As Mission Local’s coverage around San Francisco grows, so does my dining reach; lucky me!
I ventured into the Inner Richmond to try Kitchen Istanbul, a longtime favorite of the neighborhood and, from what I gather, of neighborhood chefs on their nights off — always a good sign.
The space is spacious and airy, and boasts shelves of wine available for purchase; Kitchen Istanbul is a wine bar, after all, with quite an extensive list.
Owner Emrah Kilicoglu poured my selections — perhaps because I’d ordered the three-glass progression (a very welcome offering — I wish more restaurants would take this practice up), bringing a warm, familial vibe to the table.
I was a little surprised that there were no Turkish names on the wine list, but Kilocoglu explained it is difficult to get smaller, quality producers to export their wines here. The kind of wines he would like serve his customers would be too expensive to put on the menu, as most Turkish wines for U.S. imports are from big, corporate purveyors.
You can tell wine is very important to him — there are hundreds of selections from multiple regions and across many varietals — but the food here does not take second billing.
We started out with the pancar salad.
Red and beautiful badger flame beets share the plate with pickled onions, dill, pistachios, and a sprinkling of dukkah, all atop an amazingly distinctive and delicious pool of smoked labneh. The smokiness brought all the freshness together. First dish and I already had a favorite.
My three-glass progression wine flight, curated by Kitchen Istanbul’s sommelier Joseph DiGrigoli, started out with a half-pour of Avant Le Tempete, a French wine called Jacquère, known for its Alpine-fresh flavors.
Our next dish was a borek.
Most borek I’ve had have been savory affairs, filled with spiced ground beef or lamb, but Chef Busra Ayvaz’s version surprised me with its sweetness. The crispy and light phyllo dough delicately embraced two kinds of cheese, kasseri and goat, blended with sautéed leeks and laced with honey.
I’d have liked a little more of the leek flavor to permeate, as this felt more like a dessert to me, but it was a very good one.
My second half-pour in the progression was another French wine, Bourgogne Passetoutgrains, this one from Burgundy, a light and fruity red (blend of pinot noir and gamay) that went well with the next course.
In deciding between the charcoal grilled shrimp, the mussels, or the sea bream, we asked our server, herself from Turkey, which was her favorite and, without hesitation, she said the shrimp.
She was not wrong. The char flavoring on the perfectly snappy shrimp, swimming in prawn butter with little bits of briny olive crumble floating about, was quite heady. We asked for some pita to sop up the fragrant juices, and would not let them take the bowl away until we’d finished every last drop.
Next, of course, we had the manti.
Tender little satchels of ground beef and lamb came afloat a lake of spiced tomato sauce, the whole dish redolent of mint and what I believe was sumac, dotted with feta. (The pita came in handy to mop up this plate, too.) These meaty morsels are not to be missed.
With the manti came my final half-pour, a 2022 La Visciola Vignali Priore, made with the Cesanese grape from Lazio, Italy. Still on the light side, perfumey and delicate, but this stood up well to both lamb dishes. And was probably my favorite of the evening. Such a treat to try wines I had never heard of before.
We were seduced by the description of the Kedana kebaps…
Homemade lavash enveloped juicy, ground lamb belly and roasted eggplant, with little specks of Fresno chili to spice things up just a tad. A must-try.
Finally, dessert. The famous künefe:
How could we not? The sweet cheese pastry consists of a disk of crispy, shredded kadayif dough enveloping mild, unsalted cheese, the whole soaked in warmed sugar syrup and topped with pistachios. The delicate, buttery crunch giving way to melty, sweetened cheese is quite addictive.
A playland of wines, flavors of Istanbul, friendly service, and not crazy expensive (ok, not cheap eats, but somewhere in the middle). There is much more I’d like to try on the menu: The tahini piyaz (a bean dish with a cured egg yolk), the saksuka (Turkish version of shakshuka), and girit ezme (a feta and pistachio dip that has me pre-swooning).
(Especially loved the hummus descriptor — “You know what hummus is.”) And a handy-dandy wine club to join with options to fit your budget. It’s the whole package, and a rich reward for venturing out of our neighborhood.
Kitchen Istanbul
349 Clement St.
S.F.