Izmir Kofte

by Celia Sin-Tien Cheng
December 13, 2006

TAKSIM [CLOSED]
99 2nd Ave
(5th & 6th Sts)
New York, NY 10003
212-979-5400

I tried the original Midtown Taksim just about a month ago and it didn’t make enough of an impression for me to write a review, good or bad. This new East Village sister restaurant however, has offended me enough to write about.

Taksim is hard to miss on this Second Avenue block as the signage and exterior is very red. The restaurant interior is large and spacious, which accentuates the emptiness when there aren’t enough diners to fill the space. The meze and hot entrees are all displayed behind the glass counters, in front of the kitchen, creating a very open and eye-catching atmosphere. Despite the fact that it was rather empty on a Wednesday night, I initially thought there was hope when I first walked in. As the evening progressed, positive feelings kept giving way to dissatisfaction and disappointment. Sigh! The search for yummy Turkish food continues. It’s just that this one is so close to home!

I went to Taksim with my Turkish friend, Cem. As soon as we sat down, Cem complained about the music — a mix of Turkish, Arabic, Egyptian and Greek pop that had an unnervingly heavy beat for dinner time and became annoying very quickly — and mid meal asked them to turn it down as it was so loud we felt like we had to yell at each other to communicate. The meze and shepherd salad were standard enough but not memorable, which was how I felt about the entire meal at the Midtown Taksim. At that point, things were still okay. For mains we ordered the Izmir kofte (meatballs cooked in a tomato sauce with potatoes and green peppers, Izmir’s most famous local dish) and the special, tandir (lamb cooked in the oven for 8 hours), both dishes served over rice. I love Izmir kofte and had the pleasure to try a very traditional and delicious restaurant that specialized in it while in the town of Alacati, close to Izmir, the 3rd largest Turkish city located on the Aegean coast. It’s mouth watering because the lamb meatballs, potato and green peppers simmer in juices of the tomato, and when poured over rice, the rice soaks up all the goodness. Back to reality here in NY, at Taksim: it’s not quite as good but still appetizing. The tandir, turned out to be just pieces of lamb meat over rice. I have a suspicious feeling that the meat was not cooked in the oven for 8 hours, and if it was, what a waste of time! Cem and I picked at the tandir a little but then moved on to devour the Izmir kofte. The tandir remains a mystery to me since there was no sauce, no yogurt, clearly just lamb over rice. Of course, I understand when lamb is supposed to be so tender that it needs no embellishments, it should be eaten alone, but we definitely didn’t reach that level of culinary excellence in this case. I even struggle to recall if there were traces of onion with the meat. When I asked Cem, he said, “I’m not sure but it just tasted like bad rice underneath bad lamb meat.”

Service is friendly but not polished. Our Irish waitress would come and ask how things were when Cem and I were most engaged in conversation and at other times when we needed attention was somewhere far away. The manager was also very chatty, trying to befriend the customers to ensure repeat business. He’s Turkish, which is a good sign, but I found it rather offensive that when he stopped by our table to ask how everything was, I politely replied, “good,” to which he responded, “That’s good that you liked it but I’m asking the person who counts because he knows what it should really taste like.” Wow! If I actually cared and thought there was hope I would have considered that a slap in the face. This is after Cem told him I had just returned from Turkey, no less.

Did dessert at least save the day? No. The almond pudding was disgusting. It was watery and did not exude the aromatic flavors of almond. I wondered if they’d given us the rice pudding by mistake but then started chewing the almond slices so I realized that it must be the almond pudding. I prefer to determine my food based on a combination of taste and texture, rather than just the latter.

When leaving, the manager again came by to ask us how things were, and Cem gave him a piece of his mind about how disturbing the music was, a good way to drive customers away. Though they conversed in Turkish, their attitudes clearly revealed the nature of the exchange. The manager replied that this is the type of music the owners want to play. Well, in that case, the owners shouldn’t count on doing much business because if it’s just about them and not about the diners, they should get out of the hospitality business. Go take some lessons from Danny Meyer, please!

Also in East Village, Meat, Turkish