Bridge Turkish and Mediterranean Grill — Restaurant in Highland Park

My family & I have eaten at Bridge numerous times, and always very much enjoyed the food & service. Tasty, generous portions, elegant but comfortable ambience, and very warm, attentive service. Please note, all the recent one-star reviews you see all from the last week are quite obviously related to the the restaurant's being kosher & someone noticing they had provided catering to a Jewish event at Rutgers University. So yes, all these reviewers (including "local guides" which is clearly a meaningless designation) had the exact same "awful, sickening" experience of food poisoning, horrific-smelling meat & ogre-like management… in the last 3 days—while miraculously, all the proudly Jewish patrons escaped harm. Oh, OK.

Everyone's free to like or dislike the food or experience at a given restaurant—but when the food, pricing & wallpaper in an eatery are portrayed in broad, unsubtle & mostly unspecific terms as irredeemably awful, with practically an admonishment not to eat there… it's a very safe bet someone is abusing the "consumer review" concept out of personal bigotry. These people stop at nothing… but we already know that.

Case in point: the reviewer M B, apparently a "local guide"—but one who either has no other reviews, or chooses to conceal them on his profile—actually edited his review to include a childishly spiteful reply to the owner, and more insults to anyone that might consider transgressing the boycott M B is obviously trying to put into effect. M B has ZERO credibility, claiming he missed 3 days of work, so severe & all-encompassing was the "food poisoning" he & his wife allegedly contracted from eating at Bridge. He also gave it the lowest possible score for service & ambience. So if we understand correctly, the food was horrible—but not so much as to prevent him also from carefully noting the quality of the service & the decor, like the true professional "local guide" that he is—AND it didn't stop him from eating enough of the dire food to be sick for half a week....

First time there in mid March. Still COVID impact, so place empty and very quiet except for one other table. Food was simply OK, nothing great. We had planned to order from the Menu we saw online, but the actual restaurant menu has lunch portions and reasonable prices.

The lentil soup is prepared in a different way with the lentils completely ground up. It was just fair in taste. We both got the Doner kebab, which is slices of lamb and beef. It was delivered way too fast as we had just gotten the soup. By the time we got to it two minutes later (after rushing our soup) it tasted fine at first, but quickly got cold and dry. The slices are nice portions and real meat, not ground up pressed meat. The meat was good, but disappointed that it got so cold. We both agreed that some au juis on the side would have helped considerably.

Now the one big complaint. The atmosphere was VERY, VERY disappointing. My impression is the owners are not Jewish, but a Mashgiach shows up who walks into the kitchen and proceeds to have a very loud extended conversation with the owners in the middle of the restaurant. Then different family members of the owner are getting personal plates of food, walking in and out of the seating area, all very unprofessional. But then came the piece de resistance. A family member of the owner and her 7-8 year old son walk in, apparently from school, go in the kitchen walk out with their lunch, sit three tables away from us and proceed to have a laptop face time or Zoom call with another adult woman, all on speaker. They acted like they were in their own living room. We could not hear ourselves talk and the Owner's family was doing essentially the same thing with their loud conversations at the front of the facility, so no one to complain to! It all ruined our business lunch.

I will try to return with my wife after Passover, and give the place another chance. However this is no way to run...

If you think this is Turkish food.... please do your research and see who's stealing other people's culture and labeling it as Turkish. If you're interested in eating over priced, low quality "Turkish food", congrats! You found the restaurant. Honestly this is the first time in my life I wish I had a 0 star button. I was dragged here by a coworker but in retrospect, you're better off starving then going here! I'm surprised by the ratings so beware: either these reviews are fake or delusional. Edit: Nope! It’s not the kosher part that’s the problem but the people who are trying to take someone’s culture and make it theirs. Please note that I am not racist and I was not aware that this restaurant catered for any organization's events. All I have stated above are my personal opinions that I am allowed to express due to the first amendment (taste being one of them). I also have tried REAL Turkish food (Namli in New Brunswick for example) and I wanted those who are trying it for the first time to be aware that this is far from real Turkish food. I wanted to bring to attention that I am not a fake review and I have attached an image of my receipt to prove it. The food genuinely was bad, tasteless, overpriced and the service was below par for a restaurant that just had 1 table occupied. Also if you have a moment please take note of all the 5 star, "amazing restaurant" reviews being generated in the last 24 hours and realize that the restaurant is asking community members to put in fake reviews on their behalf and flood the bad...