lavender syrup all shaken and served up. Again, I was more than pleased with what I had ordered.
The service is great (we didn’t wait long for anything and our server was super friendly and helpful), and the energy is inviting. If you like Turkish and Mediterranean food, then you absolutely have to dine here!

My husband and I both really enjoyed our experience here! The waitress was pleasant and had a few nice suggestions for us. We decided to go with the appitizer sampler platter for 2. in short. AMAZING! perfect for any vegetarian (which we are not but do enjoy) It came with humus, baba, grape leaves, yogurt sauce, a roasted egglant that was not baba which ended up being our favorite and tabouli.
I had the lamb kebab’s which were tender, not chewy and flavorful. The rice was a nice portions. My only surprise was I thought by the descritions of the dinners that the «side of tomatoes, peppers & onion» would be more than a grilled slice of each other than the onion which was plentiful but I would would of rather had more tomato and peppers and less red onion.
My husband had Sigara Borek Med Salad. again nice portions, he said he enjoyed it very much. I tried the phyllo wrapped feta cheese roll which was lightly deep fried and it was very good. I haven’t had anything so delicately deep fried in awhile.
We each had 1 drink which were acceptable prices and a cup of Turkish coffee. We were a a tiny bit surprised at the coffee’s being 3.75 each but they tasted excellent other than a little gritty at the end. Over all excellent quality, service, taste and fun atmosphere. We can’t wait to go back!!!

At first looking at the website — I was not very excited to eat at this place. It looked to be your standard Middle East type establishment. However, when I actually got there — it became quickly apparent that Istanbul Grill is a cut above.
The place itself has a nice, warm, wooden interior. You come into a fairly open room with a bar, fireplace and a couple small tables in the back and on the side of the restaurant. The bar serves a variety of Turkish wines and the bar had Christmas Ale on tap.
Once the evening progressed, we found that the food was fantastic! We started with appetizers that were served with copious amounts of warm, grilled pita bread. The ezme and the soslu patican were both delicious (but, if I had to go with one, I would choose the ezme).
For the main course, there was a special for braised rack of lamb, where the meat was deliciously tender and fell off the bone. The real winner of the evening, though was the chicken adana. The yogurt sauce that they use with their meat was fantastic! The portion was extremely large as well.
The turkish coffee and the kadayif were on our minds for dessert and also did not disappoint. The kadayif wasn’t your typical baklava-​style dessert. The sweetness wasn’t overwhelming and the pistachio flavoring was on point.

Went here after the ale fest. I really needed food and was getting that nasty feeling of drinking too much thick beer on a very warm day. Not even really buzzed just rot gut and very hungry! I may actually be aging.
Went here with some very good friends. Man, I love Tremont!
We ordered a bunch of apps and I got a lamb burger.
The feta cheese and olive app was amazing. The portion was ridiculous. It was very tasty and very mild. Not too much salt. It tasted like it was made in house! I would be fine with this as an entrée. Only way it could be improved apon would be to pour some high end olive oil on it! Perfect for my mostly low carb diet!- 3 years down from 210 to about the upper 150’s. :)
The humus was pretty tasty as well. The «pita bread» that came with it was amazing. I do need to preface that with the fact is more like Naan then pita. It was served hot like it came off a grill or tandoori oven. It was heavenly… Now I am not a fatty but the portion of humus could have been a bit bigger, I rather pay a bit more and be able to share more!
The next app was the Haydari or yogurt type of dip. It was pretty tasty but does not do much for me. I enjoy it more as a condiment. That is the beauty of food, it is all subjective.
Lastly and a bit sadly, was the lamb burger. I know, don’t go to a FCUK’n ethnic restaurant and order a burger. I was craving it, sorry. And it was really really average. It was maybe 4oz on a generic bun. It is served with some yogurt type of sauce which was tasty. Lets just say it was absolutely anticlimactic compared to what preceded. The fries were served hot and crispy as I had specified! Do not get the lamb burger unless you are a stupid gringo like me!
This is really a great place and I will have to go back. The prices are very reasonable. Most app 5 – 7 buck, Entrees under 20, and even had good draft beers for like OMG 3.5 a pint.
Great food, great service, great ambiance, great value. That is my summation for this review.

I came here for lunch early on a Saturday so I can’t say anything about the service since I was the only patron. The space looks cool and comfy that would be perfect for a date or a dinner to catch up with old friends.
I had the Iskender Kebap which was amazing. I couldn’t have asked for a better dish. The tasty flavorful sauce made creamy and tangy with the yogurt was awesome. Plenty of pita made sure that I could scoop it all up. The portion was huge, I could only eat half of it, and the price was very reasonable.
I can’t wait to come back.

This place is amazing. Located in a nice area, the ambience is cool and trendy. We had ordered the dinner for two… and man was I in a for treat. The appetizers were great, it had a little bit of everything from hummus, to tabouli, to dolmah, to baba ganush, and more amazing items, all with fresh hot bread (heated on the grill). For dinner we got a combo plate, came with doner, adana, lamb shish, and chicken shish. Adana was out of this world and you know it has been grilled fresh on charcoal, the lamb shish was melt in your mouth, doner was standard (it’s gyro meat, its either good or bad lol). I will say I was not a fan of the chicken shish. It was juicy, cooked perfect… but i guess it needed more flavor/​seasoning. Dessert was also absolutely amazing.
Service was on point, wait staff is very friendly, and good price point.
I would say this place is one of the top middle eastern restaurants in cleveland. It doesn’t get any better here.

Want to say one more thing. I ordered something to go today, and came back to pick it up, and the waitress saw me out front and brought it out to my car. That is SOOOO APPRECIATED when you have a baby that you don’t feel like lugging in and out of the car. I know it sounds silly, but that one little act of kindness was amazing for me and made the experience great. She didn’t have to do that but she did and I was very happy as a result.

VERY good food and a pleasant atmosphere. Only been for lunch, but it’s a nice business crowd that my hungover self is usually accompanying.
Got their chicken and mushroom soup which is fresh and fantastic. Also had the hummus once as an appetizer and the warm pita was great for dipping in the soup.
There’s a lamb burger that my friend got was so full of flavor; I’ve never had a a burger like this. He even got another one to go it was so good. I got the Doner Kebop which has never let me down, however sometimes I should be more adventurous.
Parking is never an issue as there’s not too much around here on Professor. Me likey.

I know it’s early March, but dinner at the Istanbul Grill might have been my best meal of 2011, what all other meals will need to live up to from this point forward. The food was so tasty, and the atmosphere was great: warm, comfortable and even a little hip — it made the meal feel special, and was the perfect place to spend a dreary March evening.
We had the Soslu Patlican, an eggplant and red pepper spread with grilled pita, and then the Shish Kebab and the Iskender Kebab with yogurt sauce — my lamb was cooked beautifully, the larger pieces still slightly pink in the middle, and the Iskender was Turkish comfort food: spicy, creamy, buttery — delicious. Service was friendly and well-​coordinated; our plates were well-​timed.
If I lived closer, I would hang out at Istanbul (lots of people had the same idea; the bar was full by the time we left), and I would definitely bring people here for something special and to impress them with Cleveland dining options — no fuss, just relax and dig in to great food.

I came here with a big group on New Year’s Eve for an early dinner — there were seven of us, and we made a reservation for this little room that’s slightly separated from the rest of the dining area. It was nice to have a bit of a private space where we could all talk and share big plates of fooooood.
We ordered a few drinks — the server let me have a taste of the raspberry ale before I ordered it, and I’m glad she did since it was surprisingly watery and not what I’d hoped for. I got a cosmopolitan instead which was well-​made. My boyfriend’s mom got the «Bade» — a drink with vodka, Grand Marnier, and lime, and wasn’t too impressed.
That was really the only low point. We moved on to the appetizer platter — we went with the large size, which the menu says serves 4, but we stretched it. I can’t even remember the names of everything on it — there were dolmades, hummus, baba ganoush, tabbouli, cacick (yogurt/​dill dip), soslu patican (eggplants cooked in tomato sauce with spices), and I think one more thing as well — maybe the ezme salad dip? Most everything was very good, and became even better when eaten with hot pita. I loved the hummus, which had a stronger-​than-​usual tahini flavor, and people also raved about the baba ganoush which was unlike any I’ve had before. It was smoky — like the eggplant had been thoroughly roasted first. I’m not a big baba fan, but this might be the best version of it that I’ve had. I liked the hummus so much that I ordered more of it — even after I felt full from the entrees, I couldn’t resist another bite of pita dipped in hummus. Addictive.
For entrees, we got the Iskender kebab (lamb with yogurt/​tomato garlic sauce), then two different combo entrees. Can’t remember what they were — let’s say chicken shish kebab, chicken adana kebab, and then a lamb combo of doner kebab and lamb shish kebab. Okay, just kidding, I can remember what they were. Everything was great — the best part was how juicy they were! I can’t believe how many times I’ve had dry kebabs at Middle Eastern restaurants, but these were really moist. It was wild — we all noticed it and were really impressed. I liked the chicken shish kebab and the Iskender kebab among my favorites.
Too full for dessert!
This is a great place to go to share food with friends — you’ll want to try everything.

I’m baaaaaack. After a long hiatus from Unilocal I’ve decided to get back at it. So what does this mean? It obviously means that my experience at Istanbul Grill was one that I wanted to share with everyone.
You may then ask, if you wanted to share the experience so bad, why did you give it only four stars? Here’s why. This was my first time to the Istanbul Grill and the approach I’m going to take is that a place has to absolutely blow me away for me to give it a 5 star rating the first time I dine there. Due to some combination of food, atmosphere, creativity, selection. Otherwise think 4 = 5 until I get a chance to go back. And you thought Al Gore did fuzzy math…
Anyway Istanbul Café a cozy little neighborhood place in Tremont on the south end of Professor Ave. The place has a great neighborhood feel to it, nothing too fancy but still inviting. I sat at the bar since I was by myself and there was a football game on TV.
For dinner I had the Mixed Grill Kebab ($ 19). While the $ 19 price tag seems steep when the plate came out I thought I had ordered two meals. The Mixed Grill Kebab was a combination of four different meats. Chicken, Gyro Meat, Lamb, and Lamb and beef. All the meat was super tender and juicy. The mix of herbs and spices were a perfect balance to give the meat some added flavor but not overpowering to the point that you can’t appreciate the great taste of all the meat involved. The rice pilaf was good as well although nothing special. After all, rice is still rice and they aren’t trying to make it the focus of the dish. I easily could have eaten half and taken half home. In fact I should have. But either way I left a very happy customer who is looking forward to going back.
Bottom Line: I’d highly recommend checking out Istanbul Grill if you like Mediterranean food. After another trip or two it could quite possibly overtake my current favorite, Aladdin’s.

A friend told my best friend that he had the best Mediterranean/​Turkish food at Istanbul Grill. After he raved about it to her, all she kept saying was «I want to go there!!», so off we went, this past weekend.
Istanbul Grill is tucked away on the west side of Cleveland. I must say– I really like how the restaurants are tucked away on the west side. you almost feel like you’re in a neighborhood, and bam, here are all these unique to Cleveland restaurants along side streets.
We were seated right away. I got my turkish coffee– not spiced to my liking, but still, pretty good.
For appetizers, we started off with Sigara Borek and some baba ganush. The sigara borek was pretty good– flaky rolls of goat cheese filled in them. The baba ganush was pretty flavorful as well.
We split two entrees– the iskender kebap and the stuffed eggplant. The iskender kebap was really good– I was a little unsure about it at first (really? pita on the bottom?) but the overall flavors and just the entire dish was really, quite flavorful. The stuffed eggplant dish was okay– although the meat was plentiful and the tomato sauce was good, I. kind of wanted more eggplant. But then again, I just really like eggplant.
Overall, pretty good. The meal ended great as well, as there were tvs along the bar, showing the umich vs. illinois game. Umich went into triple overtime… and won. Score. A great lunch and a game that put umich into a bowl game? Priceless.

You really can’t go wrong here. Friend just catered a party from them. The food was great. Try the iskandari kabob with rice mmmmm…
Been here a few times since this review. It’s a solid place. I probably shouldn’t come here that often since it’s more of a special occasion place (price).