Café Divan

Monday 12:00 p.m. — 1 person (Carry-​out)
1. Ambiance: Adorable little area on the left side of the main restaurant stands a small carry-​out section of the establishment. A few high tables and chairs for customers to engage in quick eats and/​or waiting for their food to prepared. I did not dine at this restaurant, hence I could not give a fair assessment of the ambiance at their main area.
2. Food: The aroma was great as I first entered the place. I am a fan of Turkish food and kebab. I saw the lamb on the verticle spit and knew I had to order it. I ordered the Doner Kebab Sandwich, which had lamb and veal inside a pita bread. The meat was tender and delicious and the pita was crispy on the outside as I crunched down on the sandwich.
3. Service: I do not remember the chef’s name that took my order, but he was friendly and explained the menu and different items to me. It was a quick and easy order. They really strive to provide a fast service for carry-​out orders.
4. Costs: My sandwhich was $ 7.25, which is reasonable. I wished they would stuff my sandwich with more meat. Considering that most sandwiches around the Georgetown area are around that price range, it is safe to say that the price is at a market standard.
5. Overall Experience: I had a great experience and thoroughly enjoyed my sandwich. It would be great if the restaurant would provide more meat inside the sandwich to create a fulfilling lunch. I will definitely be back to try some wood burning oven specials. That part of the menu caught my eyes the last time I was there.

Very authentic Turkish cuisine. This is how homemade food tastes in Turkey. All the dishes are excellent & bread is baked fresh in a brick oven. Sweets are nice & their lentil soup is the best thing for a cold winter’s night.

I just visited Turkey last summer, so I was excited to try this restaurant when my friend recommended it and see how it compares. I’m happy to say that they were pretty darn close! Their tea was exactly what I remember, and even came in the correct type of cup. The ambiance was very nice and service was good. Now onto the food!
Mixed Meze Platter — we were too indecisive to choose just 1 appetizer so this was a great way to sample a little bit of everything
Manti — basically tiny ravioli, which were amazing and delicious
Iskender Kebab and Yogurtlu Kofte — although very similar in taste, both were very flavorful
Kazan Dibi — (dessert) so surprisingly delicious that we ended up ordering a second one! It was really amazing and I would highly recommend it.

Mediocre iskender, patlican pide was okay. Kunefe was okay. Tea was disappointingly bad.

Staff are quite friendly and service is rather good. I had a simple breakfast dish shortly after their opening. The cheese was somewhat cold, but the potatoes and fruit were quite tasty. Their Turkish coffee is good, but not fantastic.

Rounded up from 3.7 stars
Right across from Safeway on Wisconsin Ave, Café Divan offers the most authentic Turkish food in the area according to my Turkish friend. We were greeted by a nice hostess and seated by the window — always a plus for me :) anyone who’s helped us throughout the evening was friendly and helpful.
We ordered a mixed meze platter for two which comes with dolma (stuffed vine leaves), hummus, and cigar borek (fillo dough with feta cheese and dill). I have never been a fan of dolma, so I didn’t even try them. I loved their cigar borek. I do however think that the price ($ 14.95) for the platter for two wasn’t worth it.
We then ordered lahmacun (Turkish pizza with lamb and herbs), which was alright. For my main entrée, I asked for Hunkar Begendi — if you like tender lamb meat and eggplant, you will like this dish. In this case it was puréed eggplant, but I love anything eggplant. My friend had the Iskender Kabob which is thin slices of lamb served over toasted pita with tomato and yogurt — a lot of delicious in one dish.
What I was mostly happy about is they had apricot juice and it was super yummy! Apricot juice is not something you normally see on the juices menu, but that’s what I used to have back home so I was pretty excited :) (it’s the little things!)

STAY AWAY! Let me start off by saying that the servers were very friendly, the available wine was good, and one of the dishes out of the three was tasty. Everything else goes downhill after that. The chicken dish we ordered had the oddest, most unrecognizable texture. At first, we thought it was undercooked, but after closer examination, we concluded that this wasn’t the case. If it wasn’t for the appearance, I would have thought it was some sort of fake McDonald’s chicken nugget chicken, except not as good (no, I don’t enjoy McDonald’s chicken nugget chicken). After taking a few more bites and considering whether our inexperience with Turkish food was the culprit, we came to our good senses after gagging a couple times and sent it back to the kitchen. Yeah… that bad! After being recommended a beef dish (beef tenderloin) to replace the chicken, we took two bites and immediately had to abort. You’d think that after a couple glasses of wine, everything would taste OK, but even the wine couldn’t save this dish. I’ve had one other experience with beef that met the challenge of tasting like ashy medicine and that was in Mexico. One more thing, we got charged for the chicken dish, to boot.
Thanks Café Divan, you’ve ruined our taste for Turkish food for the foreseeable future.

Only giving one star because I can’t give 0. Called and mass reservation for my husbands birthday. I was told that we have reservations and when I got here I was told they are full and had no record of our reservation. Asked several workers to see the manager and was told that they were not available. No one offered us a drink.
Service is horrible food is good.

Wonderful food, friendly staff! I had the Turkish pizza and it was awesome. Server was friendly and knowledgable, food was servered in a timely manor and was fresh and pipping hot

The most authentic Turkish food in DC. Great service as well.
I recommend sigara boregi for an appetizer. Raki is a licorice liquor famous in Turkey if you’re interested in trying something new.

I came here for a company dinner that was held in a back room. They were very accommodating despite our odd set-​up and requests. The food was delicious! We ordered a little bit of everything, probably ~10−12 different kinds of dishes (to feed 12 people) and nothing disappointed. It came out very quickly. The owner was a friend of one member of our group so perhaps thats why things went so well but I’ll definitely come back.

They have the worst Custemer service I ever seen. They were very slow.
I would not go back there.

We went there for brunch on Sunday. The food was very good, the service was nice. Tea was original turkish tea and made well.

While coming here 4 – 5 times over the past several months I feel that the quality of thief food and service has steadily improved. Their Lahmadjun now is very close to the ones in turkey, crispy and light. Soujouk pide was delicious, hearty and very satisfactory portion. Good service, nice atmosphere. I can’t wait to try their brunch for next time. I’d recommend you order the bottled Ayran over their homemade one which is thinner and not adequately salty.

i love their foods. there s a really good appetizer too, the service is good and always when i go there i got what i like, you should try the ’ konafa’ it s delicious in this place, couple of times i saw the owner he is always looking around and wants to be sure that the customer are satisfy with food and the service.

Pricy but exquisite. I ordered the Iskender Kebab, the veal was tender and well done, and the yogurt sauce was just delicious. Would definitely recommend it.

I’m studying abroad in Turkey next year for my MBA program and my professor (who’s from Turkey) wanted to take everyone out to get a taste for Turkish food before we go. If a turk brought me here, you know it must be pretty authentic.
I have no idea what I ordered but it was very tasty. They also brought out a dessert sampler for the whole group which was lovely. Good authentic Turkish food and great service.
Make sure you try Raki, the traditional Turkish liquor for the full experience.

I was so disappointed with this place. I had been wanting to go with my boyfriend and we ended up going for breakfast. I got the eggs Benedict and had egg shells in my food and bit into it and was immediately appalled. I told the waitress and she brought it back but only said sorry people make mistakes. I was waiting for awhile and no one came over and apologized for the food or anything. Instead another waitress came over being like oh I guess you liked the food I was like no and told her what happened again no one apologized. Thankfully they at least did not but it on the bill but I will never be going back and would not recommend it to anyone!

Nice place, just ok to eat food– not best representation of «real» Turkish but then it’s not easy to find it anyways…
Cacik is good, doner (gyro) is fine, it’s pilav (rice) is not authentic Turkish rice which is so easy to make. Manti (turkish risotto) is saved by the garlic & yogurt only. Fried eggplant was thick unlike turkish versions, shepherds salad’s first one was ok (apart from cheese crumbles), second one came with balsamic vinaigraitte!!!
I would love to assume the chef is recently changed in the kitchen and never tasted a real Turkish food… Still 3 stars for nice people, lovely atmosphere and the «Turkish» hope that things can miraculously turn to the better side…

Love this place!!!

this review is for about 4 – 5 months ago.
I went there with one of my American friends to introduce her the Turkish cuisine and i will tell you that it was AWFUL!!!
We got «Aryan» the yogurt soda and it was stale so i was scared to drink it. Their borek was stale too, the waiter said oh because we only make it on Wednesdays, well it was Tuesday so it was a 7 day old food!!! YUK!!!
Their kabobs were awful too!
oh not to forget i had 2 big flies in my salad and one in my kabob!!!
STAY AWAY FROM HERE!

this review is for about 4 – 5 months ago.
I went there with one of my American friends to introduce her the Turkish cuisine and i will tell you that it was AWFUL!!!
We got «Ayran» the yogurt soda and it was stale so i was scared to drink it. Their borek was stale too, the waiter said oh because we only make it on Wednesdays, well it was Tuesday so it was a 7 day old food!!! YUK!!!
Their kabobs were awful too!
oh not to forget i had 2 big flies in my salad and one in my kabob!!!
STAY AWAY FROM HERE!

I honestly only come to Divan for their Kunafa (dessert) but I’ve tried their actual food and it’s mediocre. For Turkish cuisine, I’ve tried better in the area but I have to give it to Divan, their Kunafa is out of this word. If you do go, order the Kunafa with a side of vanilla ice cream. You’re welcome.

Staff like oatmeal. Food tasty but confusing in terms of temperature — not sure if okra dish was suppose to be hot, cold or room temperature. Atmosphere cute but missing something — personality maybe. I came here in a pinch while waiting for hair appointment across the street. I may come back for wine — in a pinch, maybe. Or I’ll go to Safeway for a bottle of wine to take home!

Em visita a Washington eu e minha esposa nos hospedamos em Georgetown. 2 quarteirões do hotel encontramos no Unilocal este restaurante e como adoramos este tipo de comida fomos provar. Dividimos entrada Mixed Maze Platter que estava excelente. Principal dividimos um Mix Divan que foi uma boa opção para testar um pouco de outros pratos mas a comida chegou um pouco fria. Ó restaurante tem aspecto bom, limpo, serviço atencioso mas demorava muito para trazer o refil do iced tea. Recomendo o restaurante, levou 4 pela comida um pouco fria e demora no refil da bebida

My friends from Istanbul highly recommend this place. I have been several times with them and the kebab dishes are excellent.
I am very particular when it comes to how meat is prepared and cooked.
The Iskender Kebab is my favorite kebab dish!
I also recommend the Shephard salad, Hommus, Manti Mediterranean Pizza, and Baklava with one scoop of vanilla Ice cream.

One of the few Turkish food joints I can think of in the DC area.
It’s always tricky, I mean you got to have doner right? But honestly I need variety as I sat with some simple chai and pondered the full tasty menu.
I went for the Divan mix, which would allow me a good variety to check on the quality of their meats. It soon became obvious that I was more jealous of my dining compatriots plates.
First their hummus is really solid, and you get LOTS of it to scoop up that you’ll have to dig into the bread basket to partake in its goodness. Their house garden salad is classic with the feta another can’t go wrong, and then it comes to entrees.
Iskender is where it’s at… the lamb here is just juicy and full of flavor. I had a few pieces on my plate, but I also had no yogurt sauce, leaving the simple rice to eat, but no thickness and creamy texture to go with my mixed plate. The chicken items as gently spiced as they were also came out just a hair to dry, but the doner and lamb shine.
If you are up for some simple and tasty doner and lamb then you wont be disappointed.

I love Café Divan but had pretty poor service the other night when I went. The waiter wanted to get us out there as fast as possible. He took my food before I was done and brought the check even faster. When I put my card down, he was there to swoop it up and bring it back within seconds. I ordered dessert basically just to annoy him.
The food is always great, though.

Amazing authentic Turkish food. Everything is flavorful and tastey. The service is excellent and they are very pleasent. This is thr only place I eat lamb at. The dessert is worth thr calories (kunfa).

So… love this place.
It was my first time there today, though my husband has been a few times before. I have some experience with Turkish food, as my husband is Turkish and I have been to Turkey. That said, I was happy with everything we ordered on this visit.
We started with lentil soup, and it was very nice, served with a slice of lemon.
We also ordered three different items under the wood burning oven section (with the intention of eating some and bringing the rest home). We got the eggplant pide, Turkish pastrami pide and sucuk pide. All of them were delicious.
The first thing I look for when I go somewhere that might have it, is the Iskender. When I saw it on their menu, I didn’t look any further. We both ordered it. The portion was generous, it was filling and was overall pretty good. I would suggest serving it with more yogurt (husband agrees), but that’s probably just personal preference.
We had tea throughout the meal, and it was very nice. When we ran out, we were promptly brought more. I would have tried a dessert, but I was too full. Maybe next time!

I’ve always passed by Café Divan on my way to work; I was finally able to check it out for lunch, as I’ve heard some great things about it from one of my co-​workers! Cavit Ozturk is the owner, and the chef is Yucel Atalay. They recently added a brunch menu that I always see signs of, as well as a lunch/​dinner/​carry-​out offerings (such as soups, salads, appetizers, kabobs, sandwiches, wood-​burning oven specials, and desserts). My friend and I shared the Mixed Meze Platter (they have options for portions for 1 or 2: dolmas, hummus, feta cheese slices, lentil kofte, and the sigara borek; the dolmas were stuffed to the max with rice, and they were good; the hummus was thick and creamy; the feta cheeses were generously sliced; the lentil kofte was interesting, as it was red lentils, cracked wheat, all in a sausage-​shaped mound; the sigara borek is a phyllo stick filled with feta cheese, which was just okay, but probably would have been better with some meat fillings; all were served cold). I also tried their Falafel (mini kibbeh-​shaped patties of chick peas, fried; these came with a nice generous cup of thick tahini sauce; I thought they were more on the bland side). For the entrée, I had the Iskender Kabob, which thinly-​sliced marinated lamb and veal (think of gyro slices), served with sauteed tomato and yogurt sauce — the meats weren’t as savory as I thought they would be (but, extremely generous in portion), and it came on a bed of tomato and yogurt sauce that was plentiful — I only wished it came with rice (which you can also add at an additional charge). I was curious about their Turkish Pides, which a Turkish version of pies — I tried the Lahmacun, which was a Turkish round pizza, topped with chopped ground lamb, vegetables, and herbs, with a side of lettuce, tomato, and onion. This was described to be thin and crispy, but it was actually cold and a little sloggy; however, I did appreciate the fact that it was thin, and the ground lamb on top with the spices was savory and fragrant. The service here was very nice and friendly, and I liked how their carry-​out section is separated from their main dining area. Parking is metered up along Wisconsin, but limited. I would like to go back and try out their kabobs and actually dine-​in at the restaurant, as I feel as if the food will be super fresh and really hot!
+Lahmacun (thin, and request it to be extra crispy)
+request extra bread
+friendly and kind staff: D
+carry-​out section; recommend to dine-​in so that your food will be hot and fresh!

It’s right across the street from where I work, and perhaps partially it’s the convenience speaking, but I really like this little café! The ambiance is very classy, and never crowded during lunch time, which is awesome.
My coworkers LOVE their lamb dishes, and I really liked their yogurtlu kabab. Only complaint is that I like my kabab with rice… but they serve it on pita bread. Although I do love pita bread, I like my bread a bit crunchy. The pita bread that comes with the kabab is all soggy because of the sauce.
I also liked their pides (kind of like flat bread or pizza). I’ve never had pides anywhere else, so I have nothing to compare it to. All I know is I would get it again!

Came here at 10 AM on a Saturday morning, it was deserted except for one loud table of six. They sat me at a table right next to this group. You would have thought it was 10 PM the way they carried on. There was plenty of space elsewhere which would have made for a much more pleasant dining experience.
Anyways I ordered the 2 eggs any style with potatoes, toast and a fruit cup. The food came promptly. The toast was served with only one small piece of butter and no jam. The scrambled eggs seemed fine on the outside but on the inside they were watery and flavorless. The fruit cup was good, but the potatoes were buttery and not crispy like I expect breakfast potatoes to be. The service was fine, and the breakfast filling. However it was nothing that I would come back for again.
I would much rather walk all the way down Wisconsin to N st and eat breakfast at St. Martins!

I’ve never had Turkish food before Café Divan. No, strike that… I’ve had some bad baklava, which turned me off of Turkish food for a long time. I accidentally let that slip to a Turkish coworker of mine, and immediately afterwards he said that we NEEDED to go to Café Divan. I reluctantly agreed.
I was late, and they held our table of four without any questions. The wait staff came immediately and were very attentive. Then again, the restaurant was pretty empty so they shouldn’t be too busy with anything else.
I didn’t know much of what was on the menu. My Turkish friend ordered something for me (in Turkish, which the wait staff all spoke… So if you’re concerned about authenticity, these guys are at least Turkish.) I can’t remember what it was called, but he likened it to a Turkish pizza. It came out quickly and was delicious. Warm, gooey, and very flavorful.
It was baklava time now, though. I thought it was pretty good, but let me tell you about the real star of Turkish deserts: kunefe/​kunefa. SO GOOD. I’d come back just for that cheesy sweet delicacy.
My Turkish friend isn’t in DC anymore, but I need to go back. I think I can brave the menu options alone, but, just in case, the wait staff is friendly enough to help you in case you can’t.