Istanbul Bay Turkish Cafe

TURKEY 🇹🇷

[UPDATE: With the opening in 2016 of their sister restaurant in Bay Ridge, Istanbul Fast Food has rebranded to Istanbul Bay]

If you have ever walked the streets of Istanbul, you recall the luring glow of many restaurant windows displaying spits of chicken and lamb to the outside. The promise of doner kebabs is a very welcome site, because you know it will always satisfy.

Here on the Gravesend-Bensonhurst border, a large Turkish restaurant is trying to bring that feeling to Brooklyn. On a busy corner underneath a D train station, a big menu full of Turkish fast food favorites can be enjoyed outside or in. A nice display illuminates all the fresh vegetable dishes on offer to customers, and all the cooking and preparation take place right in front of your eyes. Step up to the register and place your order, the wait won't be long.

The doner sandwich ($5.75, below) is a heaping portion in a modest pita, served with sides of white and hot sauce. The lamb is perfectly thin but lacks the punch you come to expect of the meat. The white sauce helps, as does the fresh tomato, but I will probably stick to other menu items during future visits.

A far better sandwich is the chicken gyro ($5.75, below). The chicken slices are very juicy and tender and come nicely crisp in parts. The marinade just works a lot better on this meat here as well, as you get to experience much more flavor than with the lamb.

If you have room for dessert, the restaurant makes a very nice rice pudding ($4, below). The dish is more pudding than rice, is not overly sweet, but hits all the right notes you want from your finishing course. Don't mind being a little impetuous and ordering this to share even when completely stuffed. It is large, but not extremely heavy.

🇹🇷 🇹🇷 🇹🇷
GRAVESEND Brooklyn
2202 86th Street

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