Troy ATX — Restaurant in Austin

My dear companion and I found this place the old fashioned way: with our own four eyeballs. We were just getting gas next door when we spied the horse and sign. Where was Troy? we wondered. Did that place even really exist? The sign said “MEDITERRANEAN.” I thought maybe it was Greek. My dear companion for some reason kept saying it was Persian. That got me all kinds of excited, so we decided to come back round for dinner. Upon entry we discovered this joint is not in fact Persian but rather Turkish—equally enticing for me, for I hadn’t ever tried Turkish cuisine, either (apart from some little candies I got from a witch one time). We were welcomed into the place and seated right away, but the chairs were fairly uncomfortable and it would be a long time sitting before we even got to place an order. It was Saturday night, see, and the place was pretty busy, with only one lady working the floor. Eventually back-up arrived—the lady’s son, we inferred—but back-up guy didn’t seem to be very helpful, like he didn’t really work there and/or know what to do with himself. Alas, at long last, he did come by to take our order: the Mezze sampler and the Troy Mix Plate, with extra pita bread and two waters.

The Mezze sampler arrived first (even before the waters), and everything was appetizing and in order except for the pita supply. You get good amounts of six different delishes with this sampler (i.e. hummus, baba ganoush) but only a few tiny pita triangles with which to scoop them up. Thus began The Great Pita Crisis of 2019. We rationed our pita as best we could, but nonetheless only made it through half of the sampletizers before we were totally depleted. We had already called in pita reinforcements, but they were still en route from Sparta or some such place, so we just had to sit there waiting. We were not about to eat with “forks” like a couple barbarians. The extra pita finally arrived alongside the rest of our meal. We still didn’t feel like we had enough pita, but once again we made due with our limited rations as best we could.

The food itself was good, yet also left some things to be desired. The chicken skewer just had four tiny yet tasty cubes of chicken on it—no onion, no pepper? The Turkish kofte was basically just a delicious little baby hamburger patty—nothing like the Palestinian kofte I’ve come to know and love. The Greek salad was fine—apart from the fact that it was fetaless. My favorite tastes of Troy were the baba ganoush and the lamb chops. Mary's little lamb was so tender and juicy, I sucked both bones clean. I wanted to order some baklava and Turkish coffee to finish our meal, but only Allah knows how long we’d have had to wait for it, and we had pie and Arabic coffee at home anyway.

After everything we went through during The Great Pita Crisis, can you believe they tried to charge us for TWO orders of extra pita?! Talk about adding insult to injury. When we brought this error to the attention of guy, however, the house was nice enough to take BOTH orders off our bill. That was sure nice of them, but nicer still would have been an adequate supply of pita to begin with. I mean, it’s really a staple, the primary delivery vehicle for this kind of cuisine. Can you imagine Achilles & Co. getting into Troy without the Trojan horse? Nor could we imagine getting all that wonderful food into our guts without the requisite Trojan pita.

Overall, the food was quite good, both interesting and delectable. The service was pretty poor, but only because they were understaffed—everyone (except maybe back-up guy) was obviously working his or her tail off and doing his or her best to keep up with all the hungry hippopotami who happened in that night. I’d give Troy 3.5 stars if it were possible, but it’s not, so unfortunately it’s gotta round down to 3 for me, and really that’s just much ado about pita. Listen: the restaurant says you can BYOB; I’m telling...

During a recent trip to Austin with some friends, we were searching for an excellent Turkish food experience. We found Troy ATX, which turned out to be a great surprise. Our host, Han, was a humble, entertaining, and accommodating ambassador for our Turkish/Greek dining experience when we arrived. He graciously explained the menu items and offered great insights to help us choose. We ordered a couple of bottles of wine, but unfortunately, one wasn't available. Han suggested an alternative that was more expensive but honored the original price.

One of our group members realized he had been to this establishment ten years before when it first opened and inquired about a particular dish he had at that time. Han spoke with the cook and told us they would make an off-the-menu version of the dish. The food was phenomenal, with excellent taste and a fantastic presentation that included a hot skillet of butter poured over the meat for a perfect savory taste.

The recommended wine was a fantastic Greek red, Tetramythos Cabernet Sauvignon 2021. We had a second bottle and eventually asked Han where to purchase this wine. He informed us that it was imported and not readily available to the public, which disappointed us. Upon receiving our bill, we were surprised by a bottle that Han provided as gratitude for our patronage.

This grand gesture and his unbridled hospitality made this dining experience exceptional. Han even offered to drive us back to the hotel instead of us waiting for our Uber. Even though we graciously passed on his offer, seeing an owner show pride in his family business was nostalgic.

If you genuinely want a home-cooked meal experience, I highly recommend Troy ATX. I know I will be back every time...

After seeing so many great reviews online, I tried this restaurant, and I was more than disappointed. DO NOT GO HERE if you want decent service. Firstly, I would like to mention that the management recently changed, according to our server, so most of the positive reviews aren’t valid at this point. When my family and I initially walked in, we weren’t even greeted. Intact, our server ignored us and continued to scroll through his phone, a habit he maintained for the duration of our lunch. After we were seated, we were only given glasses of water, with no ice. When we asked for ice, it was given to us in a coffee mug. What were we supposed to use to take the ice out, our fingers?! We also had to ask for straws and napkins on our own as well as utensils. While I do understand that mistakes do occur, the quality of the food does not compare to the HIGH PRICES at all. For an area that has a dense student population, they sure are absurd with their high prices for minuscule servings. When questioned why certain items such as pita are missing, their only excuse is that the establishment is under new management, which is intact very lousy. The two female chefs from the kitchen were yelling and arguing the whole time, disrupting the environment. Overall, our experience was terrible and ruined our entire visit to Austin with empty stomachs. The server was extremely invested in his phone as well as only bringing the menu, water, ice, utensils, and straw when asked to. The meat isn’t seasoned at all, and is half burned as well as there being no flavor. If you’ve read this far, you get the point, don’t go...