The Adana Kebob is one of the restaurant's specialties, which I understood to mean one of its most popular items. It is hard to find dinners which do not include some type of meat as the main item, and this may be the main drawback of Istanbul when compared to Cous Cous Cafe (the vegetable tagine at Cous Cous is a great choice for a meatless meal). The adana kebob, though, goes on my list as one of the best meat dishes in the city.

Istanbul has several types of kebob plates, including doner kebab (beef and lamb) and shish kebob (beef). The lamb meat and spices from the adana kebob, though, was a good example of the flavorful Middle Eastern cuisine that is one of my favorites.

The dish came with two types of rice (one with a red color and one with a white color), and I am not sure which one was the Rice Pilaf described on the menu. I thought the rice and salad were good, but they did not strike me as being particularly memorable side dishes as are served in some of the city's Lebanese style restaurants (such as Nunu's and Camilya's).

Turkish pizza

I only had a taste of the Turkish Pizza, but to me the sprinkling of meat and toppings it had did not make it as appetizing as the kebob dinner. The "crust" of the pizza was not the traditional Italian style, and was more like a Middle Eastern flat bread (very good, but the term "pizza" might be a little misleading).

Rice pudding

The Rice Pudding was very good, and was worth ordering (both in terms of the price and in terms of being part of the limited diet of sweets I allow myself to have).

The restaurant served a Turkish Tea which I thought was very plain compared to the mint tea served by Cous Cous Cafe, but Istanbul's tea was also a lot less expensive (so I have no complaints about it).

The menu lists several sandwiches and wraps if you want a smaller meal, but dinner plates are pretty substantial (and the rice was good enough that I tried to eat all of it).