Perth Food Review

I have to say, I have been a huge supporter of Istanbul restaurant and have bought many regulars to their tables over the last 2 years. However, we dined there last night the 29th Feb 2008 (around 6) – there were no other patrons in there besides us and eventually a take away person so there should be no reason as to why we encountered the meal we did.

FOOD
Mine was no less than awful. The meal came out a bit fast for “fresh food” normally I have to wait a bit which I don’t at all mine because I love the food. I ordered the combination vegetables. Normally you get a small selection of salads/dips plus a Turkish omelette, a falafel and a mixed vegetable ‘grill’. I was mortified at the low quality the food had taken on – there was absolutely no way that the food was anywhere near fresh and it had very obviously been reheated not just once I suspect but a couple of times. The omelette was at the point where the bottom half and the top ‘crust’ was soaked with oil (obviously to hide the dryness of reheating) and reheated to the point where the bulk of it was chewy and dark brown and tasted like the scraps off of the bottom of the griller. The falafel was more surprising in a way because it too was obviously pre-fried and then refried to reheat – why??? Falafels take only a minute in the deep fryer from a fresh mix and there was NO ONE else in the place!! The cracked wheat ‘salad’ was salted beyond eating – my partner also agreed, and the potato ‘dip’ was on its date or just over –it should have been thrown out.

The missed vegetable was swimming in oil to the point where it was all you could taste – my partners steak while cooked nicely, was a lower quality cut than usual and was also covered in oil – these things were never an issue not even 3 months ago – what happened???

The serving size of the omelette was a third of what it used to be – thank god – it was nothing short of abysmal and I could not have eaten any more of it. I am devastated – I loved Istanbul and it used to be my favourite. Now, normally restaurants have bad days and I tend to give them another chance but once a ‘cook’ (chef is a generous word) starts reheating the MAIN part of that meal – that has nothing to do with bad days but more to do with laziness. I feel cheated out of my money – the meals with 2 drinks cost us $54 and normally I would say that’s a good deal but in no way should we have been given over reheated food dirty diner bar grill style.

SERVICE
The service has dropped – there used to be a Turkish woman in there who served us and was always polite even knew our favourite meals and greeted everyone when they walked in – the guy who I think runs the place and a young girl were in there plus a woman who was on the grill – the old woman who used to cook is not there anymore we think and that’s why the food basically tasted horrible. When we walked in the owner and the girl just stared at us, looked at each other a few times obviously deciding who could be bothered serving us; that attitude has obviously filtered into the food prep – they simply don’t care about their customers any more. There is NO reason to reheat the main part !!the supposed selling point!! - of a meal unless they are lazy. There is no reason to not greet people who walk in unless you don’t care.


The dining experience has changed dramatically and for the worse - its like a different place entirely.

I will not be going back and I have told the people I introduced to the place about the experience – I doubt if they will be going back either.

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