Beyoglu

In the upper east side, NY is this upscale Turkish cafe/restaurant. Beyoglu has a comfy interior & on sunny days you can sit at a sidewalk table out front! The iskender kebab was cooked to perfection being juicy and thinly sliced! The pita was toasted nicely (and you can hear the crunch). The shepherd salad was a great compliment to the kebab. Plus this place is inexpensive with it being $5-17. Overall Great place for lunch or a dinner !!
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Quality/taste - 4/5
Atomsphere - 4/5
Price - 5/5
Quantity - 5/5
Cleanliness - 5/5
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+ My party of 3 and I came here for lunch on a mid November Saturday. It was rated highly on Yelp, and all of the standard brunch places in the area had a 45 minute wait. 2 vegetarians and a meat eater in the group.
+ We were some of the first folks in the lunch rush, so there was plenty of room to seat us.
+ We ordered the stuffed grape leaf dolmas and the hummus appetizer. Both tasty.
+ The price range is very affordable for the area.
- The hummus appetizer came with a large loaf of bread. This bread was so unbelievably hard to break that we were pretty confident it was stale.
- I wonder if they have kanefeh on the menu for dessert or can ever decide to make it as a special. I'd return to try how that would turn out.

Really nice Mediterranean food here. Excellent service as well. This place always seems busy and this night was no different.

Started with a small sampler of the various spreads along with a really nice loaf of freshly baked bread. For $12 I thought it was plentiful.

For entrees we made the octopus app into an entree and the mixed grill entree.

The octopus was expertly grilled. Super soft and melt in your mouth compared to the dishes I've had in Greece.

The mixed grill came with an interesting side of carrots and cabbage but the rice and 4 types of meat were great.

It's obvious why this place is always so busy. If you're lucky you can sit outside.

Ate at the bar since this place was packed for brunch. Their mezze platter and bread was delicious, scraped that dish clean! Highly recommend this. Got the small but was thinking by the end- maybe should have gotten the large??

Their mixed grill platter was alright. Wouldn't get it again. Best item was the lamb chops by far so maybe just will order that item.

Delicious food and beautiful decor, but painfully slow service, even for a relatively quiet Wednesday night.

My friend and I ordered a small meze platter appetizer to share and it came out almost immediately. Six fresh cold dips and salads, all well seasoned/cooked (the hummus was my favorite!). The entrees, on the other hand, took about 45 minutes to come out. During that whole time the staff didn't have much of an explanation for the wait, and the restaurant wasn't that packed. By the time our entrees finally arrived, I was so full from eating all the bread and the meze platter dips that I could only eat a few bites of my Karides Guvec. Which was a shame because it was so good! The plate came out hot and steaming with broiled jumbo shrimp and vegetables cooked in a savory cheesy tomato sauce. I wish I had more room to eat, because this tasted amazing fresh.

I have mixed reviews because the wait was sooo long but the food tasted great. If you've got time, definitely check out this spot. Just don't pop in if you're in a hurry.

We came for lunch with a party of 5 people. It was nice that they were able to accommodate us since we didn't make reservation. They prompted seated us and took our orders. One of our friends came before so she was able to order for us since the waiter seemed impatient. We ordered fried calamari, greek salad, crab cakes, mezer platter, doner kebab, Iskender kebab, sigara borek, grill octopus salad and Kilic sis.

Recommend: Fried calamari were big chunk of calamari. It was crispy, needed some seasoning, but had marinara sauce. Greek salad was fresh and big portion. Mezer platter included hummus, cacik, kisir (bulgur salad), baba ganoush and vegetable/tomato paste- we enjoyed this appetizer with they pita bread. Grilled octopus was marinated with onions, lemon and vinaigrette. It was well balanced and not overwhelmed. The two lamb/ beef kebab dishes were good, but they were a little salty for our taste. The rice and potato helped reduce the saltiness. We enjoyed the iskender, which had tomato paste and yogurt with crunchy pita. The kilic sis (grilled swordfish kebab) was flavorful and meaty. All kebab dishes included rice, shedded carrot and potato or red cabbage.

Don't recommend: Crab cakes were 6 tiny bite size ball, a little oily, not much crab meat and they were not fresh. Sigare borek was cheese roll- okay, not much cheese filling and the wrap dough was too thick. Not our favorite.

We enjoyed the food, but the service was terrible. The waiter didn't check on us, except ordering and paying the bill. She didn't ask us if we wanted dessert or coffee after our meal and just brought the bill to us. It took more than 30 minutes to get water after asking a busboy.

Conclusion for the rating is: Food was 4.5 stars, decor was 4 stars and 1 star for service.

Amazing summer lunch place.

Overall great food and awesome outside seating. You also get amazing bread, so fluffy and tasty.

Mashed eggplant salad, spicy salad, spinach, and octopus, hummus.

One of the best things was actually the zeytinyagli ispanak. This was sauteed fresh spinach, shallots, and dill with homemade yogurt. I felt like this dish was refreshing and great for a summer lunch. The yogurt gave a little bit of a sour taste that was really good. I'll honestly admit that I really love dill so I may be partial to this dish partly for that reason.

I also liked the ezme, the spicy chopped vegetables. These were also refreshing and tasty. I don't think this was spicy but it was still good.

Ahtapot salatasi, the char-grilled octopus marinated with olive oil lemon and vinegar with onions. This was soft and tender and was pretty good. Not the best Mediterranean octopus dish I've ever tried but still pretty good.

I felt like maybe the hummus could be a bit better but it was still fine. The mashed eggplant was okay too.

The outside seating is lovely. The tables are lovely and look like something from the Mediterranean.

The service was good.

Overall a nice lunch experience sitting outside.

Eating outside at Beyoglu on a cool summer night is the best. The food is always delicious and the service is timely.

Pro tip: if it is not nice weather outside, ask to sit upstairs. It is quieter and I find it to have a more pleasant atmosphere.

Ordered:

Small meze plate ($12)- it comes with hummus (my favorite in NYC!), eggplant spread, yogurt dip, sautéed spinach and onions, spicy chopped vegetables and bulgar wheat salad. Substitutions are accommodated so if you do not like one of the items they will give you more of another.

Tavuk izgara ($15)- they serve a generous helping of tender grilled chicken (2-3 white meat chicken pieces) with buttery rice pilaf, red cabbage salad, shredded carrots and a dollop of harissa.

I highly recommend Beyoglu if you are looking for a high-quality Mediterranean restaurant on the Upper East Side. If it is dining outdoors weather, all the better!

Very good, simple, and fresh Mediterranean food. My friend and I each ordered the same dish - Somon Izgara - which was a char-grilled section of salmon, nicely seasoned with salt, pepper, and lemon juice. It was perfectly cooked, which was cooked to order. The fish flaked off, but was still very moist. It was not dry or tacky to the bite. The side salad was simply dressed in vinegar, salt, and oil, but delicious in its freshness.

If I'm ever in this neighborhood again, I would return...

A local neighbourhood institution !
Best quick description would be hearty rustic Mediterranean comfort food.

They have been around for ages and have everything running very smoothly. Service is quick and attentive. Glance through the photos and you will see what the food is. This trip we had the hummus appetizer (truly excellent with freshly cooked warm bread), Greek salad, iskender kebab and swordfish. All very solid, plus fairly healthy (!)

Used to come here all the time, then they put up a big sign saying no strollers. We'd just had kids and were fairly outraged that they wouldn't even allow strollers in the outside area. Anyhow, a few years later and we have forgiven them, plus didn't see the stroller sign any more, glad to see they are still in business.

They have an upstairs which is good for larger groups, and in summer downstairs doors open up and people also have tables on the sidewalk.