Chicago (Turkish) - Turquoise Restaurant

Turquoise Restaurant
2147 W Roscoe St, Chicago, IL 60618; 773-549-3523
Date of Review: January, 2009; Updated April, 2010
http://www.turquoisedining.com/

Turquoise is a cute little Roscoe Village neighborhood restaurant that specializes in Turkish and Mediterranean cuisine. The atmosphere is warm and quaint with a small bar in the front, seating for 40-50 and dim lighting throughout that gives the restaurant a romantic feel. Turquoise may be a small restaurant, but it is a popular one as we saw many walk-ins as we waited for our guests to arrive. I suggest making a reservation on a Friday or Saturday.
The servers are friendly, efficient and thoughtful. On one visit when we were catching up with some friends that we hadn’t see in awhile, we weren’t pushed to order as the server read her guests and realized that we were catching up and just weren’t ready to get to the menu. The service was excellent and she did a good job of realizing (without even asking) that we wanted to space out our meal and order entrees when the appetizers arrived.
For appetizers, the Turkish spreads (mujver and sogurme) are excellent. The mujver features 3 zucchini pancakes with scallions, feta cheese, mint, fresh dill and a creamy yogurt garlic sauce. With all of these ingredients in one dish, we expected a tasty dish and got one. The sogurme featured smoked eggplant, creamy yogurt, garlic, brown butter, and walnuts toasted in crushed red pepper. The smokiness of the dish was notable and the dish was flavorful, although a bit heavy for my taste. I also highly recommend the diver sea scallops on the appetizer menu which include 3 gigantic scallops served on top of creamy guacamole with small scoops of tasty salsa. For $9.95, I challenge anyone to find better value for scallops of this quality in Chicago.

The menu has a nice variety of dishes from home made pastas to meaty kebabs to a variety of interesting seafood and vegetarian dishes. Everything I have seen come out of the kitchen looks excellent and I am particularly interested in trying the lamb shank and short rib on top of a bed of polenta which looked fantastic. For the dishes I have tried, the imam bayildi is a filling and tasty vegetarian option that includes pan roasted baby eggplant stuffed with red pepper, onion, tomatoes, garlic, pine nuts and is served with rice pilaf. The pide is a thin flat bread with your choice of ground beef, diced lamb or cheese and eggs. I chose the lamb and found the dish to be a cross between a Turkish version of pizza and stuffed naan bread. It was a tasty, filling entrée that would probably also do well as an appetizer for the table. They have many different versions of kebabs including the beyti kebab which features hand chopped lamb, garlic, shallots, and parsley wrapped in home-made flat bread. The best one I’ve tried to date is the onion kebap which includes an innovative array of flavors including hand chopped lamb, caramelized shallot, garlic, rosemary, raisins, cherry tomatoes, and bok choy braised in a tasty pomegranate sauce. Every element of the dish was excellent and the sauce was bread sopping good. Speaking of bread, the complimentary Turkish bread offered is fantastic. On our last visit, we tried the pricey (at $31.95) but well worth it seafood stew which featured a generous portion of fresh shrimp, calamari, scallops, mussels, salmon, tuna and a small lobster tail with vegetables and garlic. The seafood was solid although the tomato based sauce wasn’t as exciting as I had hoped.
The kazandibi is a solid dessert which is a cross between crème brulee and flan. At first I found the taste to be average, but after the 3rd bite I really started to enjoy the caramelized butter and sugar flavor in the dish.

On one visit, our total bill came to $200 for 2 appetizers, 4 entrees, 2 bottle of wine and 1 dessert. This included tax and tip. Most entrees on the menu range from $12.95 to $20 and they have an extensive and reasonably priced wine list. With solid food, a nice atmosphere and great value for the quality and quantity offered, Turquoise is a winner worth many visits.