Oskar Kebab

Turkish flag ahoy!

***Update 6/11/2018***
This place is closed and has been replaced by another restaurant that I will probably never review.
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Rating: Very good
Meal: Lunch for 2
Price:  1400 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Two kebab special plates, minus rice
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: Yes

My wife and I stopped by an Indian spice store near Ueno station on the way home from church on Sunday.  We were famished and turned around to see a most welcome sight:  a turkish flag!  Our experience with donner kebabs in Japan hasn't been that great, but these people looked legit and we were hungry for meat (low carb diet at the moment), so we gave it a shot.

It's a small place with some bar seating inside and small tables outside.  When we placed our order for two kebab plates with no rice, the cook said he would make us some extra salad to go with it, much to our delight.  Then he gave us two small hummous bowls and a bowl of tzatziki to go with it.  The hummous wasn't the best but the tzatziki was good and all of it mixed together with the salad and meat was delicious and hit the spot.

The shawarma meat wasn't quite spiced the same as it is in the Gulf countries, so we've never been as fond of Turkish donner kebab as we are of Gulf shawarmas, but this was still better than most that we've had in Japan.  And the generosity of the owner definitely was a plus, as was the price.  Looking forward to returning when we can eat bread again and trying his pide!

Kedar Kebab

Rating: Not great
Meal: Dinner for 2
Price: 4500 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Mousaka, tavuk sis
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: Yes

Our second spot to try during our evening in Roppongi, my wife and I were suckered in by a Turkish food stall that purported to have shisha.  We should have moved on, but unfortunately we stuck it out for a while.

The food was quite forgettable, with the mousaka being essentially spaghetti sauce with eggplant, and the roasted chicken quite flavorless.

And the shisha was terrible.  Oh, and everything was expensive.  Not recommended.

Kosebasi

Rating: Very good
Meal:  Dinner for 2
Price:  13.9 BHD
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: lentil soup, zucchini garlic yogurt dip, pide, manti
English Menu: Yes
Smoking:No

Köşebaşı (pronounced "kuhshebahshi") is a Turkish restaurant in the Citycentre mall in Bahrain.  My wife and I were there the other day and decided to eat dinner here.  Turkish food is a bit of a mystery to me, as it seems to be the origination of many foods I love, but when I eat actual Turkish food it's usually a bit of a disappointment.  The worst was Istanbul itself, which had lots of delicious looking food in all the restaurants, but when I tasted it it was usually pretty bland.  Even dönner kebabs, which migrated to Germany from Turkey, and from there eventually to London where I first had one, were a great disappointment (in both Turkey and Germany).  But this place looked good so we decided to give it a shot.

lentil soup, yogurt dip and bread

Good thing we did, it was very good!  The lentil soup was incredible, and the zucchini garlic yogurt dip truly off the charts.  The free bread that came with the dip was top quality.  We got a lamb dumpling dish covered with yogurt that was good, but not great, and a pide that was also tasty but not my favorite.  Still, overall the meal was delicious and I would love to go back some day.

pide

lamb manti

spinach thing (not our favorite)

Hometown Grill

Rating: Very good
Meal:  Dinner
Price:  .600 BHD
Payment:  Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Special Meat Shawarma
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No (maybe though)

Hometown Grill is one of the new spots on Shebab Avenue since I was here last.  And a very welcome addition it is!  They advertise as Turkish grill, but I think they are pretty generic as far as grills go.  Not that I'm complaining, they have all the usual stuff, which I think is great!  

Since I had a rather large lunch and wasn't feeling up to a full meal I thought I'd try out the shawarma.  They had the usual chicken and meat (beef I'm told) and then something that started with an M that I can't recall precisely.  They said it had cheese in it.  Hmmm...kind of a risk, but I took it.

Wow, that was a tasty shawarma!  I know I harp on this, but in Yokosuka all of the shawarma stands (even my favorite one) just don't spice the meat very much.  Sometimes I wonder if it's just nostalgia that keeps me complaining, but no...it really can taste that good!  If they added cheese it must have been a white pasty kind because it was smeared nicely.  Good, I was worried it would be kind of processed monstrosity.  There were some pickles in there and one or two french fries.  It was a bit lacking in greens, but oh well, it was still delicious.

Well, I really wish I had time to come back and try some of the great looking rice dishes they had (machmous, biriyani and something called a mandy).  Who knows, maybe I will get the chance to go back, it's on the way to and from work.  The Hometown Grill gets a Very Good.