Turkuaz Halal Turkish Mediterranean — Restaurant in New York

Response to restaurant: I may have worded it differently but it still says tips must be paid in cash if you do wish to leave one. Of course a tip is optional unless an establishment adds it into the bill total. Which makes sure the servers get a tip regardless of the person's experience. You usually can leave a tip on a card or cash though. It's not fair to the servers if someone wants to leave them a tip and does not have the cash to do so.

Had a lunch date with my pal and her boyfriend here this past Saturday. She made reservations some weeks ago. It was 3 of us. I rarely consume red meat so the feedback about the beef and lamb is what she told me. We arrived around 3pm and were the only ones there. It is extremely dim inside, even the restroom could use light. We planned to just have appetizers and check another place out. We ordered cheese pastries, spinach pastries, kibbeh and lahmajoun to start out. I had the cheese pastry and it was tasty. It had feta cheese inside. They are really small in size and they only put 4. I did not try the spinach pastry but my friend said it was okay and she liked the cheese better. I tried some of the kibbeh. It was two pieces for the price they could have added more. It was tasty with ground beef and walnuts inside. My friend liked the lahmajoun which is Turkish pizza with ground lamb. My friend and I had Turkish tea. We both added brown sugar to it but she did not like hers so much and I finished all of mine. We decided to order a meal. We ordered the Sultan plate which consisted of chicken kebab, lamb kebab, salad, rice, fries, roasted tomato based on the online menu. It also had a round piece of lamb. The waitress recommended we order for 2 even though it was 3 of us because of the portion sizes. She was right, it was more than enough. The menu from last year shows it for $98.50 but it was $109.50 so it went up $11.. I saw the waitress that was serving us leave and another one helped us. I do hope she got the tip. The new waitress poured tap water and was informed we had sparkling water. She went to change my glass and give me sparkling but did not fill up the other two glasses. The check said tips is optional and should be paid in cash. I have not seen that before. I guess it makes it easier for the servers to get cash right after the shift. Overall the food was okay. For the price, it could have been more added and tastier. I'm sure there are other more reasonably priced Turkish...

I very rarely leave reviews, however I felt I should after our experience here. On a NYC trip with my boyfriend and he and I were looking for a good halal restaurant when we came across this one, with good reviews. Walking in the place had a great vibe. Then the food came! We hadn't eaten all day and had high hopes for the food. We started with two appetizers, they both came out cold! The lamb appetizer tasted like tuna! I hadn't had lamb before so I didn't think much about it, but my boyfriend said something is not right with this meat. We decided to stay and see if they could change our minds with the entrées. They did not! Their "green salad" is like a bag of dole salad mix thrown on the plate with a lemon wedge served on the side. And I got the fish, which itself wasn't bad, but it came with "potato" literally a plain uncut baked potato with zero salt or butter. I looked around and everyone else was served bread. Finally once the server came back I asked if we could get some bread and drinks. He brought us bread, but never did take our drink order. The bread was also not impressive. My boyfriend got the lamb shish kabob and said he'd had better out of a freezer section. Very disappointing 😞 and very pricey. I could have easily made a more authentic meal at home. There was zero effort and zero spice all the way around. Sadly I do not recommend, save your money and go...

We called the restaurant 10 minutes before we arrived at the restaurant asked for wait time for 3 people and they said there is no wait for 3 people., it was around 9 40 pm and they said they are closing their kitchen at 10:45 , we told them we’ll be there in 5-10 minutes. When we arrived the restaurant before 10 pm , they said oh we are closed , seriously! We said we called only 10 minutes ago and you guys said of course there is no waiting time for three people you can come and they said to us our chef decided to leave which is ridiculous. We asked the guy whoever I spoke on the phone he didn’t want to tell me that it was him at first but he said he was the one told me to come but chef decided to leave!!!!We walked with 2 year old in pouring rain 2 blocks and we were soaking wet when we got to our car. I told them I would not drive to that restaurant from other side of the city if they didn’t tell me to come!!!!! I will never ever go to the this rude restaurant!! If you want to go there I think you should Check the chef’s decision 20 times!!

Response to the restaurant owner; !!!!!

That’s what we were told by your employee that the chef decided to leave!!!! Your operational hours of course your own decision but we called and asked, didn’t look at your website!!!! I would not know what time you close your kitchen, the gentleman told us that you’re closing the kitchen around...