Cafe Istanbul

do not order from here! bad service

Disappointing. Part of our order never arrived. The restaurant did not offer to replace the missing portion of the order.

Barf! Barf! Barf! Thats about al I can say. Food arrived cold and was really inedible, we tried to choke it down anyway because we were hungry… but after three bites it was such a cold nasty mess that we gave up and had cereal– never again.

Ordered food from here and they never delivered and never called. Tried the next day to either get my order or my money back and they were EXTREMELY rude. Do NOT order from this place if you have any intention of eating that meal.

Worst food — period. The platter looked and tasted like an old sock; the fries were oily and soggy, and the kebab was cold and tasteless.

Firstly, this was the first delivery, that hasn’t come to my door. He called me on his phone, from his car. Didn’t even come in the building. I’ve had Turkish food, in Turkey; this wasn’t it. I ordered Adana kebab, but got regular. The dolma filling is nearly all rice. There’s more parsley, than bulgur, in the tabouli. The food was cold, and the hummus and eggplant had a faint cigarette smoke flavor. Very disappointed.

They deserve zero stars! Take this as a warning DO NOT EAT HERE!
We ordered delivery. waited over 2 and a half hours!
We called and they said they had delivered the food? that they came and no one was there? but they didn’t try to call and we were home, hungry, and waiting all that time! We wanted a refund to our credit card, but they refused! So they tried to deliver again. This time they came but we only received half our order, and again they refused to refund what we didn’t receive!
Terrible experience!
We are now calling the credit card company to cancel the payment!

I ordered the chicken avocado pita, fries, and a salad.
It took awhile to arrive but to be fair, I ordered during lunch rush. The sandwich would have been absolutely delicious if it had any sauce or mayo or dressing; it was dry as heck. Flavor was good, but I had to pour tzatziki sauce on it to make it edible, which was runnier than I would have liked.
Next time I’ll ask for some mayo packets and all will be well. Would recommend!

It took more than an hour and a half to get dinner delivered. We’re only a few blocks away!
I don’t even know if the food is going to be good, but it doesn’t matter at this point. Never ordering from this place again.

You know what they say, don’t judge a book by its cover. I’m glad I ordered delivery from this place first, because when I went back with some friends to eat in (having liked the delivery food), I wouldn’t have given the place a second look, with its divey plastic-​booth interior.
But hidden behind the drab décor is a decent Turkish spot with some real standouts on the menu, in addition to typical Italian-​American/​Greek-​American fast-​food fare.
Order the cigar borek, if you’re feeling like indulging your salt– and fat-​tooth, tasty fried phyllo pastry «cigars» stuffed with feta cheese.
The doner kebab was sublime — a beautiful mix of beef, lamb, tomato, garlic, onion, and spice flavors that melt in your mouth, served on a platter with great bread, cacik, rice, and salad. I am not a religious person, so I can’t claim to have had my faith in God restored by the dish, but I really can say that the dish was a robust reminder of why I could never be a committed vegetarian. The Iskander platter, also good, is doner kebab served with tomato and garlic-​yogurt sauce on a bed of toasted pita chips.
Their baklava is one of the best I’ve had in DC.

I wish I had the option of 0 stars.
Poor customer service, Rude Driver/​Delivery Personnel, Missing Food
Placed a pretty large order via GrubHub and opted to pay in cash. Huge mistake! Driver requested a tip (which mistakenly, I thought was included in the delivery charge). When I apologized profusely and told him to hold the food so that I could run up to my apt to get more cash, he said, «How long have you been living in America? Don’t you know you tip at least 15%?»
That insult was incredibly rude, and I did not feel like giving him any extra money at that point (although I still gave him 3 dollars or so more, not requesting change). If that weren’t enough, they forgot 3 items from my order.
GrubHub offered to call the restaurant on my behalf, and they claimed they would redeliver the missing items (no refund could be offered since it was cash) but the delivery never came. At 1am, they told GrubHub they were «around the corner» but again, the order never came. At 8am the next morning, I called GrubHub, and they claimed the restaurant told them they attempted a redeliver but I never answered the door (which was a blatant lie).
Never again. I can deal with missing items, but I will not tolerate rudeness and lies.

I just ordered a falafel pita sandwich from here, and something was really off. I think the vegetables might have been spoiled? I definitely had to spit out a bite and throw away the majority of the sandwich. I am now sitting here and wondering if I am about to start throwing up from food poisoning.
This might just be a one time thing, but I am not going to order from here again to find out.

This review will require a higher dose of bluntness. First, any one of you who rated this place 5 stars, ask yourself two questions…1: «Have I been to Turkey before?» and 2: «Am I brown?»
If you answered «yes» to either or both, there is no possible way you could rate this food that highly. Between the chicken kabob platter, the chicken döner platter, and the mezze basket, I would be embarrassed to face my Turkish mother if I were the proprietor of this place.
The rice was dry and flavorless, the chicken was undercooked, and the lentil kofte tasted like balls of congealed dirt. The only redeeming part of the meal was the large amount of bread we got and the mucver. But with mucver, as for almost anything, you can fry it and it’ll taste good. If you feel any part of this review is an exaggeration, really, go ahead and order food from here and see for yourself.

after a few orders, can only give 2 stars. mostly for plain inconsistency in food quality and service. The first time I ordered from them, loved the food. I usually get the baba ganoush or lentil soup and the greek pizza. Everything was amazing and had food for days. Second time, food took forever, was lackluster, and they forgot the pita that comes with apps. I called and was told they would just take $ 5 off the next order. okay, fair enough.
.so order from them last night, «medium» pizza looks a bit downsized, and was told that the «$ 5 off» wouldn’t be possible but they’ll throw in a dessert. mind you, the desserts are basically the same price as the apps, so why not just take the damn $ 5 off? weird. anyway, was hungry but don’t promise something and then take it back. for what $ 5? So this time they took FOREVER. food was good but pita didn’t seem too fresh and again, pizza looking a little downsized. hmmmm, may be shopping around…

I’m pretty surprised that this place has gotten such a bad rap. I couldn’t have been much happier with our meal.
Salad greens were very fresh across the board, and assembled coarsely enough that you could remove anything you didn’t care for. Pita bread was thick and fluffy, great for sopping up juices or assembling a wrap.
BB gravitated towards the tabouli, one of his go-​to items. I was probably the least enamored with this dish than anything else. It was refreshing thanks to the tang of the lemons, and certainly far from objectionable. I wasn’t planning on picking an appetizer, but my saliva glands read the description of the fried kibbeh and couldn’t resist. I’ve had this dish at several other establishments since then, and what Café Istanbul’s lacked in presentation, it more than made up for in volume and flavor. It was a well-​seasoned meatfest that went well with both carb options on hand.
BB was kind enough to share a bite of his kofte, which was seasoned nicely and grilled beautifully. The meatballs were tender and paired well with the grilled vegetables. But the hunkar begendi, I am in love with. Thoroughly cooked beans mixed with diced stew veg (carrots and celery) are outshone by the tender hunks of lamb shank resting on delicious eggplant purée. The meat was flavorful, moist, ready to be pulled apart with a fork, with all the right touches of fat mixed in. I don’t care that this leaked out of the bag in transit, I could eat this every day for the rest of my life.
TLDR: Hunkar begendi. Fried kibbeh too if you’re really hungry.

This place almost got the 3^rd star out of me, but I just couldn’t do it. The question is, would I ever order from them again? I would have to say «NO». The food is not totally gross and the portions seem good, but the flavor and preparation just simply won’t make the cut.
I tried the chicken kabob platter. The chicken was moist enough, but the platter had very little flavor. If it wasn’t for the yogurt sauce, I probably would not have finished the chicken. It also came with a salad. When I opened up the dressing, they forgot the vinegar because it was all oil.
I also ordered the fried Kibbeh. This was basically a big hunk of fried soggy meat in a tray. Just thinking about it is making me queasy again.
My pita bread was undercooked.
I thought I would give this place a try, but I have to say that Café Istanbul and I do not have a future together.

I was wandering the streets of DC like I usually do when looking for a new place for lunch. It was 99 degrees outside and I couldn’t take the heat much longer so I stopped at this place. Despite what everyone says, this isn’t the greatest place, nor is it the worst place. This place almost got 4 stars on my list but I’m really stingy when it comes to my stars.
They had very reasonable lunch specials for like less than $ 9. The one I got was pita, fries, and a drink. I got the veggie pita with hummus, and it was amazing. The veggies were surprisingly fresh, and the hummus was delicious. Not sure if it was homemade, but it was good nonetheless. The fries were mediocre but seriously, the veggie pita was worth it. It’s an hour later and I’m still feeling good after that lunch.
The reason why it doesn’t get a 4 star in my book is because there was a lot of confusion in the kitchen with the orders. It took them like 10 minutes to throw my dish together, and it looked they were scrambling to get other people’s orders straightened up too. The pizza’s looked average, and from what other people are saying, they don’t give you good meat portions in your dishes.
So 3-​stars for now, hopefully I will be upgrading them the next time I stop by. The veggie pita with hummus is bangin though, I highly recommend that if you go.

It was only after I ordered a Lamb Shish Platter that I saw on Unilocal (on my phone) that this place got an unambiguously stinky review. Then, I played with the idea of just walking out only to realize that I had already paid 9 dollars for the thing. Only thing I could do was to hope that the four Unilocalers who destroyed this place were so inebriated to render their taste buds and texture-​sensor-​receptor useless.
Apparently, they weren’t so drunk.
I was indifferent toward the lamb’s complex and distant flavors of Morton salt and pepper. My biggest beef (or lamb) was the portion size. My goodness, where do they raise these midget lambs? These small morsels of meat felt more like a side dish then a main dish.
Yea, midget lambs might be cute n’ all but if it prompts a customer to run back to my place, create a Unilocal account just to critize the place, then perhaps Mary should keep a tight rein on her little lamb.

This is not TURKISH food! Nothing came as it was supposed to. Lamb was small and dry, fatoush was NOT Fatoush! It came with chunks of OLD dry bread that almost broke my teeth. The salad was wilted and gross.
NEVER EVER ORDER FROM THEM.
Go to Agora or somewhere else for real Turkish food!

Ordered post-​midnight delivery through
, because this was one of the only options that wasn’t pizza. For even being open, and for delivering to my place, and for being quick, and for getting the order right, they arguably deserve 2 stars alone.
But, unfortunately, they didn’t earn any more stars from there. The doner sandwich was plain and dry, lacking seasoning. The babaganoush was plain, as well.
All in all, it’s edible. It’s «fine.» Sometimes that’s all you’re asking for at 1 AM. But it certainly doesn’t stand out amongst other kabob shops.
I hear they’re still new in town, so hopefully they’ll improve their quality over time. Their prices aren’t bad, and I would hate to lose one of the only late-​night delivery options we have.