Reviews for Istanbul Blue Restaurant in Vienna, VA
excellent food… delicious and bursting with flavor. chef ismet personally greeted us, which made us feel welcomed! we started... off with lentil soup and the smoked eggplant app. entree we had lamb shank, mixed grill, and doner pidet! finished off withturkish tea and kunafa. tasty! Read more
I was really excited to go try Istanbul blue but my experience was way below my expectations, unfortunately. It was a business... lunch. You can park right in front of the restaurant, which is in a shopping plaza. It is a small restaurant, well andauthentically decorated. We had the Imam Bayaldi, calamari, musakka and shish kebob. I have had Turkish cuisine before and thisdid not live up to my expectations. The calamari was chewy, the musakka was interesting to say the least, the Imam Bayaldi wasreally good (I was under the impression that it was supposed to be hot but it came cold) and the kebobs were good but overdone.The sutlac in the end was ok. We were the only ones in the restaurant but the server was on his phone most of the time and I hadto go ask for different things including the check. Overall, not a great experience. Read more
Visited at opening and the restaurant was short staffed but the cook made the experience. He was very passionate about the food... and experience. It was almost as if we were visiting his home as welcomed guests rather than customers. Every dish was handprepared and very tasty. Lots of fresh ingredients. (We saw him go get vegetables from his vehicle). Every dish has a specialtouch. Reminded us of our visit to Istanbul. Thank you. Read more
This place has a lot of potential but my overall experience fell a bit short. The decor inside is ok, I think it could use a... little upgrade. We had a large group and the service was painfully slow. Our waiter was nice enough but we waited a while beforeour order was taken. There was a waitress or hostess who stood upstairs staring us down the whole time we were there, it was alittle weird and uncomfortable. She literally did not move from her spot for over an hour other than to occasionally servewater. On to the food. The food was hit or miss. The pide was good as was the kazandibi. The mixed grill was ok - there wasn'tmuch in terms of quantity and the chicken was quite dry. The lamb chop was the thinnest, smallest lamb chop I've seen but ittasted ok. For the price it should've fed two but it was barely enough for one person. I also tasted the kunafeh and shawarmaplatter, and neither were impressive. I found most of it to be overpriced given the quantity, quality and ambiance. The TurkishCoffee was great, nice and strong. Overall, I personally wouldn't come back given the plethora of good middle eastern places inthe area. Read more
We went for lunch in late April, 2022. I had Chicken Yogurt and my two dining companions both had Adana Yogurt (beef and lamb).... I always say that cooking chicken breast just right shows a chef's calibre. If overcooked, the meat would be tough and chewy. Mychicken cubes were tender and juicy. It was really delicious with the yogurt sauce. They said their Adana Yogurt were excellenttoo. This is a place worth revisit again and again. Read more
We were in the mood to try something different. I have only had Turkish food a several times. We decided to give Instanbul Blue... visit. This place has received quite few good reviews on yelp. It is a small resturant in a stripmall. The resturant is smalland cozy. There were not a lot of customers there when we arrived. We sat at the front by the window against the wall. Very cozyand quiet. The resturant is very nice and clean. I will say the waiter was there when we needed him to be. He let us have spaceand time to enjoy the meal. I wanted to try the Instanbul blue mix drink but unfortuanlly they ran out of what was needed tomake the drink. We also ordered ice tea but unfortuanlly there were out of tea as well. There is a nice selection of offeringson the menu. For appitizers we ordered the Lentil soup and the Instanbul Blue Platter which consisted of a combination ofappetizers: 3 cigara boreks, 3 yaprak, dolmas, hummus, feta cheese & falafel. The Lentil soup is rich but flavorful not overlyspiced. The waiter also brought our a loaf of bread. I ending up dunking the bread in soup. That could be a meal in it self. Very satisfing. I envjoyed everything on Instanbul Blue Platter. I am not a big flafel person but these were quite tasty. Themain course we had the Fresh Mediterranian Branzini Fish (whole fish). This came with rice or vegtable skewers. We ended upgetting the vegtable skewers and a side salad. We love Banzini fish and this was amazing. The spices were just right. Fish wascooked perfectly. We also had the Instanblue Mixed Grill. This was a combination of grilled specialties of beef shish kebob,chicken kebob, lamb chops & doner, served with rices. Every piece of meat on this platter was cooked perfectly, very juicy, wellseasoned. I ended up ordering the Doner Kebob / Shwarma togo for lunch the next day. For dessert we had the Baklava withpistachio. Very delicious and not to sweet. Overall this resturant did not disappoint. Food was very deli Read more
Delicious food and excellent service. One of our favourite places for me This restaurant has everything you would expect from a... high priced place at reasonable price. Warm, cozy atmosphere with smiling, genuinely happy staff welcoming you at the door. Thefood is halal and great. The lamb shank, without question, is the best on the east coast (I haven’t tried the west coastyet)!! The chef himself checked on us several times in person. We really felt at home. Definitely recommend this place. We willbe a regular there!! Read more
One of the most authentic Turkish restaurants around. The atmosphere is very cozy, makes you want to sit down for hours. The... food itself really does give you a taste of Turkey without having to travel across the country. The chef knows his workespecially when making doner, I’ve lived in Turkey and the doner at this restaurant is still the best I’ve had. Its afamily owned restaurant so it’s always good to support small businesses! Read more