Tamara Restaurant & Cafe Istanbul & Tahiri Gar Lokantasi Ankara Turkey

Lunch at Tamara Restaurant & Cafe in Istanbul which is located near at Sultanahmet Blue Mosque. There is nothing more disappointing on our first meal in Turkey. The atmosphere itself was still great but it seems to be not very clean.

Our menu was pre-arranged by the travel agency. This is what we got for lunch: For starter, a yummy crisp, colorful salad and appetizing as hot summer weather ones.

Another favorite is the lavash bread, it was a huge pillow of puffed up thin and crispy bread, fresh from the oven.

The red lentil soup it tasted as good as it should be.

For the entree is the grilled chicken kabob platter it smelled so good with healthy dose of saffron. We loved it! It was moist and really tasty, wonderful! and nice pilaf rice that was flavored. All in all, we enjoyed the meal. If you’re in the area I recommend you give it a try.

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Tamara Restaurant & Cafe
6 Kucuk Ayasofya Cd, Sultanahmet Istanbul, Turkey
Website:
http://www.tamararestaurant.com/

Tahiri Gar Lokantasi is located inside the railway station and has a good, old-fashioned and some would say historic!

The Tahiri Gar Lokantasi offers decent traditional Turkish cuisine. The decor and atmosphere of the restaurant is something retro such as 1940-60's classic venue. One side of the wooden walls is decorated with old pictures of the city and striking photos of Atatürk. The chandeliers added the sense of antiquity to this restaurant.

We were brought some slices of baguette, it was a bit dry and unnecessarily chewy, which made the dry baguettes tasted a whole lot better if you dip or dunk them in the soup.

We had a red lentil soup (again!) as an appetizer which was creamy and really good flavored.

Our main entree was adana kebab, a mildly spicy minced-meat kebab with rice, su böreği (water pastry or pie) some mixed veggies and mashed potato. The kebab it was a bit dry but very tasty and delicious indeed.

Finally this time we were serve with this tiny sliced baklava. Before we came in this restaurant, we even followed up the dessert with our Turkish local tour guide and skipped a plate of watermelon slices. Since we are in Turkey why not to enjoy and indulge the taste of Turkish cuisine. Overall, it was a fine experience, the food was good thou!

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Tahiri Gar Lokantasi
Doganbey Mh, 06050 Ankara, Turkey

Kadioğlu Şehzade Konağı & Safran Tat Safranbolu Turkey

Safranbolu is a UNESCO World Heritage City it is a small picturesque town full of old Ottoman houses and also famous with its lokums. The restaurant offers its own distinct style and beautifully decorated with brilliant details, which makes it a perfect spot is so romantic, peaceful and beautiful in the little garden with the fountain and such a perfect place for dinner. Since it was set by travel agency our expectation is not that high it's just the same meal for everyone. Before we arrived in Istanbul we really know what to expect. We always asked with our Taiwanese local tour guide if we had chance and there is any good restaurant near by the hotels we live every night and he has no idea, poor tour guide!

Anyway we had 4 course meal, which a bread, soup, salad, main course and dessert.

The salad was tossed in olive oil and lemon it was very simple, tangy, light and fresh salad.

The corbasi or lentil soup  came with lemon was a little to watery. The lemon adds zest to the soup, which is not actually needed, the soup would be fine without it.

Stir fried lamb together with a side of pilaf rice.  The lamb chopped were nice and tender, absolutely yummy it remind me again the pork sizzling sigsig in Philippines it taste quite a bit similar. The dessert is not baklava or anything one would fancy, but a plate of watermelon slices and grapes that the same dessert we just eaten at Tamara restaurant in Istanbul.

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Kadioğlu Şehzade Konağı
No:8 Safranbolu Merkez, Safranbolu Karabuk, Turkey

Having walked around for sometime we had all gained quite thirsty. There was just enough time to make a quick stop in a small tea house and view over Safranbolu .

We never had saffron tea before and I am very pleased to have come across this blend. The saffron tea is a bright gold brew served with honey is apparent smooth, bold, earthy and delicious flavored tea also very unusual.  I certainly encourage readers to try their saffron tea. If you are planning to visit Safranbolu

Safran Tat was  taken in the evening

After filling up on the ample breakfast, we walk down the hill from the hotel to the old town center. One sweet shop is the main tourist shop is actually called Safran Tat decorated with candy or Turkish Delight. The little store sell baklava and one of the best high quality saffron in all Turkey and of course lokum it was more delicious! The prices are way cheaper than Istanbul.

I ordered take out some assorted of baklava which was really awesome and delicious with the pistacios on top, all soaking up their syrupy goodness.

 Baklava rolls

Chocolate baklava

 Walnut baklava

Last but not least is the gullac top with pistachio nuts. Overall, it's a good place and I'm sure a lot of heart goes into what they're doing. Their baklava is one of the best we ever had in Turkey.

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Safran Tat
Safranbolu, KarabükTurkey

NÖÖÖDLES™ Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

Most of the time we fly with China Airline or Eva Air. This time we flew with Malaysian Airlines going to Istanbul therefore we had to go to KLIA-Kuala Lumpur International Airport for stopover. Our flight into Istanbul was delayed so we were stranded at the airport for 5 hours. We went to have our meal for midnight snack at NÖÖÖDLES restaurant did you mean noodles? So inserting an extra O huh!

We try the noodles that we never had before and we ordered the fried dumplings served with sweet and sour sauce as appetizer. The filling was a looser medium coarse texture, the flavor actually reminded me the Filipino spring rolls.

There are plenty of options here with various types of drinks and some I never heard before. Since we just had a coffee and other cold drinks at Starbucks and we go for the freshly squeeze watermelon juice.

Our order arrived quite soon after. This beef ball noodle soup, loaded with mild herbal broth.

Tom Yam Noodle soup was not good according to my husband which he claimed was a bit flat.

Hong Kong style wonton soup was a thin sliced of meat, shrimps, noodles and crispy wontons in an dark soy sauce broth.

Last but not least, I try the famous curry noodle from pearl of the orient. The curry soup it was thick and there is a lot of flavor and it tends to remind me of dishes with similar themes that Thai curry flavor. Overall, the noodles soup itself was a bit on the weak side and a little bit bland, something is telling me that it might be better to do so in other restaurant inside the KLIA.

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NÖÖÖDLES™
Kuala Lumpur International Airport
Malaysia