Cafe Agora

I can't remember how I first found Cafe Agora. I think I was craving falafel and was looking for a new place to go for it that is closer to home. (I like them at Cafe Sababa, but I'm not a fan of their falafel wrap.)

I had tried before to convince Josh to go to Cafe Agora, but "I found a new falafel place" is not a great argument.

One day, I was chatting online with Eric and he mentioned that he was really loving going to Cafe Agora for lunch, which had just opened a midtown location recently. And they had the elusive iskender kebap, which I had finally identified as the dish I had had at Cappadoce in Paris and the taste memory had been haunting me for years.

So on an available Saturday for lunch, we headed over.

Their parking situation is miserable in that their lot is tight and the spaces are awkward to get in and out of. We ended up parking in someone else's lot, which the parking guy let us. I think we looked like the lost customers we were.

The small seating area was pretty full but the bar was empty, so we opted to sit there.

I had read a lot of reviews of Cafe Agora where feedback was mixed on if the owner was extremely nice or really kind of a pill. Some compared him to the soup nazi. So I knew going in that 1) it was a Turkish place and 2) I was going to eat anything this man told me to.

I stuck with water, but Josh got an Efes, a Turkish beer, that was actually pretty good.

To start, we got the mixed maza platter which includes hummus, eggplant salad, babaganouj, ezme (broiled eggplant), kisir, and piyaz (white bean salad).

It was fantastic. We finished the whole thing. The hummus and babaganouj were delicious and it was so nice to also have the salads which were tasty and refreshing.

I think getting the mixed plate, polishing it off, and raving about it put us in good graces with the owner. He was so nice to us.

Josh was torn on which of the kebabs to get. Our server/bar guy said the adana kebab was his absolute favorite so that's what Josh got. Seasoned ground lamb with pita and a side salad.

It looks delicious and he finished it all.

And for me, I had planned to get the iskender kebap which is lamb gyro meat over pita and a tomato/butter sauce topped with yogurt. It was so heavy and not quite the interpretation I had had in Paris.

The owner came over when I had to pack it up and take home and said that it is their heaviest dish and that he would not have recommended me getting it if he had been the one to take our order. Ah well. First time, I think it would have been hard to convince me to get something else, but next time, I am totally on board with getting whatever he wants me to get. And some dolmas. I would like to try their dolmas.

They are supposed to be moving locations soon to one with more parking. That sounds solid. This is a great place and open all day and both Saturday and Sunday which we find lunch to be the hardest meal to find open places. So we'll be back. For sure.