Istanbul Grill & Bar — Restaurant in Fort Worth

I heard about Istanbul from a coworker this morning and decided to take my girlfriend here for dinner. This place lived up to every bit of hype he spouted.

The location is really nice, sitting in Sundance Square, with lots of parking all around and other things to do nearby as well. The restaurant is very nicely setup, with table clusters of all sizes available and very tasteful decoration. I'm not very good at describing that decor and such, but I liked it enough that I felt it merited an effort to describe, so, yeah, it looks good and felt welcoming.

The menu was 1 page of food and a wine list. I heavily appreciated not having to sort through multiple pages of options to see what they have. Important note on that, a slim menu makes it easier for the kitchen to get each item right, instead of having to remember how to do 76 of almost the same thing, only with slight variations. That being said, they did get everything right, including edits made for my beloved food allergy of a girlfriend.

The food was amazing. Seeing as the gf has a number of food allergies, seeing what we can find for her when we go somewhere new is always a challenge and an adventure. Luckily, we had a very skillful guide on this adventure in the form of our server, Darci. This lady had as many answers as you could expect her to carry around, and the "I'll find out" attitude for the few she didn't. She helped use navigate our way to a few items that were safe and she was spot on with her recommendations. Couldn't thank her enough for the effort she put in to get us taken care of.

We started with Esme, which is a kind of dip. I wish I could remember what all was in it, but it had a delicious tartness that neither of us could put our finger on. We asked the woman who was hosting what the source of the flavor was, and she had the answer ready to go. Lemon juice and pomegranate molasses. I regret not getting her name as well, but I hope she knows how appreciated she is. She also told us to same some of the Esme for topping our entrees with, which was almost upsettingly good on the lamb and ok on my chicken.

Speaking of which, for entrees, I ordered the chicken kebab and the gf got the Adana kebab, which is seasoned ground lamb. It was just all just so good. Sadly, gf wasn't able to try my chicken, as it is marinated in yogurt and she has a dairy allergy, but I tried her lamb, with and without the Esme, and it was delicious either way.

I don't normally ramble on this much about a place, but Istanbul Grill is definitely worth the praise I have given. We will definitely be back for more.

Gf remembered to take pictures, but I was hungry and forgot, so here is...

My partner and I looked around for a new lunch spot to visit that had good, relatively healthy food offerings at a good price. Istanbul grill has been on my list since it opened a couple years ago and I'm so glad we finally tried it!

I called about 10 am to see if I needed to make a reservation for two for lunch that day. The person said no worries, to just come right in. When we arrived about 11:50, they said we would need to wait five minutes for a table. We then said how we had called earlier, and then somehow a table was miraculously open for us to sit down immediately. That was odd, but I just went with it.

The ambience is very cool with the all seeing eye all over one wall and other art pieces around. There are also beautiful chandeliers with the style of Eurasia. Even the women's bathroom (one stall) was well decorated and kept very clean.

It took some time for a server to get to our table, but all of the tables were full, so I understood the short wait. The rest of the time, our waiter, Can, was very responsive.

For $12.95 (the lunch menu price has gone up) you get a choice of an appetizer and an entree. I chose the 10. falafel and 13. Salmon. My partner chose 6. Shepherd's salad and 11. Beef shish.

The falafel was served fresh and hot. It was delicious dipped in the greek yogurt. There are two pieces about the size of a small pancake. I would not recommend ordering the falafel entree option because it's the same amount of falafel plus rice and veggies. My salmon was delicious! It was incredibly flavorful and melted in my mouth. There were four large cubes of salmon on top of a bed of rice. The rice itself was just lukewarm, but still very good. I would have sent it back, but I was hungry. I tried my partner's beef shish and holy bananas was that good. I definitely recommend both of those dishes. One thing I really enjoyed was the pickled red cabbage. It was the perfect bite with my salmon and rice. If you haven't had something like that before, now is the time to try!

We didn't finish all of our food and when we compiled the food, it was enough for a whole meal. I was impressed with the service and I really enjoyed my food. Overall, I recommend Istanbul Grill for a good lunch near downtown that is reasonably priced. We were out the door with a bill just over...

Hubby and I enjoyed an impromptu date night in the city and tried a new-to-us restaurant, Istanbul Bar & Grill on Throckmorton St 😀

We LOVE Mediterranean food and I'm especially partial to Turkish food, but it took us 2 years to finally walk into this restaurant because our 1st year in Fort Worth we could never tell if the place was even open and operating and it wasn't until this year that we finally started seeing people eating inside. Being from Vancouver, where we have REALLY good Middle Eastern/Mediterranean restaurants, I've been skeptical about finding authentic global cuisine in downtown Fort Worth... but I'm so glad we finally shook off our reservations and came here!

Even though the vibe is very classy the staff were all very warm and inviting, witch made the experience cozy. Our waiter, Cenk, who is also the restaurant manager, was really attentive, friendly & professional through the entire experience. We were impressed!

Let's talk food! Of course I ordered tea, and to my delight I was served a cup of tasty black tea in a traditional little Turkish glass cup. LOVE that little authentic detail 🥰 The meal started with a complimentary basket of warm pita and mixed olives which were also very tasty! Again, that little detail of bringing WARM pita...SO GOOD!

David ordered the Lamb Shank over eggplant puree. The lamb was a little on the dry side, not melt-in-your-mouth, but the sauce was flavorful and the eggplant puree was really creamy and delicious 🤩

I ordered the Moussaka, and I'll say, I was surprised that it came with a red sauce, rather than a creamy & rich Bechamél sauce that I'm used to. Plus, instead of creamed/mash potato filling there we potato slices. Is this style of Moussaka unique to Turkey? Is the version I'm used to eating a Greek version? The dish was good, but I think it missed the mark based on my idea of a comforting, soft, rich & creamy version.

All said, we will definitely return to Istanbul Grill! Great experience, wonderful service and very tasty food at a reasonable...