Istanbul Express Turkish Restaurant

Small, busy restaurant at dinner time. Arabic salad and hummus were great! Chicken kabob wasn’t fully cooked which was disappointing. Turkish beer and deserts round out the meal. Service was quick and friendly.

Those who know me, will know that I love a «dirty» kebab. Not just at the end of a big night out, but also at lunchtime — yes I’m that crazy. Istanbul express is a shining beacon of fast food kebabs restaurants in Hong Kong. For a very reasonable cost, you get an authentic Turkish kebab experience, but you also don’t run the risk of a dodgy gut, which I find so often is the case with some of the other chain kebab restaurants in Hong Kong.
Located on Lockhart Road of website, I’m surprised at this restaurant isn’t more busy during lunchtime and in the evenings. During lunch, I find that I can often get a table for two or three fairly quickly. They also have a reasonable costing lunch set, which is around HK$ 60 and includes a soft drink. In the evenings, I find it even easier to get a table.
The menu is full of great delights; lamb and chicken shish kebabs, doner kebabs, and various other grilled meats, with or without bread. They also serve appetisers; humus, falafel, cheese spring rolls, and side dishes; chips, salads, rice. One of the menu highlight, that I don;t see much of in HK, is the lahmacun, which is like a pizza with meat on it. It’s very tasty and worth a try.
I think what makes this particular café/​restaurant successful in its delivery of tasty food, is that it is run by Turkish owners. Some of the other chain kebab stores seem to be run by Filipinos, who, whilst making every effort, are only making an approximation to the Middle Eastern food.
Look, at the end of the day this is a kebab. It’s not gourmet Turkish/​Middle Eastern cooking we talking about here. It is a quick, hot, tasty meal, full of salt, fat and sauce, that’ll soak up a few too many pints. However as anybody knows when you need a kebab, you really need a kebab, so you might as well get a fairly decent one at that.