I love hearing about restaurant openings because I like having new places to check out. And it's especially exciting when those new places are right in my neighborhood. While I've lived in Inman Square (in Cambridge, Mass., though we're technically in Somerville), I've gotten to see a number of new restaurants move in close by, like Benatti (which is now East by Northeast), Tupelo, Trina's Starlite Lounge, Lord Hobo, Bergamot... and now Bosphorus.
Bosphorus is a Turkish restaurant occupying the space next to Spice & Rice. I don't know very much about Turkish food, but when I checked out the menu and saw that it incorporated a lot of feta, eggplant, and tomatoes, I was in.
My first experience with Bosphorus was getting takeout. Jeff and I slipped and slid our way down the street to pick up our order in the middle of an icy rainstorm. In retrospect, I'm not even sure how I convinced him and myself to leave the house. Somehow, we arrived home safely, dinner in hand.
I ordered borek filled with feta -- I wasn't quite sure what it was but knew all the components sounded good (phyllo dough and feta) -- and a Mediterranean salad.
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| Borek - phyllo dough stuffed with feta cheese 8 |
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| Mediterranean salad 8 |
Jeff tried the chicken kebabs, which I forgot to take a picture of!
We were both happy with our choices. It's a little more expensive than typical takeout for us (like All-Star Sandwich Bar), so we decided we could eat there or get takeout there every once in a while rather than on a regular basis.
Back For Dinner
A couple weeks ago, we made a dinner date with our neighbors (who actually live in the apartment I lived in before I moved in with Jeff!) and decided to go to Bosphorus since it was convenient for us to get there and our neighbors had been wanting to check it out.
We made a 7 p.m. reservation and were seated promptly when we arrived. The restaurant is dimly lit with a reddish glow. The tables have wooden benches rather than chairs, and we all noticed that the tables and benches seem really spacious until you are actually sitting at them. It's close quarters but still comfortable. These huge cloth lampshades hang over the lights illuminating each table and add to the atmosphere.
While there is a wine list, we all just stuck with water on this particular evening. Our waitress soon brought over some pita wedges and a dish of what I can only describe as a spicy tomato salsa. It was really good.
Our neighbors split the spinach borek for an appetizer, which came out in little triangles, and Jeff and I split the beef borek, which came out as one big triangle. Neither looked anything like the feta borek I ordered for takeout. I guess borek can come in all shapes and sizes.
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| Borek - phyllo dough stuffed with ground beef 8 |
For our meals, Jeff and one of our neighbors got the chicken kebabs, our other neighbor ordered the oven-baked spaghetti, and I got the stuffed eggplant.
I loved my dinner. A large half of an eggplant was in the bottom of the dish covered by all that meat and sauce. The eggplant was supersoft and I could easily pull up pieces of it with my fork.
Even the sides of rice and sauteed vegetables were incredibly tasty. The rice was buttery and sticky and salty, but not overly so.
The vegetables were lightly seasoned and cooked just enough... I usually cook squash and zucchini until it's completely soft and brown, and this was sort of in between that and still being crisp.
Here's a shot of Jeff's chicken kebab. He definitely opts for the plain dishes while I go for more interesting ones. But he and my neighbor both said the chicken kebabs were really good... and they did get the same awesome sides as I did.
We were too full for dessert, but I know I will be back to try the baklava there at some point.
Have you had Turkish food before? Feel free to enlighten me with what you know about it!
There's still time to enter my DealPop giveaway!
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