Turquoise Grill

The owner Jim was inviting and personable. He explained tidbits about the artist for the night l and also went over the menu specials, buffet items and wine selections. I enjoy the market square environment and the easy ambiance. Haven’t eaten yet so will update my review after dinner and the show but so far so good!

Love the homemade lentil and chicken soups. Flatbread from the brick oven makes for great soup-​dipping!

Not fresh. This has to be a front for something else. Or the office tenants and their patrons must frequent here because maybe it’s just convenient or they feel sorry for the owners. It’s certainly not the food. It’s close to my house and I wanted tabouli, hummus and some dinner– it seemed like a good idea.
First– it’s a million degrees in there. It’s summer, I get it. I’m hungry, just feed me please. Plates and silverware were dirty. Straight up greasy thumbprint on my knife. Not a good start. Whoever said this is great Mediterranean or Turkish food– I have to politely and firmly disagree with you. This shit was awful. Heard a microwave ding go off more than once. Grape leaves– dolmades were a let down. Tasted store bought.
Rice was precooked and then very obviously reheated– Mediterranean chicken was super dry and not an even temperature (cue the microwave). The sauce that came with the chicken was almost offensive. Like it was a textural nightmare of some left out and forgotten, day old sweet and sour sauce from a Chinese takeout joint sprinkled with a few sesame seeds and some red chili flakes for flare… Slightly reminiscent of corn syrup?! WTF. Why is this included? Vegetables were frozen and reheated– not grilled fresh. Total rip off.
Tabouli was OK it was more parsley than the other usual counterparts. Very little lemon or acidic freshness I think of when I think tabouli.
Falafel. Do not order. It tasted like raw pancake batter mixed with chickpeas fried in very old grease – it is not true falafel. And the shape looked like a literal turd. I am laughing as I type this. Friends– I’m serious. Don’t eat here. Don’t order the turd falafel.
I felt like Gordon Ramsey was going to walk through the door and begin an episode of kitchen nightmares. That being said, the one star is for giving me free bread– that will always win a star from this free bread loving lady.

Decent Mediterranean restaurant with some vegetarian options!

I want to begin by stating that I actually give this place 3.5 stars.
I tried a bunch of food here thanks to my friend’s wonderful family who were treating me very generously. First up, the apricot juice. It was a bit too sweet for my taste and definitely wasn’t super fresh, but came pretty close to the authentic version which is called qamar al deen in Arabic. The Turkish tea was pretty good as well – not too bitter and hot enough that it didn’t scald my tongue. For appetizers I tried the spinach feta calzone, which was really delicious. The bread was super soft and tasted like it was freshly baked. For main course I got the falafel platter, which essentially was fried chickpea cutlets with hummus. The falafels were pretty delicious and very filling, but the hummus was alright. Having lived in Jordan for two-​and-​a-​half months, I’ve become accustomed to homemade, top-​quality hummus, so my expectations were high. I have to admit, I was very disappointed with the lack of vegetarian options especially because the restaurant claims to have a «vegetarian menu» (according to my friend who looked this place up before we went) and it totally didn’t have one.
Service – ⁴⁄₅. Our server was very friendly and had some great recommendations, but I felt like she kept pushing me to get the one vegetarian option on the menu. I’m always slightly annoyed when restaurants oversell the one vegetarian dish on the menu as if it’s the best dish ever. I’d just appreciate a straight-​up, «I’m sorry we have very few vegetarian dishes, but why don’t you try what we do have» vs. «you should definitely get the boiled vegetables, because it’s absolutely delicious.» Because of course I’ll that one veggie dish, what else will I have as a vegetarian? And if you’re recommending boiled vegetables, it better be the best goddamn vegetables I’ve ever eaten.
Moving on (sorry for my little rant there), the ambience was just okay. Simple and clean with a few photos. Nothing special but nothing terrible either.

The friendliness of the staff is the real highlight of this place. As I was thinking about what to select from the menu, the chef whipped up a little sample of the daily special for me to try! (It was barbeque brisket, and though it was tasty, I was in the mood for something more Mediterranean.) I don’t remember the name of the dish I had, but it was gyros meat grilled with tomatoes and cubes of bread and topped with yogurt, and it was delicious. I would definitely go back.

You can’t really go wrong with some simple Turkish/​Greek food near the Medical Center. Especially as there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of competing ventures in the River Oaks neighborhood. I liked the long, tuscan colored interior and the unadulterated menu favorites.
The casual Turquoise Grill lets you grab something cafeteria style with its pay and go system up at the counter. Or you can choose to have a sit-​down meal in its small, no frills restaurant. It’s a bit difficult to find as it’s wedged between buildings. It wasn’t crowded (actually quite empty around 1:45pm) and we were served quickly. The owner was very eager to tell us the specials and deals and waitress was quick to move things along.
My Shepherd salad with falafel was nice but a bit overpriced for the basic dish and portion size. I think going for the $ 13.95 3-​course set lunch is probably the most efficient, but I was in the mood for something not protein based and they didn’t have a vegetarian option for the entrée. Definitely worth a try if you are in the area and have the munchies for some Mediterranean.

Good food, portions are very large. The iskendar was very good, gyro meat probably not made in house, but was good considering. Loved the hummus & came with plenty of freshly made bread. Greek salad could feed 4 people!

Almost 4 stars. It’s hidden away on the side of a business building, and is a nice little escape from the ordinary. I’ve been here twice, and to be honest have little recollection of what I had the first time around. The last time I went, I came for lunch with my boyfriend on the weekend. The owner was very friendly. During the day, the inside is bright and refreshing, and there are seats outside.
He had a gyro plate, and I had the Moroccan chicken. Both were pretty large portions. My boyfriend’s gyro meat was a bit overdone, but not bad on flavor. I’m not sure I would get the Moroccan chicken again, but it wasn’t bad. The sauce it was served with reminded me a bit of an Asian sauce, sweet and spicy. I liked the drilled vegetables a lot. Outside of the size of the chicken, it felt like a fairly healthy meal.
Best part: baklava. The owner said it was fresh, and it was very delicious.

I went around noon on a weekday. This place is surrounded by office buildings. It was not as busy when I walked in. The lady behind the counter took the order of the person in front of me and disappeared around the kitchen area. There were 2 others (a cook and what seemed like a guy who was the owner). I was waiting there for 5 minutes just to get my order in, and it was not even busy. I hope they re-​organize their operations especially around peak times. I give a 3-​star for the efforts of Jim, the owner (who responded to my original grievance on Unilocal) walking around the place, asking customers if they need anything. Will give it another chance sometime.

A family owned restaurant. Very friendly staff. Fresh food — very tasty. They have a very loyal clientel. It’s located off Kirby in a medical center. Lots of free parking. The staff wants you to have a great experience — if you have any questions ask them and they will guide you. They have food to go too.

Came early evening right after work with a friend. Seeing as we were the only people there the service was slow and infrequent.
The food was more than okay, but drink refill and general awareness was subpar.
This place must be better at Lunch than dinner seeing as the other reviews were highly positive.
I don’t believe we will be returning any time soon.

I really like this restaurant taken as it is. A casual place to get Mediterranean food in river oaks. If you don’t expect the world… This place is pretty awesome. Week nights it’s empty so you get your food quickly. I recommend the combo app platter and the kabobs, lots of flavor. Also the desserts are good esp. For the price.

Let’s make this quick and as painless as possible.
My friend ordered the Lamb Shank, which had good flavor, except it had just been reheated in the microwave. This was obvious because the meat close to the bone was still cold. They took it back to reheat it, naturally, and it came back with more steam than a sauna.
My other friend ordered the Beef Shish Kabob. You would hope it wasn’t simply reheated, but who knows? The rice had a really funky texture. I got the Gyro. It came packed with meat, but that’s all. No tomatoes? No onions?
Let’s circle back to the Lamb Shank again. Reheated! That thing ain’t cheap, either. Reheated!

My fiancé and had a client in the same building so we decided to grab lunch without having to travel too far and Turquoise Grill was just on the corner of the building.
The workers there are extremely kind the prices however aren’t though. We got the Tilapia w/​veggies, rice & vermicelli and it wasn’t anything special. The tilapia was cooked perfectly; nice and crispy on the edges. The rice w/​vermicelli was delicious. The tomato sauce that came with it wasn’t anything special. Was just tomato sauce out of the can. Made the dish very boring. The portions were very small for the price you pay.
The bread you get is extremely tough. They were kind enough to give us another basket of bread on the house on their own accord but even that one was too tough.

Nice, quiet Turkish restaurant with convenience parking (you can use the parking garage adjacent to it). Good place to catch Turkish soccer games on TV too. If you’ve never tried Turkish grilled meat entrees, just order the mixed grill so you can try everything (I like kofte and adana the best) — and please don’t miss the jasmine rice as the side. For something that you don’t normally find in other restaurants in Houston, try the Sultan kebab. If you’re in the mood for bread, order pide or maybe lahmacun for a lighter option. To finish the meal, try the Turkish tea pot to wake you up or rice pudding if you’re looking for something sweet.

It is indeed cheap! Two entrees and one glass of wine was $ 30.
We used the Unilocal check-​in offer that said you get one free cold appetizer with the purchase of an entrée. I showed it to the server and, although she was very sweet, seemed confused and had a loud discussion with the manager in Turkish regarding its validity just a few tables away. This seemed a little inappropriate and I debated just telling her to forget about it… It was eventually sorted and she did redeem the offer.
My husband had the Moroccan chicken and I had the Adana Kebab platter. Everything had good, although strong, flavor, and my only complaint is that the beef/​lamb mixture wasn’t tender enough.
There was absolutely no one in the restaurant at 6:30 on a Friday, which seemed weird. Overall, the food was good for the money, they just need to work on their customer service.

I’ve been to this establishment several times. I’ve enjoyed it and talked about it enough that a friend gave me a $ 100 gift certificate to redeem. I saved it and decided to redeem it a few days before it was set to expire. The waitress said she would have to call the owner; she then handed me the phone so I could talk to him.
He said he would honor the certificate because he doesn’t use those anymore –he uses cards now, apparently. I told him about the expiration date and he asked if it had a signature. It did not.
The certificate had my name, the gifter’s name, the gift amount and the owner’s business card attached to it. The owner made me feel as if I was trying to defraud him with a counterfeit gift certificate. Honestly, why would I do that?
I left the certificate there along with my phone number and asked him to call me back. I have not been able to get a hold of him. He’ll likely say that it’s valid but now expired, probably.
Don’t purchase gift cards from here, they’ll end up taking your money as they did mine. The experience left a bad taste in my mouth; I won’t return.

Good service but terrible food! I really wished the food was better since all the people that worked there seem really nice and friendly but unfortunately I won’t be coming back due to the lackluster food.
I ordered the chicken kebab lunch special, when the food arrived to the table it smelled great but that excitement soon turned into dismay when I realized my chicken was still extremely raw in the middle. They took the chicken back and put it back on the grill but I think that just made the chicken even worse because it became over cooked and charred.
Overall I still think Pasha in rice village has the best Turkish food and they offer delicious complimentary bread at Pasha unlike this place.

I think it’s possible to go from 2 stars to 5 stars with being the same business but in different locations. It’s entirely a different experience at this Kirby location. On my 3 visits to this location, the staff is exceptionally friendly and attentive. No loud saxophonists and more of a family-​run restaurant feel.
All the dinner entrees that crowded the table kept the table satisfied: My köfte plate, the iskender kebab, the dana sis and of course, the sultan beyti kebab looked beautiful, as usual.
I even got a small Turkish history lesson from all the hanging pictures from my bf’s dad. I must say, my favorite part is the Kunefe. Oh man, it’s heavenly. Apparently it’s one of the only warm Turkish desserts. It’s a shredded wheat type of dough (turns crispy) with mozzarella type of cheese in the middle, warm syrup heavily drenched over, topped with crushed pistachios. Make sure to order some çay to wash this dish down. (I’m even considering changing my «Last Meal on Earth» answer to Kunefe.) I love me some TG Kirby.