Saray

I wasn’t sure about this place as most of the reviews focused on the service but not on the food. I ordered feta parcels and meatballs for starters that were nice and for the mains I had chicken which was very well cooked as it was delicious and moist. I’d suggest dropping by here for dinner it was a good meal.

Saray had big shoes to fill since we had just had a truly delicious Turkish dinner the previous night at Divan in de Jordaan. We were planning on going to a nearby Indonesian place (Warung Spang Makandra) but were turned away by the long wait for a table. At Saray we were warmly greeted and offered a table, but unfortunately that was where the warmth ended.
After giving our order we waited for 20 minutes without drinks before the server came over and asked to take our order again. We didn’t make a fuss, understanding that these things happen. We gave our order a second time and began the next round of waiting. And waiting.
We had ordered the mix meze (a sampling of hot and cold appetizers) for the table. When it finally arrived, it was disappointing. The bread was just ordinary sliced sandwich bread with no warmth or spices or oil like we had enjoyed the night before. I know it’s serving as a vehicle for toppings, but I appreciate when things are thoughtfully prepared or at least warmed up. The baba ganoush (a grilled eggplant-​based spread) was really bland, as was the humus, the calamari was average, and I actually don’t remember the rest of the apps, they didn’t make much of an impression. By this point our hunger was no joke, but as hungry as the three of us were we didn’t even finish everything… seriously says it all.
It was another long wait for the entrée. I think it was a full hour after they cleared the apps. For my entrée I ordered the güveç which was actually a really interesting dish unlike anything I’d ever seen before. It was a lamb stew with assorted veggies, served in an urn with a hard popover-​like bread covering the top of the urn. The server cracks open the top and pours the contents of the stew onto a separate bowl for you to eat. The presentation was great but the actual lamb was tough and almost gamey. I did enjoy dipping pieces of the popover-​topping into the stew’s broth.
The most upsetting part was that midway through the meal our server became incredibly cold toward us. No idea why! We’re very polite people, and although we don’t speak Dutch we did say «dank u wel» frequently. His treatment of us actually made me feel uncomfortable and sad.
So overall: bland food, temperamental server, + extremely slow service = not a great experience.

I don’t know if it is just me or lately i have been stumbling to great Turkish restaurants.
I must admit i did not admit that i would have such a wonderful experience. First of all it has nothing to do with a traditional Turkish restaurant when it comes to decoration. They have a cool new age industrial décor but with the background of Turkish music.
Food wise now i can summarize all in one word… WOW! The meze are simply so many and all of them taste soooooooo yummy. When and if you make it to the main course you better be ready for a pretty large portion that’s is very well prepared and presented.
The service is as good as it gets although sometimes you need to grab their attention.
Ina nut you should give it a try if you want to have a good night out eating Turkish food and listening to good Turkish music

Very very very nice!
I went with office colleagues for a night out and it was brilliant! According to one of my friends who is from Turkish origins and knows the owners, this is the rel deal.
Everything was served in abundance and quality was stellar… service also was really homey and gentle.
Surprise surprise… if you stay long enough and you are a good group, you can get the owner of the restaurant to play the Turkish guitar and sing all together… like you are invited to his home.
We drunk a lot. so the bill at the end was not the cheapest but I would say it is reasonable and totally worth for the quality of food.
According to the owner, this is the oldest Turkish restaurant in Amsterdam. Well, for sure it is good!