Cafe Baklava

Very inconsistent! Below average food and service.
We’ve been to this place three times already and unfortunately we would never go back. The food taste and quality is average at best but what really throws us off is the inconsistency in the service.
The first time, right after our dinner plates were taken away, our server put our check on the table without even asking us if we were interested to see the desert menu. We kindly asked for the menu ourselves. Before actually getting the desert our server brought back our new check and told us that he likes to close our table! Now we are typical restaurant goers but this was definitely a first!
Also the last time we were there, we ordered a combo kebab to share. What we were served was an incomplete plate missing the adana kebab as you can see in the picture. Not once our server came to ask how our food is. Something that is very typical. I have a feeling he knew about the problem and just tried to avoid us!
In all these instances we were still incredibly nice to them and did leave them a nice tip. But to me the best way to show my dissatisfaction is not to go there ever again or recommend them. They lost our business forever.

Delicious food especially baklava is really good there!

Way too expensive for the quantity and taste. Breads were hard and burnt. Chicken was really dry and rubbery. Uncooked rice, not coming here again

The best Mediterranean restaurant in California!!!
Ordered the chicken kebab tavuk and that was the most tender tasty chicken, the calamari, baclava, octusalad, perfect perfect.

Really amazing little restaurant. Excellent chef and always great specials on the menu. Several years ago when I lived in Mountain View we frequented this place and it was a pleasure eating here while I was in town. I brought a friend with me to eat here and on the way I told her about this delicious braised lamb shank I had ordered and how ironist melted in my mouth and I was thrilled that when we were seated our server told us the specials for the night and to my delight, they had the braised lamb shank. My friend and I both ordered it and it was absolutely to die for! It fell apart and the sauce that covered it was rich and delicious and had some large beans in it too. It was served with rice. When we first sat down they bright this delicious fresh pita bread with an olive oil dipping sauce that was outstanding. We also had a lovely glass of Chianti each. Just perfect!
Any time I am ever in the area, I will make a way to dine here. Excellent!

Sunday lunch experience was very meh, at least for us vegetarians.
1) Not that many vegetarian options on the lunch menu, though their Unilocal menu seems to show many more (the vegetarian moussaka was unavailable, for ex).
2) Points for the apps. They were well seasoned, though a tad greasy, and not what you would commonly find in a mediterranean restaurant.
3) The vegetarian entrees were relatively bland, falafel was undercooked and the hummus needed a bit more olive oil. I’ve had way better falafel in quite a few places in the bay area (falafel bite in sunnyvale, for ex) and the price point here was a bit higher too.
4) The service wasn’t good either. The waiter didn’t care for us after the initial order, did not point out vegetarian options for us and did not offer us the dessert menu. Not sure if they were particularly busy (not that many people around though).
Probably going to stick to Ephesus down the street!

Mmmmmm finally some real authentic Turkish food. The falafel was delicious and the Turkish pizza was fantastic.
Even real Efes Turkish beer.

I had the salad with kebab for lunch. The kebab was tasteless and the salad dry. Very dissapointing. The saganaki they served was not with the correct cheese. My friend had a Greek salad but a real Greek salad has no lettuce. I don’t feel they put any thought into their meals. Turkey has a great culinary history, take advantage of what you have. Put some heart into it…

Had a great dinner service here. We were peering at the menu when the hostess came out and convinced us to give it a try. It is a little hard to miss from the outside, since the restaurant is much longer than it is wide, but we were happy to have stumbled in. The Medi spread as appetizer contained a sample plate of six different mezzes, so we were able to try all the different types of appetizers efficiently. From there we went with an octopus salad. The octopus was fresh, and was roasted to perfection. There was a generous serving atop a bed of greens and some great greek dressing. For the main, we split the lamb kabob and the portion size was large enough for two. The lamb was cooked perfectly and the yogurt sauce offered great contrast. Not to mention, we had stuffed ourselves with their fluffy pita and dip! Overall, we came in with no expectations and left very happy.
PROTIP: $ 5 house red and white wine all day.

Great food!
Not too crowded. We were seated outside. It was a perfect evening with delicious dinner. The complementary bread with garlic flavor dip was awesome!!! I loved the food, service and ambiance! What else to expect!

We were here for lunch, and boy, did we love this place! The wait staff helped us pick out some excellent vegetarian dishes. I’d certainly pick this place once again.

The appetizer was the best part of my experience here. It was rather good. However, the rest of the food seemed to fall short. It was somewhat bland and nothing spectacular. The man who seated us was nice, although the service from then on was almost non-​existent. We were the only customers there, yet it took forever to get our food, and then our bill. My friend and and I sat for maybe 30+ minutes after finishing our food while the staff had pretty much disappeared in the back. I considered getting up to go find someone but I felt a bit awkward doing that.
Maybe it was the day, or maybe it was what we ordered. I wanted to like this place but it was sadly lackluster and forgettable.

Hosted a party with 30 people for my wife’s 40^th birthday. It was an awesome experience. Staff really took care of us.
Their back room is fairly spacious to host large parties. Food was super good and great wine choice. They let us do presentation in there as well.
Best part was the service by super friendly people.
Great job Franco and team to make all my guests happy.

Had a delicious lunch here with family. The service was great and the food was fresh! I only wish the server mentioned shrimp when I asked for seafood options! Anyhow, we got the Tavuk Guvec, fish wrap and chicken kabob– all simple and yum. They dont have a kid friendly menu but my toddler could eat from our plates and thats always a winner for a mommy!

Love this place! The atmosphere alone is worth a star or two – the decoration is very charming, and the entire restaurant has a very comfortable, warm feeling to it. The servers/​guys who run the place are super nice as well and really take their time to ask about how things are going, explaining the specials, giving you more pita.
As for the food, the free whole wheat pita, along with the tomato-​olive oil dipping sauce is delicious. When they give you the basket and the bread is still warm, along with the tartness of the tomato, it’s like heaven in your mouth.
Moving on to the actual food and pricing – I remember having one of those grape leaves stuffed with rice and other fillings, and they were pretty good. In regards to the entrees, I usually get the dolma (the eggplant and bell pepper stuffed with rice, tomato, raisins, pine nuts, and other goodness), along with a meat dish. I came here two days ago and had the lamb special, which was fall-​off-​the-​bone kind of tender, and very flavorful. While the presentation is pretty plain, the flavors and spices of the food speak for themselves. Truthfully, this place is a little pricey, but this restaurant isn’t exactly a eat-​lunch-​on-​the-​go type; rather, it’s somewhere you’d bring a date, family, or friend you haven’t seen in a while for a nice, sit-​down dinner (inside with the cool Mediterranean décor or outside on Castro with heated lamps) and to talk for a while. In other words, come here for long conversations with delicious food, a welcoming atmosphere, and wonderfully warm pita. :)

Wow, honestly this is one of the best Mediterranean foods i’ve ever had… period. My mom and I have been going to this place for years because of the great food and especially the service. Since I moved to New York 2 years ago, I’ve been looking for similar food with the same quality everywhere, and to my surprise (since its new york), i haven’t found anything close. Every time I come back home during the Christmas holidays, my mom and I always make sure to come.
My biggest recommendations for this place are the artichoke hearts and the Dolmas for appetizer, and for the main course my go to dish is probably the Gyro with the lamb and beef, and also the chicken with rice.
I’d also like to also mention and thank the owner Ilker (I hope i spelled it right), for always providing such great service over the years and making sure that the food is always amazing and to our liking.
Cheers!

I think they don’t deserve even a star as it was so far the most horrible experience for us.
Only thing good (bearable) was the pita bread but we didn’t have much complaints till we had a dessert. My husband ordered BAKLAVA (signature Mediterranean dessert) & believe me they NAILED it. Here is the proof — A nail in the layers of baklava and shocking thing was when we told this to management, all of them suddenly disappeared (for approx. 10mins.) Nobody professionally apologized. Of course they waived off the baklava price from the bill but they were as if they were obliging us. Are you serious
P. S. If my husband gets any injury due to this incident, I am sending you the bill.

The tea, baklava, and atmosphere are great. A bit overboard with wine bottles, it’s everywhere, and I thought Italians were obsessed with this stuff! They need to take it down by 30 notches.
The food was great, try their special salad with chicken, good stuff.

We found this place by chance with some friends and we thought we’d give it a try. What a pleasant surprise it was! We had amazing food and the service was great; I tried one of the kebabs but will go back to try the rest for sure. One of my friends had the lentils soup and didn’t like it at all. One other dish for my next visit is the Manti. See you soon!

Whats GREAT — the service. Our host and waiter was super friendly, attentive and funny.
What is PRETTY DARN GOOD — the whole wheat pita bread with sauce… YUMERS!
What’s GOOD — the food overall — quality, quantity, value.
What NEEDS IMPROVEMENT — some simple things, and some more involved.
–the salmon special with spinach salad was very good. However, orange slices on the side with peel isn’t so good. I would peel and put in the salad. I know, picky picky.
–the chicken wrap was just okay. What works is the ratio to veggies, to chicken to spread, you have that right. Unfortunately, the chicken was dry and overall the wrap didn’t have much flavor. I ended up putting the sauce that came with the pita bread on the wrap.
I will be back and try more things.

Amazing grilled whole seabass. It’s probably the second best grilled fish I’ve had in US. Evvia in Palo Alto takes the first for me. The seasoning was perfect. Their bread and tomato based sauce is to die for, best I’ve had in ages. I would just go back to eat the bread in all honesty. Ask the waiter about fish specials since they are not on the menu. They might have trout, halibut or seabass based on the day.

Not worth your time.
The pita bread and dipping sauce was good, but the actual meals were horrendous.
They brought my husband a dish with meat in, instead of what he ordered. He couldn’t eat it because he’s vegetarian.
My Mediterranean salad had a large bug crawling around right on top of it when the server brought it to the table.
My friends dish was supposed to come In a wrap, but instead it was just slopped into a bowl.
I won’t be going back, and will never recommend this to others.

Delicious food and really great atmosphere in the restaurant! There is great décor on the walls that fits the theme well.
I’ve had a few meat dishes here before and they were all very good. The bread you get at the beginning is very yummy too.

This place was okay, not amazing but not too bad. I came here for some turkish food and tried a few dishes.
My favorite thing in middle eastern restaurants is the cheese rolls (sigara boregi). The ones served here were not great, only okay.
The mains however were really good. We had the manti with yoghurt, and the grilled aubergine. I loved them both.
They also serve warm fresh bread with the food which is really good.
I can’t speak to other items I love, such as kebabs or lahmacun. These may be better.

Dropped in a Sunday night, very low key, 2 tables, 2 other peeps and we are another table.
Under a minute, we are warmly greeted brought menu’s. In five minutes, warm fresh whole wheat pita bread is brought with a warm minced tomato, olive oil dipping sauce.
I ordered the Kuzu: marinated lamb kabobs, with roasted cauliflower, red peppers and a side of fragrant rice.
The marinated lamb kabobs were cooked medium rare and tasted lamby. Perfect.
Veggies were grilled al-​dente and the rice was good too. $ 14.95
My friend said the turkish risotto was good too.
Kudo’s to the boss who came over and talked to us.
really impressed with the food quality and customer service: despite low traffic, everything was great.
Décor: fine
Customer service: very good.
Parking: around here, the multi level parking lots are better.

5 stars: House bread & dipping oil with red pepper
2 stars: Chicken shish kebab
I love — LOVE — Mediterranean /​Greek food. I had high hopes for Café Baklava, but it didn’t live up to the hype, at least not my dish. The chicken and vegg tasted odd and rice was flat-​out inedible. Also, for $ 15 I got barely any meat; that will get you 3x as much chicken at another restaurant. (I always get chicken kebabs.) My friend’s steak got rave reviews. Everyone else was pretty neutral with various kebab dishes. I don’t think I would come back, even to try a different entrée.

Service here is very attentive, always appreciate that. Shortly after you sit down, they bring you fresh, hot bread with a very delicious tomato dip. I had quite a few pieces because the dip was so good, and it’s hard to say no to hot bread. Our server noticed how much we liked the dip, that we got seconds!
For the lunch entrée I had the Donner wrap with beef only. To be honest, I was not that impressed with the wrap. I thought the ratio of wrap to filing wasn’t as well balanced (too much wrap), and I wish there was more yogurt sauce in there. The flavor was just mediocre as well. Though my colleagues seemed to enjoy their lamb and eggplant entrees. Perhaps it’s worth trying those instead of the wrap if you come.

Boyfriend took me here for my birthday! First time having Mediterranean food so it was a bit different for me. I love the appetizers they brought out. It’s flatbread with this tomato type dipping. It’s amazing!
My boyfriend ordered the dolma for appetizers and the lamb Kebab. The dolma is grape leaves studded with pine nuts and rice with a yogurt sauce. Very unique, it has a bitterness to it but the yogurt kind of evens it out.
I ordered combo kebab (beef, chicken, and lamb). The meat were a bit too dry for my taste. But I did enjoy the mixed vegetables on the side.

This place is awesome. Not sure why this place had such low ratings. We were on Castro Road and we felt like eating Mediterranean food. We actually stopped by this place without consulting Unilocal.Here is my breakdown of my experience:
Place:
We came here on a Tuesday night around 7pm. It’s a small restaurant and we were seated immediately.
Food:
My gf and I ordered just one entrée and one appetizer.
For the entrée, we decided to go with combo kebab combination, which included beef, chicken, and lamb. The chicken and beef were pretty solid. It was cooked to perfection where it was not burnt. The lamb was actually even better. As part of the combo, they give you rice and vegetables. The vegetables were ok.
For the appetizers, we decided to go with the Hummus. The Pita bread that they give you is so good. They gave us the thick pita bread fresh from the oven.
We also had the opportunity to try their Baklava and it was delicious. I felt they did not overload on sugar and I can at least taste different flavors. Also, it was perfectly soft for you to chew unlike most places where they make it hard as a rock.
For drinks, I suggest to go with their special tea. It’s a blend of Jasmine and Early Grey (like Asian fusion tea), which I thought was excellent.
Service:
Service is excellent. They gave us the special tea on the house and at the end they gave us the baklava on the house as well.
Parking:
Find street or public parking spaces

~~Great menu great selection great service knowledgeable staff~~
Is this her like family. They have that welcoming atmosphere and the restaurant has a very lovely atmosphere as well.
Ordered:
Baklava dessert
Turkish tea
Didnt stay up TOO late after tea…
Baklava was sweet and dance worthy!
Must stop