Cafe Istanbul

Food is good, atmosphere is good. Belly dancers can be prettier, but I guess what should I expect from Plano Turkish place :) I’ve been here on different occasions and definitely prefer to come here for lunch when I crave some kabobs.

The Turkish food here is really good and among my favorite in the metroplex.
I really enjoy the freshly baked hot bread that comes to the table in the restaurant. They will include one in your TOGO order as well, but it’s not nearly as good as when it first comes out of the oven.
My favorite entre is probably the adana kabob, but I have liked all of their grilled meats. The mixed grill for 2 is an excellent way to try them all and it is enough food for my family of 2 adults and 2 kids.
I am also a fan of the lunch special with sandwich, shepherd salad, and baklava.
Finally, I want to put in a good word for the Turkish tea.
The location and patio are beautiful. I have never had any issues with service.

Tried hummus, falafal, adane kebab and baklava. The adane kabab was good but the rest of them were a bad average. The baklava, especially, was just sad! I’ve had better service and food at far cheaper places! Wont be going back to this one.

We enjoy the authentic Turkish food of Café Istanbul (authentic as best we can tell). We’ve been there a few times, enjoyed the humus, kebobs, shared plates, etc. Though, I had the stuffed chicken recently and didn’t care for it much — it was covered in an alfredo like sauce that was just too heavy. But, we also tried Kunefe for dessert and it was really interesting. It was basically a soft cheese that was covered in shredded wheat and baked then served with a sweet honey/​syrup. It was a fun thing to try! The wine and food is reasonably priced and one of the nights we were there, they had a Belly Dancer (I think it was a Saturday).
They servers have always been friendly and they have a nice patio to sit on when it’s warm where you can people watch the folks of Shops at Legacy.

Had their doner (lamb) sandwich lunch special to go. The pita bread and it’s fillings were very good… except for the star ingredient, which was a bit dry and somewhat bland in flavor. Also very skimpy on the side of fries. While this location is very convenient to my office, I doubt that I’ll be back because there are simply too many better options for a quick bite at the Shops at Legacy.

After an horrendous start to Christmas dinner at Mignon (see my review of that dump for all the gory details) which we walked out of after rude treatment, we went to Café Istanbul for what turned out to be a fabulous Christmas meal. The food was great, the service was impeccable, and the staff were friendly, courteous, and helpful. Highly recommended.

Cheap place, bad food, horrible service, so expensive
Thai place used to be good, but is going down, worse management and customer service

Really great atmosphere and service. Our waitress Molly was very attentive, and the food and wine were excellent. Everything was cooked and seasoned to perfection. Can’t wait to go back!

Terrific patio outside with the beautiful view of the Christmas lights and lighted fountain is wonderful.
It was very good food. Had the lamb shish kebab with the yogurt sauce– yummy. The red cabbage is so good too. The falafel bread with hummus was tasty too. The specialty cucumber martini was really good.
I will definitely go back.

Avoid this place, it’s a rip-​off. Went here on a Saturday afternoon. I ordered the lentil soup and falafal. All dishes were heated in a microwave. Their portions are really small and you will walk away hungry after paying $ 15 on an average.

After reading the reviews on here I wasn’t sure what to expect, but we had a very pleasant experience. We went on a Thursday night around 8 and it wasn’t too crowded and our server Ozzy was very nice and went over any questions we had about the menu.
First off, you get a FREE hummus just by checking in with Unilocal and having a bit of a hummus obsession, their take on it along with the fresh and warm lavash was some of the best I’ve ever had. Another thing I noticed isn’t mentioned on a lot of reviews is that this place is BYOB (for a $ 15 corking fee, but if you normally drink a couple of glasses anyways it’s worth it). I went with the spicy kabab with grilled veggies instead of the rice pilaf and my bf went with the Istanbul doner. Both were delicious, but we both agreed spicy was the way to go.

Goodness gracious. The quality of the food has gone down in the past few years. The chef who is responsible for making the delicious tasting food is no where to be found. They said he’s on vacation to Istanbul, but I mean seriously the guy needs to come back to his home in America because his customers are hungry for some good Turkish foood. The hummus and starter bread sucked (surprisingly). The baklava tasted stale and soggy… they should consider holding off on the baklava baking until the real chef comes back because it’s scaring customers like me away.

Fantastic food with a classy atmosphere.
We ordered hummus and cocktails, so we could look over the menu a little longer. The hummus was blended perfectly with a strong garlic taste. We really enjoyed it. I ordered the Fell in Love in Istanbul cocktail and my husband had the mojito. They were both well made. I loved the fruitiness of the fell in love cocktail. It was smooth and fresh.
My husband and I split the platter for two so we could try a little bit of everything. It was plenty of food for three. The ground lamb and beef skewers were my favorite.
I couldn’t have asked for more as far as service goes. The waiters were prompt, the belly dancer paid plenty of attention to each table. She was super sweet to my little sister, who was mesmerized.

What a Joke! I was warned about this place by several folks yet I choose to ignore them and show up for dinner on a Friday evening with friends and family.
Seated immediately and the server greeted us in broken English. Again, I love accents and don’t mind if our server is learning, however I do want to see courteousness and mutual respect. Both were missing as we mentioned no wine or drinks for our table out of respect for our guests.
We went on to order and then waited for about 30 minutes before anyone brought bread or our appetizer. The hand shaking and nodding was going on all the big spend tables IMO, where drinks were flowing and major color on the table was Blonde (Hey i love blondes too but… come on!!).
At any rate, after hailing a few folks down and waving my hands side to side like I just don’t currr, we got our mediocre bread and appetizers. Portion sizes are small and prices are inflated understandably due to its douchy location.
Appetizers consisted of Sigara boregi and lahmachun. Both mediocre at best. I have had much better in Chicago. We also ordered the Turkish sausage crust pide and due to language barrier (i.e lack of attention when I was speaking), our server brought us a cheese pide with (wait for it) a plate of Turkish sausage on the side. We sent it back immediately and he was unable to comprehend why I am sending cold turkish sasage back.
For dinner, we ordered the mixed grill platter, adana kebop and everything was just okay. It tasted fine but lacked actual authenticity and you can tell you were in Plano overpaying for Turkish food. I asked for mast o khiar (yogurt with cucumbers) and he brings me (wait for it) — a bowl of plain yogurt for $ 7. At this point I was soo turned off, I asked for the Manager.
He came by and could care less what I said. I even flashed my mint Panerai Luminor and Christian Louboutin red bottoms to gain his yuppiness approval, but he couldn’t wait to go back to the front and greet a bevy of blonde cougars awaiting a table. I can’t blame him but at least pretend to show empathy…
On the tail end, they sent us the full bill for payment along with some hard tasteless baklava.
Save your money and goto Shiraz and host of other non-​turkish options to curb your Mediterranean cravings.

This place took me back to Istanbul! Very authentic food and atmosphere in the Shops at Legacy of all places lol. I had the Spicy Kebab entrée which comes with a small amount of white rice. It was very tasty but definitely lived up to its spicy name. I like spicy but not that spicy lol. Only get it if you can handle the heat-​otherwise get outta the kitchen yo! If you check in with Unilocal,you get a free Hummus so definitely took advantage of that. The hummus was good and came with a very large piece of pita bread. It can really be a meal on its own for small people like me, which is why I ended up taking most of my kebab home after pigging out on the hummus and some turkish tea. If you order the tea, note that refills are NOT free. Each tea pot refill costs $ 4.00, the same cost as the first tea pot order. I wanna go back and try the other dishes! I will be back for sure :)

This place was a hidden gem. The food was by far the best in the area. For Turkish man the kebab was moist and damn the flavor was. off the hook. We. got free humus for Unilocal checkin hint hint… staff awesome. Check out the pic. for the.sandwich.

Went her last night and the food was very good. Had the spicy kebob and it was delicious, just the right amount of spice. The lamb cubes were very tender and juicy and sauce had a lot of flavor. The hummus appetizer was very good with the lavash (bread). Drinks were a little pricey but were good.
On previous visits I have had the beef and chicken dishes and they too are very good. The shaved lamb dish is one of the best. It is never really crowded even for being a small restaurant. Highly recommended.

Came here for my birthday. I adore Turkish food and it’s my absolute favorite. Although the only Turkish food I had was homemade. Didn’t appeal to my expectations. Good location in Plano at the shops at legacy. Restaurant was too small for the amount of tables I felt crowded. Belly dance came out but she wasn’t as great as I’d thought she’d be. Waiter was very inexperienced and had no clue what was a proper cuisine. We ordered a dry martini and it came back dirty. Had to go up to the bar tender to correct (not her mistake). He was slow and only came back to refill drinks once because we asked him. Went in immediately wanting Manti (Turkish ravioli) which I’ve had before. May not be Turkish but I felt it was a necessary cuisine to include on their menu. None!!! So for that and the horrible Waiter 4 stars.

Tasty, but with instant mashed potatoes and charging $ 4.00 per pot of tea (and charging the same for refills), a $ 26 lunch is just too spendy for future visits. Service is … Sexist? Just Slow? Plus he added a 20% tip to our bill. We had to constantly ask for refills, menus for late arrivals, butter, boxes, etc. .
Update: got the bill and the charged $ 4.00 per pot of tea and for each refill. These were not large pots. Had they used classic teacups, it would have been two cups of tea. (They serve it middle eastern style in clear glasses slightly larger than shot glasses.)

A friend and I stopped in for din din on a Saturday night and the place was pretty packed (thankful to have a resi). We made it that day, so just plan ahead and you’ll be fine. The restaurant is small inside and it offers a few bar seats. The bar is awkwardly located at the front of the restaurant, but its a good place to wait for your table. The décor inside made it feel authentic to some place other than Plano. lol Our table was tucked along the back wall, so I think next time I would like to sit more in the middle of the restaurant. We experienced friendly service from the hostess, our waiter and other various employees.
We shared a bunch of things… the hummus (the pita is to die for), Falafel, Shepherd Salad and the Lamb Donor. I loved the hummus and the falafel best — super fresh! The yogurt sauce that arrived with the Donor was super gar​lic​-​y​.so if you’re on a date, make sure you both eat it ;-) Lamb isn’t my favorite choice, but we wanted to try one of their house favorites… glad we tried it. It wasn’t too lamb-​y, had a nice flavor and was tender. On Saturday nights there is also a belly dancer at 9:00p — she did some interesting things (ie, balance a candle on her head). Eh, I wasn’t overly impressed with her. And actually, our table allowed us to avoid making eye contact with her!
Looking forward to coming back in the warmer months to sit on the patio!