Blow you away good!!

My wife and I made this the last meal of our three week trip to Kenya and Istanbul. I’m getting pretty good at sifting through the comments on Trip Advisor and we had a high level of expectation for this restaurant. 

We arrived a good 30 minutes late for the reservation after the usual poor directions from the locals, (we'd figured out how to use the trams, and many other types of unusual transportation devices by now and I'd it narrowed down to a 10 block area and figured I'd ask the way from there. Two things here.....about asking for directions in Istanbul…..be prepared to get very frustrated. Your choice of whom to ask are either tourists themselves, they don't know where they are either, or, the locals, who just don't seem care that you're lost and don't seem to know where they are as well.) Out of breath, hey it was a steep hill ok, even coming down it, and feeling terrible for being late we were welcomed very warmly and shown to probably the best table in the room. Why the best table in the room you say? Well.....

The room itself is simply stunning, tasteful, well lit, and with a view out over the Bosphorus lit up at night. The kitchen is a glass 'theatre'. Now the view of the Bosphorus at night starts to get a bit boring, if that's possible, after 5 nights. Now here comes the good bit. I don't know whether they know it or not, (they probably do,) if you refocus your eyes, the windows can also be used as a mirror. So now you don't have to turn around to watch what's going on in the kitchen!

Now it's a quiet Wednesday night, there's another couple at one table and a table with 3 very distinguished looking ladies at it on the other side of the room. The tables are also all far enough apart where there is no chance of hearing what another tables conversation is about. That's it. Not the night every restaurateur would wish for when they sign the lease, but hey, this is who showed up this evening. Using the mirror trick mentioned above you very quickly realize from the look on the faces of the brigade in the kitchen that these guys are really focused. The look says 'hey we're going to give it our best shot no matter how many people show up.'

The waiter is doing a bang up job here too, not intrusive, informative in just the right way and has the sense to know when the language barrier is getting him out of his depth and call for back up. Back up, by the way, introduces himself as the manager, shakes our hands, and keeps a very close eye on everything....all the time!!

A Cosmo for herself and a Kettle One and tonic arrive at a cracking speed while we get to grips with the menu. There's two choices here, both tasting menus, and while we know we want the full monty there's another menu as well for a few quid less. Now, here was the only point of the whole meals here I felt that they let themselves down. The waiter rattled off a bunch of dishes that were not available and told me what they had been replaced with. My though here is that when you are looking to create an experience in this class, and charging appropriately, and the menu is only one sheet of paper, it would be better to tell the guest what you do have, rather than what you don't. Net effect was total confusion in my mind as to what exactly we were going to get. Enough said.

Menu decided, you seem to get a choice of three mains by the way, all other courses are the same for all guests at the table we. On this occasion it was lamb, beef or rock bass. Herself went for the beef and, seeing as I had said before I left, that from reading some of the foodie comments on the net, Istanbul was going to be all about lamb and yogurt, and kebabs, I went with the lamb. I didn't get the yogurt by the way but the kebabs were smashing when in the mood, if monotonously ubiquitous.

A small bowl of 'prawn crackers' was presented, can we have 4 next time please, two each, I don't share well, and a bottle of white and a bottle of red were selected. Seems a lot I know, but, dinner's going to take a good three hours so pace yourself and you'll be fine. The manager helped me with the selection. I must say that every bottle of Turkish wine I tasted in 6 days was really good, if a little expensive, but when you say that they just shrug and tell you it's the tax. I mentioned this to the manger and he told me to stay away from most of the stuff that was produced more than 5 years ago and you can't really go too far wrong. (Note to self: read up on what happened to the Turkish wine industry 5 years ago that's got them up and running to this level.)

So we're up and running. First off: a plate of 4 very delicate amuse's. Potato glass, didn't really get that one but on a menu like this you're not going to 'get' everything, go with the flow ok, a small tart with some local goats’ cheese and micro herbs, a crispy vine leaf with beetroot and a crispy shell filled with an amazing duck liver mouse. The attention to taste is very well balanced and, I thought, well arranged in sequence.

Next: an asparagus plate, then, an homage to crab, another to calamari and a beautiful cheese salad with lots of leaves that tasted like they're picked from the bottom of someone's garden an hour or two ago. There was a celery sorbet with apples in there too somewhere. I think my favorite course came next: a quail & duck pie in puff pastry that blew me backwards.....stunning! Our heads are reeling by now. It just seemed to keep getting better and better. Beef and lamb mains arrived, perfectly cooked as ordered, and again, another epiphany of amazing flavors. We're hunkering down at this point.....three desserts to go and I'm thinking, 'I can do this!'

I'm into my second dessert, the famous millefeuille mentioned in other write ups, and The Chef appears, a 5 foot 6 inch walking smile. She's had a good night. Her name is Aylin and from speaking to her she is deeply passionate about what she does and we certainly let her know how much we appreciated her, and her brigades, efforts. I have eaten all over the world and have rarely come close to tasting this level of achievement in food preparation and presentation and I have nearly 40 years under my belt as a chef; the wife has a few years in cooking too. I cannot say this strongly enough: This is a serious dining experience for people who appreciate a serious, well executed, well presented, well-seasoned expression of someone's love for food......if you are not going to give this food your full focus and attention then there's probably not much point in going.....if you are, then you are in for one of life's great treats.

I am hoping that by writing this review I can in some way convey to people how good this experience is. If on the other hand you have no idea what I