Taksim

There do exist neighborhood gems.  Restaurants not helmed by a well known chef, not part of any restaurant group, no flashy signature dishes.  When I was recently looking for a place to have a casual meal with a few visitors, I thought I found just the place: Taksim.

"Inspired by a modern approach to authentic Mediterranean cuisine."

Taksim is a Mediterranean restaurant, which is never my goto, but, reviews really are shockingly good - across Yelp, Google reviews, OpenTable, etc.  It just opened in 2022, but, response has been really positive.  It sounded like a gem just waiting to be discovered (by me, as many others seem to have already found it).   I was able to easily make a reservation just a day in advance for our group of 3, for an early dinner (5:30pm), as my visitors had just landed from Australia that morning, and wanted an early and fast meal.  We were the first, and only, table seated when we arrived, and had the place to ourselves for at least half an hour.

Sadly, overall, there was nothing very good about this dining experience.  Service was slow.   Plating was nice, but it mostly seemed like the restaurant was trying too hard to be fancy, and didn't deliver food that tasted up to the looks.  Several dishes were not served very warm.  One seemed raw when it shouldn't be.  We were all underwhelmed, and thought it was far overpriced.  I wouldn't return.

Dining Room.

The interior really has a nice feel to it, with chef's counter seating along the open kitchen, wooden tables and chairs for the main dining area, classy drop lighting.  Ambiance wise, really a reasonable place.

Amuse Bouche: Black Carrot Soup.

Once we sat, our server came over with an amuse bouche.  It was brought before we ordered food, or had a chance to mention food allergies.  Generally restaurants wait until you've ordered to serve a welcome bite?

Anyway, it was warm, but not hot.  It was quite  flavorful - in addition to the black carrot, it had beets in it too, and cream.  Tart and sweet and creamy.  Fairly interesting.  One of the better bites/sips.  ***.

Salad: Beets. $16.

"Slow roasted red & gold beets, apple & celery labneh, orange, sultanas, walnuts, pea tendrils."

Strangely, the first dish to hit our table was the salad, even though we ordered two meze.

I wouldn't have ordered this dish and would have preferred the other salad option, as I don't care for cooked beets, but I did want some vegetables, and the other diner who wanted a salad selected this one before I could speak up.

It was pretty, but definitely not my thing.  The roast beets were, well, beets.  The labneh underneath it all was creamy and decent.  Citrus and plump sultanas did go nicely with it, and I liked the crunch from the bits of nut, but yeah, this was cooked beets, and the pea tendrils were dressed with vinaigrette (never my thing), so those were a miss for me too.

Probably fine if you like these things, but $16 seemed a touch pricey for what it was.  ** for me, but I guess prob *** for others.  That said, no one felt like finishing it, even though we sat there with it on the table for quite a while before our next dishes came.

Meze: Wood Fired Flower Bread. $7.

"Black onion seeds, sumac butter."

To start, I was torn between the trio of dips with pita or this flower bread, but, I saw so many reviews saying this was the must get.  I'm not usually one to fill up on bread, but, it got such good reviews I was drawn in.

It did look pretty, but the bread was just, well, bread.  It was warm.  It had a flavor to it that I couldn't pinpoint, but at least it wasn't sourdough.  I didn't care for the aftertaste though.  The sumac butter was nicely molded, but hard to cut into, served a far too chilled.

More boring than it looked. **+.

Meze: Panisse. $14.

"Chickpea fries, toum sauce."

Our third starter didn't come until 15 minutes after the previous two.  I had started to wonder if it was forgotten. The presentation on this was nice.

The fries themselves were ok.  Nicely crisp, although very greasy, they took in a ton of oil.  Slightly soft inside.  I prefer larger size chickpea fries so there is more creamy inside, and these were pretty saturated with oil all the way though.  But really were nicely crisp.  The toum was good, great garlic flavor.

The fried chickpeas all around were extremely greasy too, and tasted strongly like chickpeas ... which I don't care for, so those were a miss for me.

** for me, the toum is really the only part I liked.

After the two meze and salad were served, and we had finished all we wanted of the lackluster dishes, we sat and waited.  And waited.  The restaurant was extremely not busy, and yet ... our meal wasn't making forward progress at all.  After sitting there not touching anything for at least 20 minutes, our server came over to ask if we'd like our entrees fired.  I think we were all surprised - we thought the long delay was that the entrees were somehow taking a long time, not that they hadn't even been started.  Oooph.  We said yes.  I guess they were confused why we weren't finishing what we had first?

Meze: Crunchy Shrimps. $19.

"Wrapped with kadaif, urfa sweet chili."

Eventually our main dishes came.  People rave about this dish.  It is technically a starter, but I got it for my main.

The crispy kadaif was good, nicely crisp, buttery.  There was tons of it.  But the shrimp?  Um ... they were essentially raw, and this is not a dish that seemed like it was supposed to have raw shrimp.  You can see on the ends how translucent they are.  I wish I had said something, as this just didn't seem right.  The dish was also barely barely lukewarm, really, it was room temp.  I was later told the shrimp are butter poached for 10 minutes, and then baked for 8 once wrapped in kadaif, but ... they really did seem raw.  Extremely unpleasant to eat.

The sauce was very sweet, I didn't detect any chili to it.

Overall this was just bad due to the raw shrimp and not being warm, but it seems like it could be a decent dish, and I think something really was wrong with it.  *.  I did bring half home with me, and cook it more fully, and enjoy it more that way.

Entrée: Branzino. $34.

"Anchovy rice pilaf, grilled sea beans, glazed turnips."

If I had wanted a traditional main dish, I certainly would have gone for the branzino.  It gets very strong reviews.  One of my dining companions did order it, so I got to see it in person.

I didn't get to try this, but the diner said the fish was cooked well, but it was a bit boring.  Same with the rice.  He liked the sea beans for saltiness.

Entrée: Blackened Cauliflower. $28.

"Tahini, garlic chips, mustard & chive, mushroom demi."

Vegetarians have two main dish options, a standard token risotto, or this, the blackened cauliflower steak.  Our vegetarian diner opted for it, and I tried it once he'd pushed it aside halfway through.

The demi was poured over this table side, which seemed unnecessary.  I think it is the only dish on the menu with a table side presentation?

Anyway, the cauliflower was blackened, but somehow did not have much flavor.  It was considerably softer and mushier than I expected.  The tahini was fine, standard tahini, nice thickness.  The rest of the garnish just made it feel busy.

Somehow this was just not flavorful, and too mushy for me.  The person who ordered it didn't seem particularly happy with it either.  **.

Dessert: Baklava Story. $14.

"Baklava crumble, homemade vanilla ice cream, honey pearls, pistachio purée."

After such a long and lackluster meal, the others were ready to give up and leave, but I of course wanted dessert.  They both said they didn't want any, but I still hedged my bets and ordered two (out of three options, ruling out the other one due to caffeine involved).

The baklava itself was fine.  Crispy top.  Lightly glazed.  Really not very sweet, which is rare for baklava.  Entirely pistachio based, so strong pistachio flavor.  Not really my thing, but it did seem fresh.  **+.

The vanilla ice cream was a real let down, grainy, and just not very good at all. *.

The honey pearls were the most interesting component, they added a touch of actually needed sweetness, and a fun pop.  The pistachio puree was fine but there was little of it.  ***.

Overall, somehow not sweet, and just not very exciting.  **+.

Dessert: Roki Palace Pudding. $13.

"Rose water syrup, glace apples, pistachio, pomegranate, almond powder."

As you know, I adore pudding, so I couldn't pass this up.

This was decent.  The pudding was creamy, although it was a slightly lumpy consistency.  I thought it was going to be rice pudding, which, it wasn't.  I didn't actually taste rose water, which was fine with me.  The taste to the base was fairly plain, it tasted like ... milk I guess.

I really did like the toppings - the pistachio gave a nice crunch, the glace apples really seemed like bits of dried apricot and had a pleasant chew to them, the almond powder added more flavor.  It all combined together quite well, and I enjoyed it, but it certainly wasn't a must have dish.  The best thing I ate all night though.  ***.