Cafe Istanbul 2

The experience and atmosphere was worth the cost! Very unique place. Appetizer was fantastic. Main courses were okay. The baklava was CRAZY GOOD. So all in all, I’m happy with everything. The belly dancer was cool to watch and the service was very friendly. A little slow for the amount of people in the restaurant, but it wasn’t a deal breaker.

I love this place, great environment, they have one side where you can sit on the floor and they have a really cute belly dancer! This place has a great food! I love their lamb! It’s so good! And I like going on Fridays night too and you can dance too!
Good customer service

always have a great time at café 2 with friends, amazing staff and service! Food is amazing and so are drinks. It’s a guaranteed good time

I guess sitting on the floor was my main motivation for visiting Café Istanbul 2. Well… that and my LOVE for Mediterranean food. Unfortunately, my visit left me with less than Woohoo and just more A-​OK.
First off, I called to make a reservation for 4 at 6:00. The gentleman that answered the phone seemed to take the reservation correctly. When I called back to push it back to 6:45, the woman that answered could not find any reservation in the system. She assured me that I was indeed, now in the system for 4 at 6:45.
Well, we arrived and no reservation for 4 at 6:45 BUT there was one for 6 at 4:00? No worries though, the restaurant was empty.
We were seated (on the floor) promptly. When I looked at the prices I was a little taken back due to visiting other Mediterranean restaurants that didn’t even come close to these prices.
We ordered the Meze plate to share. This was a really great start! Highly recommend!
I opted for the Mixed grill ($ 22.00). I was let down by this plate. Don’t get me wrong, the portion was HUGE. The taste is what left a bad impression.
My hubs ordered the Gyro Platter ($ 14). High priced for a Gyro.
I will tell you though, our server was really great! She was attentive, polite, and served us perfectly!

3 stars is for friendly staff, Food is ok… Lots of other places for better food but I guess you get what you pay for.

What a positive experience! Great food and nice atmosphere. The manager and his wife were beyond wonderful! We eventually are going to try everything on the menu, but today had the mixed grill and stuffed mushrooms, and Turkish coffee and baklava were the perfect finish. Not just dinner, but a true experience! You won’t regret this choice!

Went for dinner using a groupon. Atmosphere was nice! Menu has lots of variety. Also, several vegetarian options. I have the falafel plate and my husband had the lamb sauté. There was a belly dancer that came out and danced periodically. Our waitress Ashley was very attentive. After dinner the lights went down and the place filled up! There was a variety of music and dancing. Very fun evening!

Great place to have gyros and humus. The owner is very friendly and makes you feel at home. The food is very good and the portions are good size. The outside isn’t very inviting — don’t let that stop you. The inside is very clean. I had the gyro special — which included a Greek salad and a drink for 8.99 — it was very good. I’d recommend you try it out!

I absolutely love the ambiance that takes you to another part of the world! The music makes you want to dance instinctively. You can chose to sit on the floor mats at low tables and lunge in a sultry area where people eat drink or hookah depending on when you are there. This place is great for groups. My children really enjoy the meze platter when we visit with them during daytime hours. After 8 the crowd is not so family oriented as the belly dancers start performing and hookahs are served. The food is phenomenal. We’ve had their meze platter which samples all their appetizerd and the white spinach pizza, the salmon, and gyro. We’ve never veen dissapointed and service is great. Plenty of parking. I actually had a birthday party here once and they made it great. I highly recommend it.

First time here… SO fun! Came with a group for a birthday. Food was great and so was the drinks and service and music! Will definitely be back!

Good food! We had good service and it was entertaining! When the DJ setup it turned into a party!

We were on a road trip across the States and stopped near the restaurant to put gas. While I was Unilocaling for a place to have decent lunch and found one Mexican restaurant (you can’t go wrong with Mexican food), right next to it I saw the sign ‘Café Istanbul’.
There was no question that we are going to have lunch there since we come from a country close to Turkey and we are very familiar with their excellent food and customer service. It was late afternoon so we were the only customers, the owner told us there will be party and belly dancers later that weekend night.
We ordered almost everything from the menu not only because we were very hungry but we were so excited to find oriental cuisine. We could not stop eating!!! Everything was so, so, so, delicious, I think I didn’t have that experience even in Istanbul in Turkey! Their hummus, lamb, kebab, falafel… oh my!
For desert we had the best pistachio baklava I have ever tasted in my life (and I am not a fan of baklava, I find it too sweet for me and now I ordered a second portion) and turkish coffee that I have been craving for a long time, served in authentic turkish coffee cups (fildzan) and sugar in cubes.
We ordered one of the spicy spreads for to go and their terrific pita and also dozen of the baklava! We had a lot to drive in front of us that night, so it was the perfect snack:))
This is definitely a place I would recommend to anyone passing through Atlanta (they have 4 restaurants) and I hope the 5^th will be in Aspen, CO! We definitely need oriental atmosphere here!
I almost forgot to mention that they were very welcoming to our little Service Dog and made plain grilled chicken especially for him that tasted better that any chicken I tried before! I wish Mustafa (the owner) to continue with the excellent job he is doing and a lot of luck in his future endeavors!

Our hooka was amazing and or waiter even more he was fast and friendly! We went to pay our bill and we gave him $ 100 more than we should have and he was honest and told us for me that made our night to meet someone so honest cause to be honest we would have only noticed that the next day and then it would have been too late. Our food was really good and the environment was chill and the music was good. If you’re looking for a place to hang this is the place we got there at 10 and we left at 2am. We were at table b10 if anyone know who was working that table we give him props cause he was awesome !!

Was in the Kennesaw area and wanted to eat some Mediterranean food for lunch. Unilocal’d and found Café Istanbul. We went around 11:30 and we were the only people there initially. Atmosphere is really cool, dark, turkish vibe. We started off with a hummus appetizer. The hummus and the awesome bread were some of the best we’d had. For our main meal I got the Doner (gyro) and husband had the lamb chunks/​plate with a tomato/​pepper base. Our meals were «eh». Nothing out of this world. We’d had better. I like think chunk pieces of gyro meat but there’s is thin chopped. I didn’t really care for it. The rice was really good. Baklava for dessert and it was 2 thumbs down. Very dry, needs more sweet syrup in addition to needing to serve in 4 pieces vs. 3 (for party of 2, would get 2 pieces each). The bathrooms are… hmmm…well …just blah. There were 2 wild kids running rampant around the place while the parents laughed and ate not minding them at all. Their ball hit my husband upside the head, landed in my meal, hit me in the arm. I finally told the kids to please watch it and I thought 1 more incident and I was going to either say something to the parents or the staff. Ugh. Doubt we go back.

Okay, so Café Istanbul lost 3 stars for overall price, the quality of the falafel I had (they were overcooked), and the fact that they have bizarre hookah stuff going on (only 8 or 9 flavors, $ 2 for each coal even the first, and you can only get a $ 20 hookah with the purchase of $ 10 worth of food). They did get one of those back though, due to the outstanding service by Amen and the awesome belly dancer. I’ll probably be back another time.

Horrible service rude waiters over priced service so horrible music and it’s not all taut of a place

This is not Turkish food, people go here for the belly dancing, and that’s what you’re paying for. The food is grossly generic Mediterranean and over priced. I ordered lamb which was floating in oil and stewed tomatoes. Rice was over cooked without care. It’s really unfortunate that these restaurants can’t stay open on quality food alone, it’s necessary for them to sell alcohol galore, and half naked women fannying about. i came here thinking I might actually get to experience some resemblance of Turkish food. FAIL

They have changed their menu since I was here about a year ago. Seems like they reduced the options but there was still plenty of choices and all of them were excellent. Everything we had was delicious and wonderfully prepared. We always get the lamb kebabs or ground lamb kebab and they are wonderful

We were looking for something a little different and came across this place. It was definitely worth the trip. We went for lunch and it wasn’t very busy. The place has a really cool atmosphere. I really like the dark feel and the décor. There were plenty of seating options… And of course the kids wanted to sit on the cushions on the floor! They had a blast!
The food was great. We ordered the Meze plate which had hummus, baba ghanoush, sauced eggplant, jajaoukh, and usually has kidney beans but we substituted spicy ezme. The substitution turned out to be a good choice as the flavors of the spicy ezme and the jajaoukh really complimented each other. We also ordered the falafel plate. The falafel had great taste and texture to it… Not too dry like some I’ve had. The whole family, right down to the 1 year old, really enjoyed all the food.
In fact, we enjoyed it so much that we made another trip there the next day (about 1.5 hour drive for us)

Took my son there for his 20^th birthday, he and his friends enjoyed the place. The food is good but kind of pricey for the small portion size. The belly dancer on duty showed my son and his friends a good time. We tipped her rather well for her art and her attention. The customer service from the wait staff is exceptional and the hookah service is reasonable. I’ve been back for lunch but the lunch menu doesn’t have much. Had a great time nothing but good things to say about this place, worth checking out! Even the vegan menu looked delicious!

Café Istanbul is a great restaurant where ordinary isn’t invited. This restaurant offers a great, Mediterranean atmosphere and also entertainment. The belly dancers dance great and the fire shows are amazing. On top of that, they have spectacular food! It is definitely a place to go

Let me just say that I usually don’t write these reviews until recently I had a bad experience with Marietta fish market so here’s a more positive review…
I went with my wife this past Friday on a whim. First honest impression was «where did I just walk into?!» It’s very dark but very cozy as well. (You will have to see for yourself)
Then I was greeted by Mike our server after sitting in our «cozy corner». He asked us if we had ever been to their other locations and as we explained that we haven’t, he gave us a brief history of the other locations and «what they are known for»… Kabobs.
The server helped us figure out what all the plate names on the menu translated to with ease and recommended a Turkish beer.
Well he was right about said kabobs…
Our food came out and I was blown away. We ordered the mix grill as recommended and it was more than enough for 2 people. Our server explained what each kabob was and how it was prepared. The beer recommendation was perfect. (We also had a bottle of their house merlot which accommodated the meat verrrrry nice!!)
By 8:45pm we were almost done and our server suggested baklafa (?) for desert and although I don’t usually get desert when out, he swayed us into it because the belly dancer was supposed to make her appearance at 9. (Btw, do not leave this place until trying the baklafa)
We ended up staying until a little past 11 and that’s when this place really started to liven up! Unfortunately we had to go but nonetheless had an out of this world experience.
Pros: service, food, drinks, atmosphere.
Cons: I had work early on Saturday :(
I will definitely be there this weekend! This is my new spot. Screw hooters or tilted kilt. With the wife or without, this place is the move.

Service was excellent, food was amazing, and service was on point! The ambience was authentic and the hookah was great!

I really liked this place. Very cool atmosphere. You can sit at a regular table or on pillows on the floor in the main dining area. I went with a friend for lunch for the first time. We asked the waiter what to order and he gave us some recommendations. I ordered the lamb kebab. The food came out hot and was very good! The lamb came with a giant pepper. It had just the right amount of heat for me and went well with the lamb. I enjoyed every bite. Prices were reasonable.
I am hoping to go back for dinner soon as this definitely looks like it would be a fun place to go in the evening as they have live entertainment. If you are looking for a new culinary experience as well as an unusual night out, I would definitely recommend this place. Stay tuned as I may be giving them that fifth star after my dinner visit!

Seems to be a really cool dinner spot. Beautifully decorated. I came at [I guess an] an awkward time of the day for this type of restaurant, for a lunch, so the place was practically empty. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the place from the moment I walked in to leaving. Nothing bad to say about the food– delicious. Seems like whatever you order you cannot go wrong. Had the sauced eggplant for appetizer and the lamb sauté for my entrée. One star deducted only because it can get quite dark in there so can have trouble reading the menu.

Great ambience, good beer specials, hip, eclectic, local… young vibe… but DONT!!! try the babaganush.
GROSS!!! Just a big blender mixed bowl of mush with mayo. I also had the lamb entrée. The lamb was actually tender and we’ll seasoned. Portion size not bad… but the grilled veggies were pathetic. Really a half rotten tommatoe, some iceberg lettuce and a few shreds of carrots for $ 18. No!!! Do the Mediterranean cuisine a favor and focus more on decent, fresh well grilled veggies, take pride in your babaganush and we’ll see.
My suggestion, go there full, get a tower of beer, hookah, and just chill.
Oh…it does get fun later on with a little dancing.
So I’d say just for the few aforementioned positives it’s worth it… but …” uh… no I won’t be needing a menu sir”! «Just more beer». :)

I visited it this place last night. My friend and I had a great time even though it wasn’t many ppl in there. We were told that its a bigger crowd on the weekends! My waitress and the bartender were very generous and they had great customer service! I ordered the Mediterranean Chicken, it was delish. I finished the entire plate. The cook brought the food out to me and told me that it was spicy, but it had the perfect amount of spice. Not killer, not bland!
I had the Toyko Island Tea… It didnt taste like «tea,» more so TEQUILA, however i enjoyed the strong taste! The hookah was great as well, very smooth but yet strong, we had Citrus Mint. I“ll be returning!
I love the fact that you sit on pillows to eat and drink! This place is authentic to its culture!