A La Turca Review

A La Turca served us distinctive Turkish food, mostly wrapped in some form of bread. Although all were decent, only two dishes (of six) excited us. For many of the dishes, many of us would eat a few bites and like but then get sick of the flavor and wouldn't really want to finish.

• Lahmacun. In effect a Turkish pizza: thin bread topped with what appeared to be tomato paste. Pretty sour. We didn't like it but didn't hate it either. It came with a slice of lemon; squeezing it above the pizza made it more sour and worse. Oddly, the pizza was served with a pile of undressed lettuce and red onions in the middle. Also oddly, the menu said the lahmacun was topped with "ground meat, green pepper, tomato, onion, parsley, and spices." We didn't notice most of those.

• Sigara boregi. A set of deep-fried, cigar-shaped pastry filled with feta. In effect, Turkish egg rolls (though smaller than normal egg rolls). Very cheesy. Pretty appealing. Came on a salad with tomato, peppers, onions, and red cabbage.

• Beyti kebap. Nicely spiced ground lamb wrapped in lavash bread. Looks like a strudel that's been sliced. Placed in a circle around yogurt. This was one of our favorite dishes; the meat was the star.

• Spinach and cheese pide. A boat-shaped, buttery flat bread topped with spinach and feta and dotted with sesame. The flavors blended well; this was our other favorite dish. Came with another salad.

• Doner (lamb) and mozzarella pide. Still hungry after our previous items, we asked the waitress to help us choose between two dishes we were thinking about ordering. She suggested this one. She was wrong. This was definitely the worst dish of the night. While it still had the same quality bread as the other pide, it included fairly tasteless diced lamb floating in a sea of mozzarella. Nor was the mozzarella anywhere near as good as the feta. Again, it came with a salad. These salads were fine.

For dessert, we tried kunefe, a sweet pastry of shredded dough and cheese, topped with ground pistachios, and smelling of cinnamon. Once again, one person was done with it after a couple of bites. The other two of us liked this dessert more. Due to the sweetness, perhaps it would've been better with tea?

We tried some drinks:

• Turkish coffee. Not particularly good. In fact, the grounds were "nasty" and the person who ordered it explicitly recommended others against ordering it.
• Efes Pilsen, a Turkish beer. A fairly typical pilsner. Although I liked it, the other person who tried it did not.
• We tried ordering Turkish tea but they were out.

Service was good. Our waitress, who also bussed our table, paid attention to us. In fact, the times when I looked for her, she noticed me quickly and came over to help. This was much easier than at almost all of the other restaurants to which we've gone, a surprise because they're mostly fancier. She also had a Turkish accent and helped us with our pronunciation.

The decor is very casual. A nice mural mural covers one wall.

The total was $19/person including tax and tip but not including drinks.

Original Announcement

In a cheaper outing than usual, this Wednesday at 8:00pm we'll head to A La Turca, a Turkish joint in the Tenderloin. You know you want to try a Turkish meat pie (pide)!

http://www.alaturcasf.com/

Please tell me if you are coming.

Comments from Other Attendees

Most dishes on the menu come recommended. Of the items we didn't order, alexander kebap (iskender kebap) gets perhaps more recommendations than the rest. -mark

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