MenuPages

It is a brave family that opens a small, ethnic, BYO restaurant in a neighborhood filled with choice and excellence. The soups are delicious, the shishkabab is superb, and the baklava - made with walnuts - is the best I have tasted whether in Turkey or Greece. Bravo, Agora. May you be around forever.

The fish, all salty goodness, reminded me of that fabulous little place next to the fish market in Üsküdar. The pictures of Istanbul made me want to book the next flight. The price didn't blow my very tight budget. And it was BYOB!

There is an old Turkish saying that a cook who can make good pilaf will be good at cooking everything else. Unfortunately Agora may be the exception to this rule, because their rice was the only good (aka "edible") among the several dishes I sampled today. The rest was highly unpalatable as follows: Zucchini pancakes: tasted more like dough than zucchinis. They were greasy absent any kind of real feta cheese flavor. Stuffed vine leaves: DRY. Not acceptable, period. Adana Kebab: The rice was OK and so were the vegetables. But the meat was of very low quality (with chewy pieces of cartilage) and the yogurt was sour. To sum it all up, they need a new cook who can manage the pilaf as well as the rest of the Turkish cuisine.

Some of the best Turkish food I have had, and I am middle eastern. Dishes are priced so well, talk about cheap eats. The service is amazing. Every dish I have had has been delicious. It is small but honestly the service and the food make up for the small atmosphere. Try this place and I guarantee you will not be sorry and you will become hooked. Soon you will have to fight people to get a spot to eat.