11/21/08

delicious food

by Carloma

Can you have the perfect dining experience? YES!

The food is DELICIOUS... richly interesting... good size portions

Whatever you do, try the roasted lamb... shut up... best thing EVER

and the staff is friendly and professional and attentive

05/31/08

The best Turkish restaurant in NYC!

by kmgorman

My husband is Turkish, so we are always looking out for authentic Turkish restaurants with a good atmosphere. Since we tried Turks and Frogs, we've been back at least once every other week. It is by far, the best Turkish restaurant we have tried in NYC, including the outer boroughs. The ingredients in every dish are fresh and interesting, the food is cooked to perfection, the atmosphere is relaxed and moderately classy, and the service is outstanding. We typically sample several of the cold appetizers, including hummus and ezme ("spicy salad"), along with hot appetizers like the zucchini pancakes, which are outstanding . They have the best Coban (Shepherd) salad, too. The entrees are TREMENDOUS and can easily be shared, which makes up for their higher-than-average prices. I highly recommend Turks and Frogs to anyone who is interested in tasting authentic Turkish cuisine in a comfortable atmosphere.

• Pros: Excellent food and service, great wine selection
• Cons: None.

03/16/08

A Jewel Outside The Holland Tunnel

by kem31753

Every month my siblings, wives, & significant others, choose a restaurant for an extended luncheon. This month my brother chose Turks & Frogs. I don't understand the frogs allusion, but from the delicious cuisine of Turkey this restaurant is a winnr. For starts, it's beautiful. Next, the service was outstanding. Neither too much or too little. Our waiter explained the dishes, made recommendations, and conversed with our table of 7 like we were old friends. Every single thing we ate was to die for - the creamy caviar dip and hummus on the crusty hot flatbread. The phyllo cigars of feta cheese. We ordered the lamb dumplings to share across the table as an appetizer. Everything we ordered was prepared to our specifications - medium rare lamb for myself to medium well lamb for my nephew. I had the lamb with eggplant puree. It was perfectly balanced. My nephew, however, made me jealous - his lamb with fresh oregano and lemon was moist, tender, and flavorful. As has been written, the desserts are humble. But you can't go wrong with the rice pudding. I finished my meal with Raki and Turkish coffee. The perfect end to a perfect day. One last thing - the bar tender wasn't there. But a brave waiter got behind the bar and with our supervision, created the signature Turkish Delight cocktail. He did great! We each had 3 apiece. The waiters told us it gets very crowded at night, but we had the restaurant to ourselves for most of Saturday afternoon. Outstanding!

• Pros: Food, Service, Decor, Parking Lot Next Door
• Cons: None

02/11/08

Fresh, colorful and served well!!

by akaJohn

Took a friend here last Saturday night and thoroughly enjoyed it. "Kuzu .i." (Lamb kebok) was quite good, medium rare as requested, and my friends "Kilic .i." (swordfish) really was excellent. Very colorfull presentation, with tasty accompanying dishes. All of the ingredients were absolutely fresh, in particular the salads we ordered, and carefully prepared. The service was good, the only mis-step was that the appetizer we ordered (a nicely spiced ground lamb in a whole wheat shell) was served along with the entre's. Our server was admittedly new, and hadn't quite settled in yet.

Several large parties arrived while we were there, but the service remained attentive. I'm often disappointed in restaurants in NYC, but happily not this one. I'm glad to have found this spot, and absolutely would go there again!

• Pros: fresh ingredients, attentive service, good bar-space
• Cons: A bit of a squeeze as parties moved in & out

10/27/07

elegant & classy

by nyustudent11

A very nice restaurant which handled our large party of 10 smoothly; bread baskets were never empty and servers were mostly very attentive. Food was pretty good and portions were large except for the manti, it is a very small dish. The zucchini pancakes are quite good.

• Pros: elegant ambience, good service
• Cons: a little pricey but still reasonable

01/24/07

Big Entrees

by courtney30

The wines by the glass are overpriced, although you get a big pour with them. the food is decent - the entrees are huge, so I would suggest sharing them - no need to spend the money for the entire dish. For dessert, stay away from the shredded wheat, but the the rice pudding was OK.

01/07/07

Good for Small Group Dinner

by helyn32

A friend of mine recently hosted her birthday dinner at Turks & Frogs. There were ten of us and we were placed in the back of the restaurant, by the bathroom. The location was perfect and allowed for our conversation and a very enjoyable evening. Although the pace of the dinner was slow, the food proved to be very good. Service could have been quicker, but the group enjoyed itself as we waited for appetizers and entrees. The dumplings were good (but VERY heavy, beware!), the lamb flavorful, the chicken kebabs very tender and tasty, and the zucchini pancakes my personal favorite. The portions were VERY large and not one person at the table finished their plate. The ambience was nice - relatively noisy with good mood lighting. I would recommend for a small group celebration / dinner.

12/15/06

Too good!

by analyst101

They bring out the different dishes of food on a tray and describe them, and everything sounds good. We just ordered too many things, but no regrets. The staff is friendly and the decor classy.

• Pros: Treats for the taste buds
• Cons: None

10/21/06

I didnt see any frogs but there were plenty of turks

by chcor70

Food was amazing, not the biggest eater of Turkish cuisine, but the food here was un-real. Maybe the best hummus i ever had. The phyllo dough with Feta and the grilled calamari were also amazing. The waiter recommended an excellent red wine to complement our meal. For the main course we had swordfish skewers and i had the lamb in tomato sauce over eggplant puree which was again just amazingly tasty, i practically licked the plate clean. For dessert the turkish custard and some cement-like turkish coffee (which is expected), it was good. I would skip dessert here and just drink more wine or order another appetizer. We were seated promptly and couples should go in the front, groups in the back due to noise issues the front is nice and quiet. Highly recommended and we will be back. Best part is you can tell your date you know this little out of the way turkish place you want to take her, then if you're as lucky as me she'll pay. As Borat says, "I Like"

• Pros: Hummus, calamari, atmosphere
• Cons: desserts could be a little better as could the prices but who's counting

10/18/06

Great decor, great concept, good food

by mannysteiner

I am disappointed to see the number of "planted" reviews for this restaurant, especially early on. This is a creative approach to a Turkish restaurant and beats the hell out of Turkish Kitchen - the goofy '80s colors there got to go.

The food is good, but it's the same drab stuff the Clinton, NJ revolving door of Turkish "chefs" prepare elsewhere. The creativity of the rest of the place needs to be matched in the kitchen.

• Pros: Concept
• Cons: Menu Creativity