Anatolia

GET A PIDE. I would eat one every day if I could. Soooo yummy. The rest of the food was okay. The ambience is relaxing and unique. Definitely a place to try out when exploring 4^th street eateries!

Anatolia is one of my favorite restaurants in Bloomington. I love the vibe and I love the food. My personal favorites are the baked meatballs, the lamb kebab, and the pides. When you order an entrée, you also get complimentary soup, bread, and tea.
For an appetizer, I would recommend the feta cheese plate. It really pairs well with the soup and bread. It comes with tomatoes, cucumbers, and lettuce.
Anatolia is located right on 4^th street, next to many other international restaurants. The outdoor seating is great, but if you are feeling adventurous, you can also sit on the floor with pillows. Either way, the experience is great!

Quite good especially for Bloomington. The lunch buffet is especially a good value. Pides are almost as good as those you can eat in Istanbul. The lunch buffet is a great value.

We ordered the chicken pide which was basically a weird tasteless version of a pizza! A friend ordered the veggie guvec which was satisfactory.
However the worst part was that the staff — the servers — were chatting loudly, running around, having a gala time and creating chaos. it was pathetic to look at and annoyed me to an extent where I had to request them to keep it low!
I do not recommend this place…

Oh my goodness! This has been one of my favorite places to eat over the last few years and now they have added a lunch buffet! Truly, you cannot beat the price ($ 8.55cash) or the variety of dishes, most of which I have not had before! It was such a treat to try so many different salads and side dishes. I loved the vegetarian options, although I’m quite the omnivore. Sadly, I have two weeks left in Bloomington so I guess I’ll have to fit this into my schedule again… Darn. (;

Absolutely HORRIFIC experience. Went there with a friend to try it out and came down with food poisoning 5 hours later. You couldn’t even pay me to come back here! Would never recommend after this experience.

Great food for a good price, a cozy atmosphere, and an AMAZING new lunch buffet. This place is definitely one of my favorites.

Came here with a school trip to the college, with a group of 40. They were able to take care of all of our needs and the food was awesome. We started off with hot tea and this amazing bread along with soup. Then we got the main course that was wonderful. The staff was great and very attentive to our needs. Plan on going back when we are in the area.

I was looking forward to this place especially since it was recommended and also it was my first time trying Turkish food.
I was a bit disappointed. I was not a fan of the appetizer I ordered, I don’t remember the name but I do remember it being wrapped in leaves. I asked the waiter what he would recommend, he mentioned the meatballs. Omg, total waste of money. It was dry and bland. Although I wasn’t a fan of the food, they still had good customer service. Our waiter was attentive.

Looked forward to a dinner here. Didn’t pan out. Initially the queue to pay was so crowded we couldn’t be seated. Next, they were out of soup, not to mention they don’t serve both kinds anymore. Lastly, and the real turn-​off and the reason we left was that we found lipstick on our water glass. This lipstick was not either of ours.
This lipstick made us question how attentive would they be with our food if they couldn’t wash the water glasses.
They offered us a coupon, and may not have lost our business.
This feedback is designed to help drive improvement.

Small place. Warm and humid night and either the ac doesn’t work or a household fan in the dining room is the norm. Either way it made it uncomfortably warm. Food was average. Chicken kabobs were very dry– wife left most of hers on her plate. Waitress was moderately attentive. Could be a neat place to eat with some attention paid to the food and environment.

Anatolia is a cute, quiet restaurant that uses some quality ingredients.
Anatolia makes wonderful lamb shanks and lamb chops that are above average even outside of Bloomington. Luckily for them, I’m a huge fan of lamb as my primary protein. Its a small restaurant, but the décor is quite beautiful and fits the meal. I’m especially fond of the teacup they give you!

Our «go to» for Turkish/​Mediterranean food in Bloomington. The feta in oil or grape leaf appetizers are my favorite. Being gluten free and vegetarian I enjoy the Mediterranean mushroom which like all entrées comes with a fresh salad/​slaw and rice! The rest of the family love the kabobs and pides! Complementary tea, floor cushions and low table options, and a 10% cash discount rounds off the Anatolia experience perfectly!

I went to Anatolia’s for the first time today with my partner. We were starving when we arrived, so we ordered hummus right away. The portion of hummus was tiny, but it came with a large loaf of bread which we both devoured. Our meal came with a soup (and more bread) that came out just before the main meal. The soup portion was also tiny, but again with a huge bowl of bread. We again scarfed it down, and then the bread just kind of expanded in our stomachs and we completely lost our appetites. I only ate one bite of my meal and then put it in a box to go. If you go, beware the bread.
The service was okay. Our waitress was friendly although I occasionally had to flag her down to ask a question, which I don’t feel should be the case in a restaurant with only ten tables.
In terms of the quality of the food itself, the hummus was above average, the soup was decent, the «award winning» bread was good but nothing special (it was somewhere between Hawaiian bread and Wonder Bread), and then the main entrée wasn’t that exciting when I ate it a few hours later.

I went here with friends, it’s nice little place with cheaper price, decent food but not very astonishing, I order chicken&spinach pipes

Had lunch today. They have buffet now for lunch, lots of vegetarian and vegan dishes; for the few chicken and beef dishes, they are also excellent. Anatolia now beats the other middle-​eastern and indian buffets out of the water in my book.

Anatolia’s has been my favorite place to eat for years! I eat there on a weekly basis. However, recently things have been changing and not for the better.
The current wait staff is the slowest and most apathetic I’ve ever encountered. This past weekend I was there for lunch. There were only 4 other people in the dining room. It took our waitress 15 minutes to even take our order, and when she approaches she doesn’t speak, just stands there staring at you. I asked for tea the moment we arrived and it took 30 minutes and several reminders of my request before I walked up to the tea station and stood there asking for tea. The couple at the table behind us asked for water 3 times before it was brought. The rest of the tables were all covered in dishes and she seemed in no hurry to clean up the place or provide any type of service.
The soup used to be served in bowls and the red lentil was absolutely delicious! Now it comes in a tiny cup and seems to be lacking the complex flavor profiles it once possessed.
It took 45 minutes for us to receive our entrees because the cook (who you can clearly see in the kitchen) was busy playing on his cell phone. Once we received our food the waitress never returned to our table. No drink refills, or questions on our meal were offered.
Also, if they are out of any item that is supposed to come with your entrée you won’t be informed until you receive your meal. There is no substitution offered, or apology made. You’re just told that they’re out of it and you can enjoy your meal without any of the vegetables it was supposed to come with, and that of course you are still paying for. (This has happened to me on multiple occasions)
All of this saddens me greatly as it has been a favorite meeting place with all of my friends. I’m proud of all the local businesses Bloomington has to offer and love to support them. I just hope Anatolia’s gets some new management in to get things back to were they once were.

I don’t know if there’s a new owner, new cook, or what, but the last few times I’ve been here the food has just been mediocre. It’s really disappointing because Anatolia used to be one of my favorite restaurants in Bloomington. The red lentil soup is now sort of bland. The bread is fine but not very soft. The pide crust lacks any flavor or spices. The rice that comes with entrees used to have a white bean stew on top (it might even be the white bean soup), but they don’t serve it with that anymore. The salad and baked dolma are still pretty good. But they’re not enough to come back for.

I reviewed this 12÷11÷13, a place I have gone occasionally for years and always enjoyed. Big news: they just began doing a buffet lunch. I think this is a winning formula for bringing in lunch custom and helping that crowd get lunch in an hour. Good for business. That does not mean I always like the lunch buffet by any means. Often restaurants get lazy and put out their best or most popular, or easiest or cheapest dishes and even if not they tend to limit the choices. So I may not love a lunch buffet in a restaurant I otherwise like. (Imagine if you love eel but the sushi lunch, while quick and easy and well priced never but never puts eel out for lunch!)
Anyway, no fear here; the range of choice was marvelous and every dish was delicious. I wanted a lighter lunch but I may have to settle for light next week. This week I wanted to try it all and I don’t think I missed anything. I adore such rich variety. That was yesterday with a friend. Today I went back and filled up take away boxes so I could share this with a coworker who could not leave work. Once again, a wide choice and delicious.
And then today I found there was dessert with my take away. Truly fresh baklavah, not last week’s but juicy, tender and delicious. Best I have had in years perhaps.
The setting is a little tight as you navigate tables and get to the food but not unpleasantly so. I have never seen such numbers here for lunch so others are discovering this buffet. I hope that means it will last and be as good and keep its variety and not be the same week after week. Then I can enjoy going week after week.
Get yourself over here while the choice is wide and wonderful. I can’t promise down the road but I am going to go back and enjoy the ride here and now. I suggest you hurry over and do the same. It is even worth the quarters for parking and best of all, it is easier to find parking now that they put in meters. Never thought I would appreciate the parking meters in Bloomington!

Delicious Turkish food and fun ambiance. Service was good for us as we were seated inside, but I noticed some problems with service outside. Two groups came to the cash register to pay because no one brought them a check.
The wife and I ordered pides. I had mushroom and she had spinach. Never had pides before and they were delicious. The tzatziki and hummus were good, but very filling. Had so much food that we brought leftovers back to the hotel, which will be perfect for post Lotus Festival snack.
We said no to baclava, but waitress brought it anyway. It was good. The first time I have liked baclava. Anatolia must be doing something right.
Bring cash because you get a 5% discount if you pay with it.