Talullas — Restaurant in Chapel Hill

We went there for a New Years Eve celebration, thinking to enjoy the evening and entertainment. We invited six others to celebrate with us, and made reservations accordingly...

Three members of our party were about an hour late due to a minor family issue, so as a group, we decided to wait until the three family members arrived to order our meals...

After about 45 minutes of waiting, we were beginning to be treated very poorly by our server Jauna.

She complained that she needed the table for the next reservation... At first we decided to ignore Jauna's very poor behavior, and ordered a few more drinks.

Our last three party members arrived and we began to order food. The food was of Turkish origin, and nicely prepared, no complaints there.

Finally, it was time to get the check for ourselves.

We were collectively stunned when we got a single check for about $850.00!!!

I took it upon myself to go back to Jauna, and ask for separate checks, And she impudently informed me that with large parties of eight or more, they simply write a single bill. I politely and civilly requested separate bills, again.

Jauna did write up the separate bills as requested, and she did a good job of it... But as we decided to go over the bill, we realized that we were being charged for every refill of soft drinks, excluding water.

After all this, we were all stunned again when we realized that we were getting socked with a charge per person with a charge of a flat $50.00 per meal, then slammed again with a gratuity charge of TWENTY percent... It gets worse, folks... The final calculation included sales tax on top of the gratuity charges.

Our final bill from this evening at Talulla's was $151 dollars and change...

Once again Jauna behaved poorly and made the mistake of confronting my wife about the bill and the atmosphere of our treatment during our recent evening. Needless to say they argued with each other about everything... Then Jauna made a consolation offer a bottle of wine for the table... As badly as things had gone that evening? I took that as an insult personally. A $10 bottle of wine can't make up for implying that food should be choked down quickly so that there will be room for the next party of eight.

Nor can that ten dollar bottle of wine make up for being overcharged by 75 dollars for a holiday event meal.

Nor can that cheap bottle of wine make up for charging the party of three $270 because they ordered for 3 people. And they asked for a for a bottle of wine to enjoy with their meal.

We realize that during major events like New Year's Eve, places like Talulla's are going to be very busy...

This was the second time we have been to Talulla's, but it also is going to be the last time. I have attempted to make absolutely no exaggerations in my review.

But you will have to decide for yourself if you would allow yourself to be...

Dear Friends, I am a 60+ male, Turkish-American, born into Turkish culinary creme de la creme! In other words my late mother was not only an incredible student (top of her class at Istanbul University, captain of the debate team), entrepreneur (owned a bridal shop in Ohio), religious (if there is a heaven and she's not in it, we are all in trouble) but yes, the top culinary artist of all the Turkish mothers in central Ohio during my childhood. When mom hosted a feast, no one missed it. I used to help her make hakiki (authentic/made from scratch) manti once every so often on a Sunday, very time consuming. Yes I miss my wonderful Turkish parents and didn't realize at the time I was growing up, eating like a Sultan in the Ottoman empire!

I know how to judge good and great, authentic Turkish cuisine. For all my friends in the Raleigh-Durham, Chapel Hill area let me be direct. What my dear friend Canan has created in Chapel Hill for over two decades is not only the best Turkish cuisine in North Carolina, but Talullah's is unquestionably world-class, one of the best Turkish restaurants in the U.S.! Full stop. If you are not Turkish, there would be no way to authentically judge this, but I am. I'm telling you, you cannot possibly appreciate the gem you have sitting right under your nose in Chapel Hill. Talullah's is right there among the country's elite Turkish hautes, alongside El Turco in Miami, Sofra in D.C. and Leyla and ABA Turkish restaurants in New York. A few weeks ago, I was traveling through the area and I ordered the manti, my favorite Turkish dish. Again, very time consumptive to create. It was almost right there with my mothers, and the best restaurant manti I've experienced since my last visit to Istanbul. Authentic, from scratch.

My favorite no brainers to order ... coban salata (shepherds salad), mercimek corba (lentil soup), manti and then go with your favorite protein. The baklava is of the traditional Turkish variety (pistachio), made from scratch. Yes, all the real deal. Headed back to the area on business so you might see me dining there for dinner on the 17th, 18th or both.

Canancigim, eline saglik, helal olsun! ('my dear Canan, health to your hands, well done and may it be'). In Turkey it is customary to say 'eline saglik' to express appreciation for someone's work, especially when they have used their hands to create something beautiful or delicious. Helal olsun is a Turkish phrase expressing approval and respect, adding olsun at the end meaning 'may it be' (future continued success).

Folks, afiyet olsun! (Turkish version of bon appetite, literally meaning enjoy your...

In 2016, I had a great experience when I visited with my wife. The owner served us fresh bread and hummus that completely took us by surprise. Overall, the food and the hospitality was excellent, and even though I didn't live in NC then, I longed to come back and eat here again. Fast forward to 2018, when we finally moved here, I came back and brought some more friends this time to introduce them to this great restaurant. Only this time, I was served by a male waiter who was so terrible, it ruined the whole experience. First, we told him that we were vegetarians and that we need all food to be completely free of meat. I know that I wouldn't have many options, but I was only clarifying so that they don't mistakenly serve us any meat. His response to us, "This is not a restaurant for you all, as you will not find anything to eat here." (!!!!) I was shocked -- he basically just told us to leave, and we should have, because what followed was even worse treatment. We ordered the veggie pizza, hummus, and an eggplant dish that I can't remember the name of. We asked for the hummus to come early as an appetizer, as we were starving. The waiter brought the hummus, but no bread! We were sitting there for at least 10 minutes before he came back to us. And we had to repeatedly as him for bread throughout the meal, as if he didn't even bother to pay attention to our table. We were finally done and just fed up with the restaurant, and we didn't even get a check for 10 minutes after we asked for it. With this horrible treatment, we decided that there was no need to tip this waiter, but we still gave him somewhere around 10%. The nerve of this waiter -- he followed us outside the restaurant and asked if everything had been okay because "traditionally, people tip about 20%", he said. I lost my mind! I don't know why I just didn't go talk to the owner then, but I would have had the whole restaurant up and out of there as I was fuming. I will never recommend this place to anyone again, and I hope this place...