Ottoman Taverna (***)
425 I St NW Washington, DC 20001
Last week, hubby and I took a “trip” to Tükiye for some yummy bites. Random thought: I don’t know what in my mind possessed me to think that it would be a good idea to drive into Washington DC for dinner. It’s kind of funny how driving 10 miles can take damn near an hour in these parts. I figured that it would be faster to drive to the restaurant rather than driving to the metro station, waiting for and then taking the subway, and finally walking to the restaurant.
Overall, we had a splendid time at Ottoman Taverna because the food and the service were amazing. Ottoman Taverna makes life a bit simple with its Trip to Tükiye deal for 40 bucks that includes a four-course meal.
Oppsss, I did it again and didn’t take pictures of everything. Actually, it was a bit difficult to get a good photo (then again, none of my food photos are that great) because the bar had a backlight. Overall, everything we had was absolutely AMAZING, and I definitely would return for some more bites. For my dining pleasure:
1st course: Ezme (sun-dried tomato paste with onion, green pepper, garlic, parsley & Turkish spices)
2nd course: Patates Köfte (potato cakes with crumbled feta & yogurt sauce)
3rd course (pictured above): Tavuk Sis (char-grilled chicken cubes seasoned with Turkish spices & served with bulgur pilav, ezme and carrot-red cabbage slaw)
4th course: Katmer (phyllo dough stuffed with cream & pistachio)
OMG! As I’m writing this, my mouth is salivating over my 3rd course because the chicken was beautifully seasoned and soooooo juicy. I don’t know why, but there is something about the “simplicity” of Turkish food that makes it so delicious – you just need a grill, some meat, and seasoning. There’s no need for fancy sauces with 85 million ingredients.