Istanbul Restaurant — Restaurant in San Juan

During my third visit to the Istanbul Restaurant, I eagerly anticipated enjoying their falafel and quinoa salad once again.

Regrettably, the falafel's quality has diminished. Previously, they were perfect spheres, but now they've transformed into overfried, oval-shaped discs. This drastic alteration in texture made them resemble fried chicken more than the traditional falafel I had enjoyed before.

The quinoa salad, too, has seen a transformation over the years. What used to be served in a bowl-like shape has now been reduced to a basic salad. It contained minimal quinoa, coupled with a few pieces of cucumber, tomato, and a light drizzle of olive oil. This was a far cry from the unique preparation I remembered.

Furthermore, the service did not meet expectations and lacked attentiveness, adding to the overall disappointment.

My initial admiration for this establishment was built on its exceptional falafel and distinctive quinoa salad. In the past, I considered their falafel to be a benchmark, often comparing others to it. Unfortunately, this experience has altered my perception.

I had attempted to revisit a year ago, but an untimely opening of the restaurant conflicted with my travel schedule, preventing me from dining.

This recent experience at Istanbul Restaurant was disheartening, especially considering my previous high regard for their...

The one star is for the hired help: the food is supposedly very good.... Maybe the guy was having a bad day.. Who knows!

If you like being verbally abused by the hired help this is the place. My wife and I stopped in to look at the menu and didn't see anything that interested us and started leaving. A rather rude waiter in a very loud voice told us Burger King was just down the street. Guess he thought that by trying to shame us in front of the people already seated, suggesting we go to Burger King as that may be what we could afford or that's the level of dining we enjoy, we might change our minds; no it just made me post this review of what you could expect in the restaurant if you decide to leave without eating there, ie, complementary abuse. Food appears to be great as evidenced by other reviews, but the hired help needs a lesson in manners and to accept the fact that people have the right to decide what, where and when they want to eat. I'm sure Burger King would think twice about having that rude waiter / server working for them; pissing off potential patrons by telling them to...

To be honest, we were going to go to Raices which was next door, but the wait was over an hour, so we opted to go to this place. My wife and I were a bit concerned as the restaurant was not too full, but was a far better option than waiting over an hour elsewhere. My wife ordered pollo guisado and loved it. The presentation was beautiful and the food tasted great. Being a vegetarian, she ordered me the vegetable casserole, but I didn't really like it. I didn't see the menu as I was parking at the time, but if I had to guess, the casserole was made with wine and that's maybe too fancy for me as the flavor combination didn't work for me. I did pick and eat just the vegetables, but left the stock. The rice that came with the casserole however, was delicious and mixed with the beans my wife ordered tasted great. The service was excellent and the prices were just right. My mother-in-law had the pollo al horno and loved it too, so it was a win for us, great food and very little wait to be served. We would have still been waiting had we gone to Raices. Highly recommend...