Troya

(415)379-6000
349 Clement St.
(at 5th Ave.)
San Francisco, CA
(Inner Richmond district)

Price: $-$$
Rating: 8 (Rating & price key)
Last visit: 12/06/06

A welcome addition to the inner Clement area of culinary wonders! Recently back from a week-long visit to Istanbul, Sarah and I were eager to try out this place and see how it stacked up to the real thing as it were.

The interior is rustic and inviting, with high ceilings, a row of windows along 5th Avenue, and a long bar on the other side. We were seated promptly by a nice Turkish chap, and perused the moderately lenghty menu.

Troya specializes in mezes, typical Mediterranean small plates, and has a list of a dozen or so to choose from, all under $5. Although they have few menu items marked with a '*' to indicate that they're traditional Turkish dishes, the vast majority were things we saw everyday in Istanbul, with the exception of things like the wraps and felafel.

For starters we had the Ezme ($3.95, "fresh red pepper and tomato, mashed and mixed with walnuts, fresh garlic, olive oil and cumin.") and some lovely zucchini fritters (not on the takeout menu, but basically they were shredded zucchini battered and fried). These were better than the zucchini meze I've had at New Kapadokia, much crispier and livelier. A basket of bread and bowl of delicious yogurt sauce made for fine vehicles for our spread, which was intense and flavorful.

Since this was our first visit we decided to try two of our favorite Turkish entrees: Beyti Kebab ($10.95, "ground lamb in a lavash bread roulade, topped with tomato sauce, home made garlic yogurt sauce and melted paprika butter.") and Iskender Kebab ($10.95, "slices of Döner (gyro) on a bed of cubed bread, topped with tomato sauce, homemade yogurt and melted paprika butter."). Both were very tasty, with more of the ubiquitous yogurt sauce (a good thing, as we love the stuff!), and flavorful meat and a tangy tomato sauce. The dishes are pretty similar, though, so if you're looking to explore the menu and cuisine, you probably don't want to get both of them.

Our waiter was delighted when I thanked him in Turkish ("Teşekkür ederim!"), and got nostalgic when we said we'd just been to Istanbul, his hometown. Service was low-key and friendly throughout, with several check-ins to see how we were doing. Unfortunately we were too stuffed to have dessert or to see if their tea service was a proper Turkish one. Although not on the menu, the waiter said they do occasionally have Efes (Turkish beer), but not when we visited. Otherwise they have a small assortment of beer & wine.

On another visit we decided to just share a bunch of mezes - the ezme was again lovely, but the zucchini fritters were a little soggy, leading us to guess they'd been prepared ahead of time and reheated, rather than crispy and fresh out of the pan like our first and third visits. The köfte kebab is lovely, full of flavor and juicy, everything a köfte should be - yumm! The Beyti kebab was also excellent, lavash-wrapped kebab meat cut into small pieces and served atop a tasty tomato sauce. I daresay the Beyti at Troya is even better than the one at New Kapadokia.

All told Troya is, along with New Kapadokia in Redwood City, the best Turkish restaurant I've been to in the bay area, and we look forward to returning often.