Cafe Istanbul — Restaurant in Beverly Hills

I was really surprised to see a Turkish restaurant in Beverly Hills, so I took the opportunity to stop by. It is obvious I did not eat everything on the menu here but just looking at the food served and the menu layout indicated to me that this restaurant is less about serving authentic food and more about adjusting Turkish food for local taste. I am not writing this as a negative, restaurants do this when trying to reach out to get higher traffic and authentic customers not enough to cover the expenses. So if you are new to turkish food, you can try here, but if you are looking for authentic Turkish food you need to tame your expectations to not to disappoint yourself. Although the prices might look high, I think it was priced right on based on the location. Its Beverly Hills, after all. They have a good selection of Turkish food on the menu as well as some of the non Turkish classic food as burgers 🍔 and such for less adventurous eaters. I tried Beyti, which is Kabob rolled in a wrap and smothered with tomato sauce 🍅 . Meat was grilled good, and spices were a little mild side, which was fine. Sauce was a little too runny for my liking, and water was separating on the dish. It came with Yougurt, Rice, Grilled Onion, Tomato 🍅 and Pepper 🌶 which were grilled perfectly. Drank Ayran and I have a feeling it was made fresh, but this one was too a little too watery for my liking. Outside seating is limited, inside the tables laid out on each side of the walls and the kitchen is all the way back, so it is a lot of back and forth walk due to layout of the restaurant, also the color is a little too bright. Bench seat was comfortable. Service was great, I was on a business call, and the waitress did her best to attend and not bother me. She did really well. I was a tad disappointed and wanted to order either Kazandibi or Kadayif, but they only had 3 choices on the desert. If I am in the area, I will visit to try some of the other...

Don't, just don't. Especially if you are Turkish and looking for an authentic Turkish place for breakfast, stay away from this place. I don't understand why so many Turkish owned restaurants are penny pinchers. We ordered the Serpme kahvalti and we were waiting for our table to be garnished with classic Turkish Serpme kahvalti. You know, different kinds of cheese, olives, honey, cream, jam of different kinds, Salam, fries. But, instead, what we got was a small plate of 4 olives, 4 pieces of cheese, 1 small cup of honey, jam, 5 slices of cucumber and tomatos, for 18 dollars. Bravo. And we ordered the pastirma yumurta, what we got was a small pan of two eggs at most and 2-3 slices of pastirma. Bravo. We liked the gozleme but the serving size of that was also very small based on the price they ask for. If you are asking for this amount of money, then you must earn it with your food and service and ambience. The ambience was also terrible. We were expecting to here some traditional Turkish music, as this place is called Cafe Istanbul, you know. The door was also not completely closing and we felt the cold weather the entire time. We also had ordered Turkish tea in a traditional Turkish cup. You know those small Turkish tea cups. After we finished our tea, we asked for a refill, and they charged for the refill. I mean, these guys are just cheap,...

Yesterday we placed a takeout order from your restaurant: soups and a mixed grill kebab. Unfortunately, we were very disappointed. Unfortunately, we couldn’t finish the food — as shown in the photo, most of it ended up in the trash.

We were specifically looking for a place with Turkish cuisine, and while the dish names matched, the taste was far from authentic Turkish food. The portions were extremely small, especially considering the rather high prices. The meat had a strange, unpleasant taste — it seemed like it wasn’t fresh, and perhaps lemon juice was used to mask the smell.

The sauce was spoiled — when we opened the container, the lid almost popped off due to the pressure, and the smell was very unpleasant. The lentil soup (mercimek) didn’t come with lemon, and the grill didn’t include the usual small side salads that typically accompany such dishes.

We truly hope you take this feedback seriously and reconsider the quality of the food. We would like to continue supporting and recommending your restaurant, but after this experience, it’s...