LHB/Voice-Tribune: Istanbul Palace introduces Turkish fare

[Robin Garr]

Voice-Tribune review by LouisvilleHotBytes

Louisville’s first Turkish restaurant has settled down in the East End, as Istanbul Palace, a popular spot in Lexington, has now moved to our town.

If you reckon you might enjoy Turkish food because you love turkey on Thanksgiving, you may want to re-think that: Despite the apparent coincidence of names, the turkey does not come to us from Turkey with a capital T. It’s a North American bird, most likely named by early settlers based on what they thought they heard the American Indians say.

Turkish food, to the casual observer, might seem to resemble Greek food, but I’d be careful about that, too: Turkey and Greece, both of which have been major world powers in their time, have a long record of rivalry, and sadly that relationship has had its rocky periods.

Nevertheless, if you like Greek gyros, chances are that you’ll like Turkish Doner, not to mention all the other “Greek” goodies like humus, baba ghanoush, falafel and taboulleh, all of which actually traveled from the Southwest Asian rim of the Eastern Mediterranean to Greece. I’m not sure who had moussaka or dolmas first, but again, both regions have made them warmly welcome as part of the cuisine.

If you’re looking for an education in Turkish cuisine, Istanbul Palace makes it easy. Opened recently in the Westport Road-area quarters that formerly housed La Perla de Pacifico, it offers a fairly extensive and quite affordable selection of Turkish delights.

Full review on LouisvilleHotBytes.com:
http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/istan ... rkish-fare

Istanbul Palace
2840 Goose Creek Road
425-6060
http://www.istanbulpalace.net

Wonderful dinner at IP tonight. Great food and attentive service. The owner was excited to hear about the write up on Hotbytes.

Hi! I haven't posted in a while, but I still read this site regularly, and appreciate everyone's input, insight, and news, and hope everyone is doing well. Anyway, we've been to Istanbul Palace many times, and love it! The food is great, the people are so friendly, and they somehow managed to make the atmosphere of that space much more inviting. The proximity to our house also makes it appealing, but we would probably venture further for the Iskender, if nothing else. Which brings me to my true point of my post. We were there the other night, and the owner was talking about his new additional location on Bardstown Rd, which he plans to open soon (I think he said a couple of weeks?). It will be called Istanbul Cafe, and will be located at Eastern and Bardstown, across from Qdoba. He said they will have several vegetarian dishes, and I got the impression that this would be part of the restaurant's focus, but don't quote me on that. Also said that they would have very thin flat breads with various toppings, and he was very excited about these. It sounds wonderful, and a neighborhood restaurant option I would've relished (haha) when I lived there, so I thought I'd pass along the news. Oh yeah, site: http://www.istanbulpalace.net/

We were there the other night, and the owner was talking about his new additional location on Bardstown Rd, which he plans to open soon (I think he said a couple of weeks?). It will be called Istanbul Cafe, and will be located at Eastern and Bardstown, across from Qdoba.

Oh, great news. That will be a great addition to the neighborhood.

[Robin Garr]

Oh, great news. That will be a great addition to the neighborhood.

No kidding! I hope it's just like the one out Westport ... and a lot more handy.

Osnap, this new location will be much easier for me to walk to than the one out in the east end.

Oh, great news. That will be a great addition to the neighborhood.

No kidding! I hope it's just like the one out Westport ... and a lot more handy.

This location (Bardstown Rd. and Eastern Parkway) is the place that formerly housed Pizza Roma. It's pretty small, and at present they plan to introduce "Turkish pizzas" to the neighborhood--flatbreads (made in-house) with a variety of meat/cheese/herb toppings that, to my knowledge, are unlike anything else offered in the Louisville area.

The owner prepared some the other day for a gathering at the Turkish Community Center and they were great.

Don't know yet whether he's planning to offer other menu items from their Westport location here or not. Like Kim H said in the earlier post, they'll be calling the new place "Istanbul Cafe" and they hope to open this coming week.

We ate here a few weeks ago -- was quite good. Went a bit overboard on trying basically everything on the menu which jumped the tab up quite a bit, but it was all tasty. Would highly recommend anyone near the area check it out at least once.

The owner of the new Istanbul Cafe at Bardstown Rd. and Eastern Parkway had a quiet opening this afternoon (Thursday).

For the time being, they'll be serving cold foods such as hummus and stuffed grape leaves; hot foods including kebabs, okra and mousakka; plus the new signature items for this location--borek/flatbreads filled with different stuffings and fillings.